Welcome back! If you are just joining us, we are using the YouVersion Bible App to follow a devotional together. Read THIS POST to get all the information you need to join in and then you can read THIS MORNING’S POST to see the promises we are focusing on this week.

Did you get a chance to spend some time with this week’s promises? I wasn’t sure upon reading the devotional section but my chosen verse jumped out at me immediately once I began reading the actual verses. God’s word is ALIVE and can speak to us far more than any person’s commentary can. This is why I encourage you to read the verses yourself and see which one speaks to you. The promise I am claiming this week is….

Your trust in Me will assure you stay on track. Proverbs 3:5-6

“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 NIV

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with not leaning on my own understanding. I want to know WHY?? Why did my sweet friend lose her baby? Why is this couple in our church having a hard time? Why are so many people suffering from terrible illnesses? Why are “bad people” getting away and living good lives while “good people” suffer? Why are we seeing such tragedy in our world?

I try to make sense of it but there are some things my human mind will never have the answers for this side of heaven. We see this little slice of reality and could never even begin to comprehend how every moment fits together. We aren’t supposed to understand how it all fits together!

God asks us to trust Him. To let Him be our guide. He will never lead you astray. There may be times when He leads us into situations that challenge or refine us. Just because a situation isn’t all rainbows and butterflies doesn’t mean it isn’t from God or part of the path He has for us. I’d rather go through those challenging times knowing that He is leading me and and that I am not in charge than try to control things myself – even if that is a bit of a challenge in itself!

But this promise doesn’t stop there. It tells us that by trusting in God and by acknowledging Him He will make our paths straight. What does it mean for our path to be straight? Think back on your life and all the detours you took when you weren’t following Him. The side roads you wandered down when you decided to be in charge of your life because you thought you knew better. I know I’ve got them. Yes, they’ve made me who I am and yes, God has used those lessons for the good later on, but how much easier would life have been if I hadn’t wandered off on my own?

I want to stay on this straight path. This path set before me by God where I don’t need to lean on my own understanding. Where His will is being done. Where I am a good and faithful servant. Where I am not self serving or acting foolish. Where I can be a light to those around me.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you know better than we do. What a silly thing for us to want to comprehend how and why everything happens because there is no way we could ever fathom the answer. I’m thankful I don’t have to have the answers to the why’s or the how’s of the world because I know that you are greater than anything and everything that happens in this world. I pray that I would wake up each morning ready to place my trust in you and submit to your ways. Give me the wisdom to follow the straight path set before me and never again stray to a side road. Amen.