“IN ALL YOUR WAYS!”

 Proverbs 3:5-6                           (ESV)

    “[5] TRUST IN THE LORD with all your heart,

        and do not lean on your own understanding. 

    [6] “IN ALL YOUR WAYS” acknowledge HIM,

        and HE will make straight your paths.”

About 30 years ago I began my career selling insurance.  I was a 32 year old man who actually had the opinion that I was “in charge” of my future, that nothing could stop me if my mind was set on something!  In 1994 I decided to open my own insurance agency, something that “I thought” would be the right thing to do?   Of course, that was before electronic mail and communications was invented, so I needed a “fax cover sheet” for my office, something that my best friend volunteered to make for me!  At the bottom of the page was “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  I loved the fact that people could see that Scripture was important to me and proceeded on my journey!

While sitting in church recently, I was moved to write on my phone “GOD desires to be TRUSTED!  Do you TRUST HIM?”  Pondering the verses on my first “fax cover sheet”, I am able to SEE almost 30 years later that I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, GOD sent me a message many years ago to TRUST IN THE LORD”!  

Of course, my plans were to be ultra successful in the insurance industry with little or no turbulence. The wild and crazy path that GOD had for me would NEVER have been one that I might have chosen, but I was being led by the HOLY SPIRIT, whether I recognized it or not!  In Exodus 14:1-4 ALMIGHTY GOD tells Moses to tell the Children of Israel to “turn back”!  They were following THE CLOUD (Exodus 13:21), so why did they need to “turn back”???

THE PLAN of GOD doesn’t always follow the path we expect!  We need to have FAITH that HE is leading us “IN ALL YOUR WAYS”, not just when we are doing WHAT WE THINK is HIS WILL!  THE CLOUD led the Children of Israel past the entrance needed for them to cross the Red Sea, where GOD said HE would get GLORY over Pharaoh and all his hosts.  The Israelites TURNED BACK and GOD received GLORY over their adversaries (Exodus 14:28)!  

The PLAN OF GOD is NOT limited to the minds of HIS Creation.  We MUST keep our EYES on HIM and “not lean on your own understanding” and “HE will make straight your paths”!  It is IMPERATIVE that we TRUST IN THE LORD with our hearts and TRUST that HE will LEAD US “IN ALL YOUR WAYS”!!!