An Active Faith – The Pathway to Blessing

Bibles to Proverbs 3. Proverbs
3, verses 5 and 6. Now, when I say that, you’re
going to go, oh, I know that. And you probably do. But I ask
that you turn there anyway. There’s something about having
the Bible open with the surrounding text there. It kind of just says,
speak to me. If you don’t have a Bible, there
may be one in the pew. Also, the text is in the bulletin. If you are a Christian, then,
as I kind of alluded to, the passage we’re looking at today
is probably one of the first that you’ve memorized. Or maybe
in the top ten. In coming up with a title for
this sermon, I was inclined to entitle it, Back to the Basics.
Because as one wrote, these verses are the core of Christian living. Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs.
And as we all know, when we hear the word wisdom, we probably
think of Solomon. When we hear the name Solomon,
we probably think wisdom. One wrote, the Proverbs are simple
moral statements or images that highlight and teach fundamental
realities about life. Solomon sought God’s wisdom and
offered these Proverbs designed to make men contemplate, one,
the fear of God, and two, living by his wisdom, the sum of that
wisdom personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Another wrote,
Proverbs contains a goldmine of biblical theology. reflecting
themes of scripture brought to the level of practical righteousness
by addressing man’s ethical choices, calling into question how he
thinks, lives, and manages his daily life in light of divine
truth. More specifically, Proverbs calls
man to live as the Creator intended him to live when he made man. Now, in 1 Kings 4, verse 32,
Solomon wrote 3,000 Proverbs. And our passage today comes from
the first section of the book of Proverbs, which many commentators
generally agree is addressed to the young. That does not dismiss
any of you from what we hear today. The book of Proverbs opens
up this way. The Proverbs of Solomon, the
son of David, king of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction,
to discern the sayings of understanding, to receive instructions in wise
behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity, to give prudence
to the naive, to the youth, knowledge, and discretion. He wants children
to start off in the right way. He wants the young to build a
foundation that when built upon, will not crumble. Again, these are basics. But
principles that form a base for the fear of the Lord. And as
I said, this is not just for the young. How fortunate, though,
are those who do come to know the Lord at an early age and
are taught these from an early age. However, the main important
thing is that we learn them, whether when we’re young or when
we’re older. The problem is when we get older,
they’re just harder to learn. The picture here we have is a
father passing down the things he has learned down to his son.
Just before Moses died, he instructed the Israelites as they were about
to go into the promised land He recalled the commands of God. And he said to them, follow God’s
ways and all will go well for you. The same premise is here. These Proverbs that Solomon gave
were guides to living a godly life. Even though Proverbs 3,
verses 5-6 is a very familiar passage, it seems as though believers
so often have to be reminded of this passage when uncertain
times arrive. When difficult times come. When
we have absolutely no clue about what is going on, the best thing
we can do is go back to the basics. Back to the basics of what we
know about God. We go back to what we know. We
go back and remember His promises and how faithful He is to keep
His promises. We see that we need to and can
trust. But also, as we look at this
passage, we’re going to see a lot more. It’s much more than getting
through difficult times. It’s a guide that shows us how
to live a life of faith. It brings us right down to the
fundamental core of what it is to live by faith. And it shows
us the results of living such a life. This passage shows us
a pathway to God’s blessing. And that blessing is found in
verse 6. And He shall make your path straight.
And in looking at this passage, it became abundantly clear to
me that it is crucial for the believer
to be able to trust implicitly in the Lord and have Him guide
us in our Christian life. It’s a necessity for the Christian
to be able to say, as Paul wrote, I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. As I said,
it became so very clear to me as I looked into the path that
God will make straight for us. It’s not a regular path. He’s
laid out for us a spiritual path to walk. And in Proverbs 3, verse
6, He gives us that blessing that God will make our paths
straight. Now let me read Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and do not lean on your own understanding In all your
ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.” Your translations will say He
will either direct your paths or that He will make your paths
straight. In the Hebrew, the word used for direct, it means
to make straight. Let’s be clear of one thing right
off. What this passage is not saying. It’s not saying that by making
our paths straight, He is going to make it smooth. It is not
saying that by directing your path, God will lead you into
all sorts of financial blessings because God wants you to be happy. This is not the plan. And we
should not expect it to be the plan. In fact, the path true
believers walk is filled with trouble. James 1 says, consider it pure joy when you
encounter various trials. Meaning, they’re coming. But it also goes to say that
there are reasons for the trials that we go through. Scripture
also says, if the world persecutes me, meaning Jesus, it will persecute
you. The road believers walk will
be filled with difficult seasons and confusing times. The promise is that God will
direct us and take us through difficulty. And what God will
do is make your path evident. He will make it plain. He will
reveal it to you. When a difficult situation comes
up, if we are trusting and being led by the Spirit, it will be
evident to us what to do. How many times have you heard
someone say, I just want to know what the will of God is for me. I believe God is showing that
to us, but our vision is clouded. We don’t see clearly. God has
laid it out for us. We’re just not seeing it. And
what this passage is saying is that God will make your way plain
or evident if you practice these fundamentals of faith. I’ve mentioned
already a couple times that this passage gives us the pathway
to God’s blessing. That blessing being that He will
make our path straight or evident. But why is that so important? Well, Let’s go back to the basics. Let’s start with what we know
about followers of Christ. Facts about believers. Our Christian
life is referred to as a walk. Progression is expected. God has marked out a path for
us in order to get us where He wants us to be. If we are not
moving, we are not progressing. we are not growing. We as believers
are expected to grow. Hebrews 5, verses 12-14 says,
for though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need
again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of
the oracles of God. And you have come to need milk
and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only
of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for
he is an infant But solid food is for the mature who, because
of practice, have their senses trained to discern good and evil. As believers, progression is
to take place. And in order for this development
to take place, we have to move along a path. We journey from
point A to point B. Another fact is that believers
are not all that bright. We are forgetful. We are referred
to as sheep. Sheep are not bright. Believers
called sheep. Sheep are not bright. It’s a
logical conclusion. Sheep need a shepherd. For without
a shepherd, sheep will lose their way and will get into all sorts
of dangers. One of the admonitions Scripture
gives us is to tell our children, tell others what God has done
in our lives. Remember what God has done in
your life and pass it on. Not only does it testify to the
fact that God is working in our lives, but it helps us to remember. Humans have short memories. We
can look at the Israelites. And when they were in the wilderness,
they had a pillar of fire and a cloud to guide them. And still,
they got into all sorts of trouble. And we can read and we can go,
how can they do that? Skip forward if the Lord hasn’t
come back and they read an account of our life. We have Scripture. We have examples. Would those
who read the account of our life down the road go, how could they
do that? I’m afraid, at least in my case,
yes would be the answer. How could he get into so much
trouble? How could he veer off the path
with all he knows? With all he knows about God,
how could he do that? There are some things we need
to know about the path we walk. First and foremost, we are called
to follow Christ, which indicates He is leading. 1 John 2.6, the
one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the
same manner as He walked. God is leading. We are to follow. The path can be difficult to
travel. The path we walk is narrow. It
lies in the midst of a dangerous road and the path leads us in
the opposite way of traffic. Look at Matthew 7. Verse 13. I’m not saying turn there now,
but we can read in Matthew about the narrow way. There are times
when the path is dark. We are called to go through seasons
that are troubling and confusing. Thy Word is a lamp. unto My feet
and a light unto My path.” The road is unfamiliar. Ephesians
2, verses 1-2 says, “…and you were dead in your trespasses
and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
according to the Spirit that works in this world, in the sons
of disobedience.” The road is not smooth. There are peaks. And there are valleys. Open doors. Closed doors. Bumps in the road.
It’s not a smooth path. There are also responsibilities
on the path. To walk in a manner worthy of
the Gospel. You’re called to make disciples.
Come alongside those on the road. Maybe some who are new on the
path. We are called to act differently. We are to be a people set apart.
We are to be ambassadors for Christ. We are to be a light
to a darkened world. There are things we are not to
do in places we are not to go on the path. We are not to walk
in the counsel of the ungodly. Proverbs warns against turning
to go in here. Do not go there. There are things we are not to
do. Places we are not to go. There are things we cannot bring
along on the path. Laying aside all malice and envy,
we are to shed those things that hinder us from running on the
path. Hebrews 12, verses 1-2, Therefore,
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles
us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. There is also a purpose and a
destination to the path. Number one, our sanctation. As
we travel, God brings seasons to refine us and grow us. We have hope. and a calling. Ephesians 1, verse 18, I pray
that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will
know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches
of His glory, of His inheritance in the saints. We also have an
eternity of praising and glorifying God in Heaven. I have a new view of the path. image in my mind of a Thomas
Kinkade picture. A little nice dirt road, maybe
with a little grass patch going down the middle and trees arching
the way. It’s not that anymore. It’s now kind of, if I walk in
my house on a snowy day and the kids have been in the snow, have
come inside and have shed their snow pants, snow boots, and whatever
else that lay in the front entry and you walk in unexpectedly
and all of a sudden you first take that big step and then that
throws everything else out of kilter. There are obstacles in
the way. It’s not that beautiful path
that I had envisioned at one point. Although the new view
of the path is not the scenic picture I once had, One thing
is very important. And it’s of invaluable worth.
That is that we are on the path. Those who are outside of Christ
are lost. They are not on the path. They
can’t find the path. They don’t even think there is
a path. The vast majority of those who
are lost believe that all roads lead to heaven. They all lead
to the same place as long as you are a good person. But that
is not true. There is only one way. And whether
that is intolerant or not is the truth. Jesus is the way. The truth and the life and no
one comes to the Father but through Christ. No ifs, ands, or buts. There is no admission apart from
Christ. Not even if you have a bumper
sticker on your car with various religious symbols that spell
the word, Kurd, exists. Now, we are, as far as it depends
on us, to be peaceable with all. But we cannot find
common ground with those who believe that there is more than
one way. Or that Jesus was not God, for
example. And I also believe we would have
a hard time joining hands with those who do not believe that
the Bible is both inerrant and relevant. You ask people, they will say,
yes, indeed, the Bible is inerrant. But it’s not relevant for today.
I do not believe we can find common ground with that type
of opinion. To coexist, to find common ground
in false religions is to place yourself on the broad road. The
broad way that leads to destruction. Satan leads people on that path. This is the path we used to be
on. But by the grace of God, He has
set our feet on a new spiritual path that leads to life. The
path we walk is difficult, but we have a promise of blessing
that God will direct our path. And so I want to give you three
components this morning of an active faith to God’s blessing.
Read again. Read the passage. Trust in the
Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding
in ways he’s not. Acknowledge him. And he will. Make your dedication. Trust in
the Lord. with all your heart. Charles Bridges in his commentary
of Proverbs wrote that this is the polar star of the child of
God. Faith in His Father’s providence,
promise, and grace. What causes believers to fall
short? And you think the number one
reason is fear or uncertainty. The unknowing or the unknown
can be unnerving. So you don’t see the whole picture. We do not see the whole road.
I think we could all recount experiences where we have been
way in over our head. And then we find ourselves extricated. And we look back and, wow, God took me through that. We
have experiences we can look back on and count on. God knows your situations. Nothing
that happens to you is a surprise to Him. Nothing that happens
causes Him to adjust His plans. Our God is sovereign. Psalm 139,
verse 3 says, you scrutinize my path and my lying down and
are intimately acquainted with all my ways. There is nothing
too difficult for God. God is the Creator and Sustainer
of all creation and you have a difficult time trusting Him
with all your heart? As one wrote, from Him alone
comes true help. For He alone knows the right
way to the right ends. He knows what benefits us. He
is able to free us from that which does us harm. Therefore,
it is our duty and safety to place our confidence wholly in
Him. You trust when you know the outcome
of a situation. It’s easier to go through a difficult
season when you know the reason, when you know what’s at the end,
when you know the purpose. James tells us to consider it
pure joy. Why? Because there is a purpose
for all you go through. Trials are promised, they are
planned, and there is a purpose. 1 Peter 1.6 In this you greatly rejoice,
even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith,
being more precious than gold, which is perishable even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you
have not seen Him, you love Him. And though you do not see Him
now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible
and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith
the salvation of your souls.” What are you going through right
now? Are you in the valley? Are you on a peak? In our church
body right now, we have Several issues that people are dealing
with, very serious issues. Job issues, which lead to financial
issues, which leads to a lot of stress.
Serious health issues. There are new graduates here
today, facing, what am I gonna do now? And I can say with confidence
that the vast majority of people in our church body undoubtedly
believe that God can be trusted with whatever the situation is.
Has there been a time in your life when He has failed? Failed
you? I would be very surprised if
your answer was a yes. I believe your answer would be
an unequivocal, no, He has never failed. If your answer is yes,
then there’s a different issue we’re going to have to deal with
at another time. Because God has never failed anyone. God
cannot fail. God has a road map for your life.
It takes you from point A to point B. He knows us. Then you
know yourself. He created you. He created us. Whatever route He might take
you, the plan is to grow you closer
to Him. His desire is that you would
trust Him more, not less. And He knows what it will take
to accomplish that. We sang how firm a foundation
this morning. One of those verses reads, when
through fiery trials, Thy pathway shall lie. My grace, all-sufficient,
shall be your supply. The flame shall not hurt you.
I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine.” There
is a purpose for what you are going through and His grace will
be ever-present along the way. And He is not calling you to
go through anything that He Himself hasn’t gone through. Is there
anything here on earth worth more than your salvation? Absolutely
not. And this is another cause of
trust issues. Fear of what you might lose.
Your security or comfort is misplaced. We value things too much. We
place too much security in our assets. We fear the loss of possessions
which are temporal and pass away. There will be a loss of comfort
here without those things. Now, there is nothing wrong with
possessions. Things that make our life more
pleasant. But they are not worth causing
you to miss the blessing of God, which is worth more than a position. Jesus told a parable in Luke
12 about a man who’s landed very well And the man reasoned to
himself, I’ll pare down my barn and build bigger ones to hold all my crops. That is his security. Then he
would be able to say, soul, you’ve got it made. Take rest, eat,
drink, and be merry. And God’s response, you fool. This very night, Your soul is
required of you. Now, who will own what you have
prepared? Belongings, also positions, only
give a false sense of security, and they keep you from trusting
fully, and they do not save. Your treasures here on earth
won’t last, and they do not satisfy. I am pretty sure I’m pretty sure that there are
some of you here who have, at one time you really wanted something,
whether it was when you were a kid, whether it was in your
adult life or whatever, and when you got it, you know what? It was a letdown.
You spent good money on it, but now you’re selling it for 10%
of what you bought it for at a garage sale. They do not satisfy. They are a letdown. They disappoint. Philippians 3, verse 8, More
than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ. Paul
had it right. He had his priorities in order.
The rich young ruler didn’t. He valued his financial comfort
above Christ. Lack of complete trust might
result from the fact that your mind is set in the wrong place. You also need to remember one
fact, and I understand that this is sometimes difficult to understand. But as believers, we are aliens
and strangers here. This is not as good as it gets. In fact, Down here, for the believer,
it’s as bad as it gets. Believers have an eternity of
praising and glorifying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The
One who has called you to a living hope. The One who has taken you
from darkness into light. The One who has saved you from
eternal punishment and torture in hell. And you have a glorified
body in your future. Far too often we put too much
stock in the comforts of this world. Don’t forget, here and
you are gone. You are a blip on the radar screen. You are a vapor. A mist. And yet we fear losing things
we have here. Rather, we need to focus on the
spiritual treasures waiting for us in heaven. Do not worry. or dwell on what you might lose,
or what might be lost, but dwell on what is waiting for you. Dwell
on what is coming. Trust God implicitly. When you
are driven to anxiety, remember what Paul said, for momentary
light affliction is producing an eternal weight of glory far
beyond all comparison. When you put your confidence
and trust in God, You can have the confidence that you are being
led and the decisions you make are directed by Him. When your
trust is fully in Him, it will bring you a peace that is beyond
your understanding and that accompanies your situations. They will be
yours, that peace. What peace can come knowing you
have put your trust in the One who has complete and total knowledge
of the way. Isaiah 12, verse 2, Behold, God
is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength
and song. And He has become my salvation. What peace there is knowing that
in spite of your lack of trust, He remains faithful. 2 Timothy 2.13, if we are faithless,
He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. Now you may say,
John, I know I need to trust. But how? Well, maybe you’re trusting in
yourself too much. See, your faith has to be complete.
It can’t be partial. What else would you put your
trust in? And that leads us to the second component. The first
component of an act of faith, leading to God’s blessing, requires
complete dedication. The second component of an act
of faith that leads to God’s blessing requires complete dependence. Lean not on your own understanding. This goes hand in hand with trusting
the Lord with all your heart. You need to be dependent, not
co-dependent. I believe that this is a huge
barrier to carrying out the first step of trusting the Lord with
all your heart. It is the confidence put in the
flesh. Pride is a barrier to complete
dependence. Trust is misplaced. You trust
in yourself too much. Again, Bridges wrote that our
trust must not only be entire, but exclusive. This is the history
Bad things happen when man intervenes or gets too high an opinion of
himself. V. 7 of the same chapter warns
us against this very thing. It says, do not be wise in your
own eyes. Don’t overestimate yourself.
When God was getting a hesitant Moses on board with leading the
people of Israel out of Egypt, Moses asked God, who should I
say sent me? God said, I Am. God is the I
am. And in saying that He is the
I am, He is saying, I am everything you need. You need nothing else. Depend
on Me. I will lead you. And whereas
God is the I am, you are the am not. It took you a while,
but you caught on. Psalm 8, verse 3, when I consider
your heavens, the work of your fingers, the muhav ordained,
what is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that
you care for him? We are so insignificant in the
grand scheme of things, but so often we puff ourselves up. We
make things about us. There are many believers who
like to make the work of Christ on the cross about them. There
was a popular book written several years ago entitled, He Did This
Just For You. And the description begins, you
already know that Jesus suffered pain, humiliation, and death
on the cross just for you. He loves me. He died on the cross
for me. Yes, God loves you deeply. But the work of the cross was
not about you. It’s about Him. He saved us to
show His glory. Do not be wise in your own eyes.
The results of trusting in our own abilities have disastrous
results. Proverbs 14, verse 12. There
is a way which seems right to a man, but in its end is the
way of death. When you trust your own understanding,
you are not trusting God exclusively. We also place too much faith
in our reasoning ability. We try to figure out things for
ourselves. Do you try and guess what God
is trying to accomplish in you or in others? Do you say, well,
since this is happening and this is happening, then God must be
doing this. Like you’ve looked in a yellow
book and you look and say, oh, if this happens, this happens.
That’s what’s happening in your life. That’s what Job’s friends did.
And God chastised them because they had no clue what they were
talking about. Who are you to think that you
can figure out the mind of God? Romans 11. 33-35. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How fathomable His ways.
For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who became the Lord? Or who became the counselor?
Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to
Him again? Isaiah 55.8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As sinful creatures,
we look for something to lean on, and we naturally lean to
ourselves, as Bridges noted, to our own foolish notions and
false fancies. Dependence problems arise because
we have control issues. Humans have this innate desire
to be in charge. We think we know what is best.
We want to make the decisions, especially when it comes to us.
And we want to have a say in what happens to us. When you
lean on your own understandings, you make your own understanding
your God. It is like you are saying in
this situation, I’d better handle this myself. However, the path
you are called to walk is not an ordinary path as we mentioned
earlier. In the process that God takes you, there are some
cases in which He does things that do not seem logical. Abraham take everybody all your
possessions Just go I’ll tell you when to stop Gideon
Army’s too big 300 men Common sense would tell us that this
was crazy But God showed that he is not bound by human logic
These were all done to show us God’s power. And it is only in
Him that things are able to be accomplished. And as a result,
we can and should trust Him wholly. Zechariah 4, verse 6 says, Then
He said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying,
not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of
hosts. You’re looking at things from
your perspective, from your side. What you should do when to lean
on your own understanding is to wonder why you are on the
path. Why did God put you there? Why
did God choose you to be on the path? We know ourselves. Do we really deserve that? Why? Because it pleased God. He works all things to the kind
intention of his will. So your dependence and trust
need to be undivided. The first component of an active
faith that leads to God’s blessing requires complete dedication.
The second component of an active faith that leads to God’s blessing
requires complete dependence. The third component of an act
of faith that leads to God’s blessing requires asking for
directions. Sorry men. In all your ways, acknowledge
Him. All your ways. Nothing is too
small. God does not have a monthly plan
that says you can come to Me this many times. So you don’t
have to save up. any petitions to Him. He doesn’t have a certain number
of requests that you can come with and then wait until next
month. It says in all your ways. And
don’t think that there are certain situations where it’s completely
fine for you to take over. No, this one’s not big enough
for God. There’s nothing in Scripture that says your level The season
in which your difficulty lies with it. He says, no, in all
your ways, acknowledge Him. And this is the blessing, not
only that you have been called to walk this path, but that you
have guidance of the One who laid out the path. We don’t trust fully because
we are ungodly people. And I say that partly to get
your reaction. I am ungodly? Believers are called to walk
in a certain way. Believers are called to walk by the Spirit.
You cannot depend on your own understanding, your own reasoning
abilities. John Gill wrote, man cannot direct his own? No, not
a man. This is a blessing from the Lord
who directs the steps of His people, keeps the feet of His
saints, and directs them aright in things temporal and spiritual.
You have God’s promise of His guidance and direction while
you walk this path. In fact, the only way you will
make it on this path is to walk in a certain way. You are to
walk by the Spirit. See, a lot of anxiety can be
taken out if you just learn to let the Spirit lead and the Spirit
direct. The Spirit is your pillar of
fire. It’s your cloud in the night. One thing is certain, the road
is difficult to walk. I would say it’s impossible on
your own. If you try and walk on your own,
in your own power, you cannot travel this path in your own
strength. Jeremiah 10 v. 23, I know, O Lord, that a man’s
way is not in himself, nor is it in a man who walks to direct
his steps. In his book, Jerry Bridges, Respectable
Sins, read it, read it. He has a chapter on ungodliness. A lot of chapters, five to six
pages. You read through it thinking
you’re going to get a break at some point or another, but everyone
applies. And this one really hit. Ungodliness. Now the sad
fact is that many of us who are believers tend to live our daily
lives with little or no thought of God. We may read our Bibles
and pray for a few minutes at the beginning of each day. But
then we go into the day’s activities and basically live as though
God doesn’t exist. We seldom think of our dependence
on God. with no thought of God at all.
In that sense, we are hardly different from our nice, decent,
but unbelieving neighbors. James, come now, you who say
today or tomorrow we will go and do such and such, travel
to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business
and make a profit, yet you do not know what your life will
be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little
while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if
the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. Planning
is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a smart, smart
thing to do. However, James is saying that your planning should
include the Lord. He is the one who has the master
schedule. He goes on to say, Bridges does,
we make plans all the time. In fact, we couldn’t live or
accomplish the most mundane duties of our life without some degree
of planning. But so often we act like people James addressed.
We, too, make our plans without recognizing our utter dependence
upon God to carry them out. This is one expression of ungodliness. Psalm 10, verse four, the wicked
in his haughtiness of his countenance does not seek him. All his thoughts
are there is no God. You can only progress along the
path with the Spirit’s help. Without it, there is a battle
within you. The flesh wages war against the
Spirit. You want the Spirit’s direction,
not yours. Depending on your own understanding
and walking in your own power, you will quickly fall. Psalm
141 describes sin as a delicacy. Sin is tempting. That is why
David prays in Psalm 141, set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth.
Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart
to any evil thing. To practice the deeds of wickedness
with men who do iniquity. And do not let me eat of their
delicacies. You need the Spirit’s direction.
You need the Spirit’s help to guide you away from sinful tendencies. Psalm 142, when my spirit was
overwhelmed within me, You knew my path. In the way where I walk,
they have hidden a trap for me. As His children, we need to seek
guidance from the Spirit, for He knows what lies ahead.” I
want to give you a picture of what trusting in the Lord with all
your heart, leaning not on your own understanding, in all your
ways acknowledging Him, and He will direct your paths looks
like. And that passage, that example comes from 2 Chronicles
20. King Jehoshaphat is brought word
that a group of armies led by the Ammonites are coming to attack
Judah. He is the king of Judah. What
makes this even more beautiful is that the king coming out before
all the people of the kingdom. It says that all the men, women,
and children were gathered there. He comes out to pray. And that’s
a leader. He starts out with a prayer that
acknowledges God’s power, God’s sovereignty, God’s leading of
Israel, and the history between the nations involved. The Ammonites
coming out against Judah. Then in verse 12, he continues
in his prayer. O our God, wilt thou not judge
them? For we are powerless before this
great multitude who are coming out against us. Nor do we know
what to do, but our eyes are on thee.” The account goes on to show how
God miraculously destroys the Ammonites. Now, it doesn’t always
come out this way. But as you can see, God brought
the victory. The people were required to go out and see that
God brings the ultimate victory. We need to keep walking along
the path and God will bring our victory. There is only one true
God and he has made himself known. There is no other reliable source
of trust. He knows the way because he designed
the path. Trusting in God brings blessing,
peace, and assurance. We will not find peace or assurance
anywhere else. We are living in times in which
everything seems to be flipped upside down. Light is dark. Darkness is light. There is no
truth. I guess this could be just one
of those cycles we’re in. But could it be the beginning
of birth pangs? There is no direction. There
is no peace. There is no hope outside of Christ. The time is now to trust exclusively
and acknowledge our sovereign God to guide us in the way. Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father,
Thank You for Your guidance. We thank You for Your choosing
of us to be on the path. And since You put us there, You
are out leading, I pray that You would enable us to follow. Increase our trust. Increase
our faith. Do that by helping us to know
more about You. Because if we doubt, if we don’t
trust our God is too small, we need to know more about Him.
Forgive us for our lack of trust. Lord, let us fix our eyes upon
Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Fix our eyes on
things above and walk in faith, knowing that You will guide and
direct. In Your name we pray, Amen. Oh, thank you.