Proverbs 3:5-8 – Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
 Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.

Easier said than done, eh? I know that each day this is a struggle for me. I start most days planning to trust the Lord, then I get out of bed. Each thing I do, I try to do my own way. I focus on my solutions without approaching God for guidance. I know that some of my unbelieving but loving friends would question whether I’m supposed to go to God in everything. They would wonder why I shouldn’t make decisions all on my own or with my own goals in mind. The problem is, I cannot be trusted. Maybe by the world’s standards I can, but not by what God asks of us. He wants us to put Him first in all things, and to be honest, I don’t do that very well. I think about myself more than anyone else. That’s a little embarrassing to say (or write) out loud, but it’s the truth. Most things I do in a day are to make me happy. They’re done with little regard for anyone else, let alone God. It probably doesn’t seem that bad to the outside observer. I’m not hurting people on purpose, I’m not overly rude, and I’m not interfering with other peoples’ day just for fun. But I’m also not thinking about how to help others, what I can do to bring glory to God or make someone’s day a little brighter. I wonder how things would change if I truly trusted the Lord in all things, putting Him first and consulting with Him more.

 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

When you want to lead an animal someplace, what do you do? You use a leash or a coaxing mechanism like food to get them to follow you along the paths. When you do that (and I say you, because I try to have as little to do with animals as possible – no hate mail, please), you’re trying to get the animal to focus on you so you can get them where they need to be. You’re counting on the fact that they’re not going to be able to take their eyes off that morsel of food you’re using to tempt them. A lot of times it works too, because animals think of only themselves. Humans aren’t far behind, but if we keep our focus on Jesus, we know that He will make our paths straight. He will be leading us. Like the animals trust you, we too can follow our master and be assured that He’s got something good for us at the end of the path.

Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

But we get distracted. If someone comes up while you’re trying to lead your animal a certain direction and offers them something else that they want, they can become distracted. They may not know which way to turn. Now, depending on your relationship with that animal, how well they know you and trust you, they may not turn away for long. But that doesn’t mean the untrustworthy stranger will give up. We kind of work the same way. We start out following God, but then the devil distracts us with a whole myriad of distractions. They may not even be bad things all on their own, but that’s not the devil’s point. The devil isn’t really worried about how bad the things are that you do, he’s more interested in where your focus is, or to what you’re giving your focus. He wants to keep us looking towards anything that distracts us from keeping our focus on the Lord. Big events to small problems, the devil uses them all, but each of these events is an opportunity to turn towards the one who does have our best interest at heart – Jesus Christ.

 It will be a healing for your flesh
and a refreshment for your body.

The devil doesn’t want anything good for us, but God does. His path ultimately leads us to perfect healing and refreshment. When we follow the Lord, knowing that it is only through Jesus that we escape our terrible doom, putting our faith in our savior Jesus, we will end up in heaven. There we will no longer experience the pain, sorrow and hurts of this world. We will find refreshment and healing!

Do you need refreshing?