Stay on the Path

Proverbs 3:5, 6

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.

God has given each one of us a path to go on in life. The amazing thing is that because God created us all unique with different skills, talent and passions He has also given us a special path for us individually to walk on.  But how do we know what that path is and how do we know we are even on it?

1.      Trust in the LORD with all your heart

When it comes to walking on the path God sets out for us we need to settle in our hearts that what He wants for us and where He is taking us is best for us. Trusting in God means to hand over the ‘reigns’ of our life to Him and having the faith to believe that He will take us in the right direction. If we do not trust God with all our heart we won’t take the big decisions in our life to Him. If we don’t take the big decisions of life to Him then we will probably find ourselves on our own path rather than the one He has for us.

2.      Don’t lean on your own understanding

The Bible tells us to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Leaning on our own wisdom and making decisions based on what we see around us is something we can all do. But there is a better way! God who knows everything from the beginning to the end wants to be a part of your life and lead and guide you in all things. He knows infinitely more than we do and as we seek Him He can help us to avoid destructive paths that might appear good on the surface.  When we trust in God and seek His wisdom He may ask us to do things that seem confusing or even ‘unwise’ in the natural. Going to God and His Word are critical to ensure we make wise choices and walk on the right path that He has for us.

3.      In all your ways submit to Him

By submitting all our dreams, relationships, finances, work, and whole life to Him shows that what God says is important to us. We can however have ‘selective submission’ which means we submit the areas of our lives that we are happy with what He says and not the areas where we don’t like what God has to say. For example, we don’t submit certain relationships because we know they don’t honour God, we don’t submit our finances because we don’t want to give, we don’t submit our dreams because we don’t want the ones God has for us etc. God has the absolute best for us and so bringing every area of our lives to Him will ultimately bring life and blessing.

4.      He will make your paths straight

The opposite of straight paths are crocked paths (Proverbs 10:9). These are paths full of wrong turns, travelling in the wrong direction and paths that don’t honour and submit to God. These lead to destruction and distance from God. If you do trust God with all your heart, seek His wisdom in decision making and submit fully to Him He will not only make it very clear what path He has for you but will also take you to places you never thought possible. The journey of follow Jesus is an exciting journey so let God in and follow Him with all your heart!