TODAY: 21 day Devotion by: H.R. Lister
Day 12: “In all your ways…”
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your HEART, and lean not on your OWN UNDERSTANDING.....”
-You don’t trust God with your HEAD, you trust Him with your HEART!!!
Romans 10:10 “for with the HEART man BELIEVES....”
-You don’t trust God with your mind, you think with your mind but you believe and trust with your heart!!!
- Trust with your heart, Lean not on your OWN UNDERSTANDING, your own thinking....
UNDERSTANDING: :a mental grasp :comprehension
A: the power of comprehending; especially: the capacity to apprehend general relations of particulars…
B: the power to make experience intelligible by applying concepts and categories….
A: friendly or harmonious relationship
B: an agreement of opinion or feeling :adjustment of differences
C: a mutual agreement not formally entered into but in some degree binding on each side
-This is how we understand the World and the people in it but when it comes to God, we can’t trust, believe or follow with our understanding because He surpasses the ability of our natural comprehension!!!
Proverbs 3:6 “In ALL YOUR WAYS acknowledge Him and He will DIRECT YOUR PATHS!!!! ? In how many ways? ALL
We can’t go at life as a believer, imagining that we can handle part of it and God can take up our slack!!!
-Here’s our problem, we want to lean on our own understanding, go our own ways, and direct our own paths until there’s a problem on the path we picked!!!
IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM!!!!
-To acknowledge means to: Recognize that He’s there in every situation ready to lead you in the way you should go!!!
-Have you ever been on a trip with someone that didn’t know where they were going but said they did, but you really knew how to get there but they wouldn’t acknowledge you and your leading?
-Why would we ever question the Creator of the Universe’s ability to get us where we need to go?
-Most of the time it’s not our distrust that He knows what He’s doing, it’s our lack of faith that we could really be directed by Him....
-We’ve so trained ourselves to be led by the wrong thing that we have no practice obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit...
-We’re led by:
-Pain
-Emotion
-Manipulative people (squeaky Wheel gets the grease)
-Lust & Greed (sexual, power, position, money)
-Social Pressures (How we look, (homes, cars clothes), Kids, (Their social pressures can
actually lead your house more than the Holy Spirit)
-All these things are competing for your LIFE!!!!!
-The Lord won’t compete!!! He says: IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE ME!!!! (Recognize that I’m the ONLY WAY, TRUTH, and THE LIFE!!!!
He says: If you’ll trust ME, acknowledge ME, I’LL direct your PATHS!!!!!
What Kind of Paths will the Lord direct us down?
-The Paths of sorrows???
-The Paths of sickness & poverty???
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, TO GIVE YOU A FUTURE AND A HOPE!!!”
-This is God’s heart towards us and His desire for us! Peace and not Evil, a GOOD HOPE and FUTURE!!!
Proverbs 4:10-18 “Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. 11) I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. 12) When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble. 13) Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; keep her, for she is your life. 14) Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of evil. 15) Avoid it, do not travel on it; turn away from it and pass on. 16) For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. 17) For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. 18) But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.”
-IF GOD IS DIRECTING YOUR PATH, ARE YOU GOING TO WIND UP IN THE RIGHT PLACE!?!?!?
Psalm 37:23,25 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way... 25) I have been young, and now am old; Yet I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, or his descendants begging bread...”
-As humans, this is where we’re all trying to get to... The good path, the path of blessing and peace... But we’re trying to get there on our own... By allowing God to just be added to our knowledge instead of acknowledging HE’S THE LEADER!!!
-He knows the way!!! He orders the steps, He leads and guides, we have to yield our minds and trust Him with our hearts and BE LED!!!!!!
John 16:13 “However, when He, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, has come, He will GUIDE you into ALL TRUTH; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come...”
John 10:27-28 “My Sheep hear MY VOICE, and I know them, AND THEY FOLLOW ME. 28) And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
Psalm 23 “THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD; I shall not want. 2) He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He LEADS ME beside the still waters. 3) He restores my soul; He LEADS ME in the PATHS of RIGHTEOUSNESS for His name’s sake. 4) Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for YOU ARE WITH ME; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me. 5) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. 6) Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever...”
Give the Lord the final say in everything you do today. Let Him lead you into His plans and promises for your life.