Blog
Jun
17
The Daily Journey: Our own Reason
If you ever got to really know me you’d find out that I am a person that loves to figure things out. I love to know how things work and why they work. I like to fix stuff because of this. As a kid my dad had a couple of old lawn mowers behind our garage. I would go out there and instead of playing I would take his tools and tear them apart to see what they look like inside. To find out what makes them run. I think many people are like this. We like to know the what and why of life. But we cannot always have those two things. This is especially true in our relationship with God.
“Trust in the 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
I believe this verse speaks to just that. The LORD or Yahweh (which is his personal name in Hebrew) is the only being that we can ultimately trust with everything that we are. The reason is suggested by his name: it points to him being all sufficient within himself and the source of all life. I know one thing - I am not nor do I want to be. Just when I think that I have things figured out I run across another of life’s roadblocks that I must overcome and really don’t understand. However in these verses there is a promise.
I don’t have to know everything about everything. I just have to know him through everything. Thats what the word acknowledge means in the Hebrew (the original language that this was written in). If we were to literally translate this it would say Know Him in all your ways. In everything you do and every where you go know him. Seek him in prayer, look for his activity around you. Jesus said in the Gospel of John 5:19 “I tell you the truth, the son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son also does.” Jesus’ secret to a powerful spiritual life was not that he had all power in his earthly body, but that he tapped into the Father’s power by doing what the Father was doing. He could see and know God’s activity around him. This cannot happen with our own intellect. It can only happen as his Holy Spirit leads you through life, through your day showing you what God is doing. Then you will start to “see” God.
To do this I had to stop analyzing everything. There are things that I know to do as a person living life and as a pastor that can’t be explained or reasoned out except I sensed God’s activity around me or in me. The Bible says that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways higher than our ways. No matter how shrewd the reasoning or intelligent the thinking it still won’t get you to God. God many times goes against the popular thinking of the church at large.
Pray asking God to show you his will and what he would have you to do this day in your journey with him. Putting down your schedule and calendar may not be easy but it may be the most rewarding thing you do today ask you exercise your faith to follow him. You will know when he speaking if your his child. You may question it but that usually means that it doesn’t make sense. As you step out he will make your path straight. You will know what to do in each step.
