Read
5With all your heart
you must trust the Lord
and not your own judgment.
6Always let him lead you,
and he will clear the road
for you to follow.
Reflect
I find it much too easy to be half-hearted in my faith. To give lip service to the truth, but want my own way in the end. Sometimes when we look at what’s happening around us and we read the Bible we think, “Yeah, but … .” The Scriptures are so ancient, it’s easy to try and convince ourselves that it doesn’t work that way anymore. Times have changed, things are more complex nowadays. But when you really start to dig into the Proverbs, you begin to realize how little the human heart has actually changed. We have stayed the same.
We still want our own way. The call to immediate pleasure still drowns out the voice of Wisdom calling in the streets. If we listen closer, we hear her saying, “There ain’t no half-stepping.” You can’t halfway follow Jesus. God wants all of your heart, in its entirety. And that means trusting Him.
It isn’t easy to trust your life into someone else’s hands, especially someone you can’t see. Yet we must trust the Lord. It is the only option we have if we want to live successful lives. When we know what God is calling us to, we can’t trust our own judgment over his Word, or we will end up alone and defeated.
The good news is that he will clear the way for you. If you let him lead you, he will make sure you lick obstacles like popsicles. When we trust in God and follow his instructions, it’s on him. They are his problems now. Too often at the slightest hint of trouble we decide to give up and try our own way, not giving God the time to show what he can do. Trust God with all your heart, and watch what happens.
Respond
Faithful God, you made the human heart and call us to put our trust in you completely. Help us to let go of our own judgments and have full confidence in what your Word says so that we will have our pathway cleared as you lead us. In the trustworthy name of Jesus, Amen.
Cyril Guerette
Dr. Cyril Guerette is Lead Pastor of ForestView Church Without Walls in Oakville, ON. He also served for 10 years as a pastor in downtown Toronto. He holds a PhD (University of St. Michael’s College) and M.Phil (University of Cambridge) and serves as Associate Professor of Philosophy & Theology at Heritage College & Seminary. Cyril enjoys writing, taking walks, making hiphop music, playing with his children, and admiring the mixed-media photographic artwork of his wife, Maegan. Publications: Guerette, Cyril. Poetic/Dialectic: The Confluence of Poetry and Philosophy in St. Anselm’s Theology. Portland, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2017 (Forthcoming). Guerette, Cyril. “The Pastor as Poet”, in For Christ and His Church. Edited by Rick Reed. Kitchener-Waterloo, ON: Joshua Press, 2015. Guerette, Cyril. “An Appeal to Zeal”, in Letters to a Future Church: Words of Encouragement and Prophetic Appeals. Edited by Chris Lewis. Downer’s Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2012.