new year, new hope

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

This is the verse we are memorizing right now. We need it. As doubt and worry creep in it is so good to have something tangible to replace it with. Something that you can say to dispel the gloom.
Today we broke the verse down to study it's meaning and relevance to our situation.
Trust in the LORD...easy to say, near impossible to do unless...
lean not on your own understanding...this one is the kicker. Trusting Him means not having to understand the situation. We are so keen on solving problems and we think we know what is best. We think we understand the situation well enough to choose the best path. But only God sees the full picture and only God knows what is truly best for us. Even if we think we see all angles and comprehend fully and know the best way, truly we don't even see or comprehend a small portion of what is going on. And since when do we really know what is best? I often think that I am a pretty smart and competent woman, but I must ask myself if I am willing to lean on God's understanding and not my own in order to trust Him...

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...

Ephesians 3:20

TRUST

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future". Jeremiah 29:11

in all your ways acknowledge Him...In Jesus' day, followers of a particular rabbi would walk closely behind their rabbi, close enough to hear every word he said. They would sit at his feet listening intently to his teachings. They didn't want to miss one pearl of wisdom that fell from his mouth. They didn't want to get left behind. They wanted to soak in everything so they could be like their rabbi. They walked so closely to him on the path that they were covered with his dust. It was a sign of a devoted disciple that they were wearing the dust of the rabbi. Am I walking closely enough to Jesus to be left with some imprint of Him? Am I sitting at His feet listening intently to what He has to say to me? Am I wearing the Master's dust? In every way am I acknowledging that He is my rabbi, and I his disciple?

and he will make your paths straight...God makes what is crooked straight. He makes sinners righteous. He heals the sick and loves the unloveable. What you think is impossible is not. Can we trust Him to do what we think is undoable? Can we trust Him to undo what we have done and make it right?

Romans 4:17 "...God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did".