A. Trust is a trait of the heart that is fundamental to any good relationship. In our relationship with God, our total trust in Him is indispensable.
B. In this lesson concerning the heart, let us consider the subject of trusting God based on this well-known passage from Proverbs 3:5-6:
5Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
II. TRUST WITHOUT RESERVATIONS
A. To "trust in the Lord with all your heart" is to hold nothing back from Him.
1. Unlike man, God is worthy of our hearts' complete trust.
a. Every man is fatally flawed due to sin, weakness, ignorance, errors, and countless limitations. These universal flaws make every man unworthy of complete trust.
b. In contrast, God is holy, righteous, omnipotent, omniscient, inerrant, and eternal. In addition to these, "God is love" (1John 4:8), which means that all His magnificent attributes work for our good. Therefore, we can trust Him with all of our hearts.
2. If we refuse to commit every part of our lives to God, then we do not trust Him with all our hearts.
a. Trusting God with all of our hearts means that we must believe and keep all of His word without exception.
b. We do not trust God completely if we believe Him only in certain matters and not in others. For example, if we believe concerning the church but not concerning the home, then do not fully trust Him.
c. Even when God's word contradicts popular opinion, family tradition, old habits, worldly wisdom, political correctness, or any other things, we must trust God.
B. When you "lean on your own understanding," you cannot trust the Lord completely.
1. Unlike God, we are not omniscient. We do not have all of the answers to all of our questions, but God does.
a. This was one of the important lessons learned by Job. In the end, he said to God, "Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know...Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:3, 6).
b. Sometimes, we have to be satisfied with knowing that only God knows certain things. This requires trust in God and resignation from our own understanding.
2. Consider two cases in contrast: Israel and Abraham.
a. When Israel stood at the doorstep of the promised land, they failed to trust in God because they could not see by their own understanding how to defeat the Canaanites.
i. When Moses was recalling this failure at Kadesh, he said to Israel, "But for all this, you did not trust the LORD your God" (Deut. 1:32).
ii. Many years later, it was remembered how that same generation of Israel provoked the wrath of God "because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His salvation" (Ps. 78:22).
b. In contrast, Abraham trusted God even when he could not see by his own understanding how God's promises could be fulfilled.
i. When he was promised that he and Sarah would have a son in their very advanced ages, Romans 4:19-21 says,
19Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; 20yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.
ii. When he was later told to sacrifice Isaac, the child of promise, he did not lean on his own understanding but rather "he considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead" (Heb. 11:19).
c. These two cases demonstrate the sharp differences between trusting in God with all of one's heart and leaning on one's own understanding.
III. HOW COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD AFFECTS US
A. By acknowledging God in all our ways, our hearts trust Him to guide us safely.
1. To acknowledge God in all our ways is to submit to His will.
a. This is similar to petitioning God in prayer and saying, "May Your will be done" (Matt. 6:10; 26:39).
b. This also requires for our ways to conform to God's will. It is not merely a mental or verbal acknowledgement, but rather it is the performance of God's will in all that we do.
2. Submitting to God's will in all our ways demonstrates our genuine, heartfelt trust in Him.
a. By doing so, we "prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:2). In other words, we show firsthand that God's will is the best.
b. We also show that we trust God above all others who advise us differently.
B. When we trust God with all of our hearts, he makes our paths straight.
1. Straight paths are not always easy paths, but they are the paths that are free of the obstructions that lead to ruin.
2. Consider some of the straight paths for those hearts that are fully trusting in God.
a. A heart that fully trusts in God does not fear.
i. Psalm 56:3-4 -- 3When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. 4In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?
ii. Psalm 56:11 -- In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?
iii. Isaiah 12:2 -- "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."
b. A heart that fully trusts in God overcomes difficulties and succeeds.
i. 2Chronicles 14:11 -- Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You."
ii. 2Chronicles 20:20 -- They rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa; and when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed."
iii. Psalm 37:5 -- Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.
c. A heart that fully trusts in God has wisdom to speak and to do what is right.
i. Psalm 119:42 -- So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word.
ii. Psalm 143:8 -- Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; for I trust in You; teach me the way in which I should walk; for to You I lift up my soul.
IV. CONCLUSION
A. In this world, who can you trust with all your heart?
1. We are almost afraid to trust anyone because the world is filled with predators.
2. We all have been betrayed, and we have betrayed others. Who is trustworthy?
B. Thankfully, we can and must trust God with all our hearts, for He is worthy.
1. Psalm 31:14 -- But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, "You are my God."
2. Psalm 52:8 -- But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.
3. Psalm 62:8 -- Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.
4. Psa 115:11 -- You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.
5. Isaiah 26:4 -- Trust in the LORD forever, for in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock.
6. Jeremiah 17:7 -- Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD.
