Trust can be a difficult thing to do. For some of us, trusting seems almost impossible because of the hurts we have experienced in our lives. Sometimes it is the people who are closest to us that hurt us the most. We have learned the lesson that trusting people can be very dangerous. So when the Scriptures say that we are to trust someone, anyone with every fiber of our being, this will take quite a step of faith. But this is what verse five says we are to do.
The second half of that verse pulls us to faith as well. It says that we are not supposed to limit our understanding of the universe to what we can understand, that there is another source of knowledge into which we should tap. Our understanding alone can be colored by our history and our limited perspective. There are other things that, if we knew them, they would help us make a better decision.
Notice the writer says we should lean on someone else’s understanding, the LORD’s. He has no lack of knowledge. He knows everything about everything. It is not that the LORD is asking us to take a step off a cliff, but that He is asking us to step onto something unknown to us. Faith is not cliff-diving at night. Faith is stepping onto something new, untested, unfamiliar. The LORD says it will hold our weight. We need to trust what He says. It may not look like it is strong enough, or steady enough to hold our weight, but He said it will, so we take Him at His word.
I am preparing to make a career change. I am going to give up something I have done for the last sixteen years, and begin a completely new phase of life. I might end up as my own boss, responsible for everything. “Trust in the LORD” I hear this Scripture say. He has never failed. Every time I have listened to His voice, He has not let me down. I am walking into uncharted, untested territory. I have never been anywhere like this before. And yet I know that He will provide if I trust Him.
My mind wants to run down all the possibilities and make up contingency plans, working out all the details of all the possible paths that life and ministry will take. My mind wants to tighten up all the loose ends into a nice neat package. But this is me leaning on my own understanding. If I trust Him, He will straighten my path before me.
Are there some areas the LORD is asking you to step into which are unfamiliar places for you? If so, trust Him.
The Arnold Journey 