We’ve all heard this verse before, right? Proverbs 3:5-6. It’s a favorite verse by many; it’s seen painted across the backdrops of scenic landscapes, stamped on bookmarks, glazed on pottery, and printed on the back of T-shirts. It’s everywhere in the Christian world. And that’s because it is, truly, a great verse.
If you can’t exactly recollect what the verse says, here it is:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”
Because of my Christian school upbringing, I was forced to memorize this verse at an early age, and thankfully it is stuck with me over the years. But to be honest, I haven’t really ruminated upon this verse before until recently, and I want to share a new takeaway God has given me from it and show how it practically informs the way we trust God as he makes our paths straight.
All my life, I understood the meaning of this verse with the following sentiment: once I “trusted God, didn’t lean on my own understanding, and acknowledged him,” that he will then “make my paths straight.” Essentially, I believed that once I did those things, then God would handle the rest. And I think this reading is true in part, but I think it’s also incomplete. If that’s all the verse means, then there is a dangerous implication that plays out practically, and it says this: “I shouldn’t walk a path until He makes the paths straight; I only need to trust and acknowledge.”
Meaning, I would only make forward progress until God gave me a green light for a certain road. But the thing is, there might be a situation where there are 10 green lights for 10 roads…does that mean we should just choose one from any of them? Maybe 10 green lights really means 10 red lights; how do we know? And what do we do, wait until there is only one obvious green light? It’s a mess—and if you’re a bit analytical like me, then this scenario will agitate you to no end of paralysis, frustration, and hopelessness. Ultimately, I think the verse communicates a more complete truth, one that avoids the frustration of finding the ‘one-way, only-way, straight’ path before you take the first step.
Here’s the thing: if God made the paths straight for us before we even took a step, then we wouldn’t really need to trust Him. Sure, God could make our path straight before we technically ‘walk’ it, but I think a majority of the time he doesn’t; and I think that’s because he wants us to learn to trust, depend on, and acknowledge him. Ultimately, I think the verse implies that we need to take a path, trust him and acknowledge him as we walking, know that he is making our paths straight as we are walking, and be comforted by his promise to make our paths straight all along.
Confidence, peace of assurance, and motivation to walk in faith only come from his promise to sovereignly make our paths straight—as we walk. If we waited until we had ample information before making a first step, we might never make a step at all. Needing to know everything (such as seeing into future and what it might hold) in order to inform a decision we need to make or a step we need to take might be an unreasonable wish because sometimes we won’t have that information until we start walking. If you wait to have all the answers before moving, then you’ll never move. You’ll become paralyzed with fear and traumatized by your own love affair with control.
Rather, we should take a step even if we don’t know all the details because we know that God is good and sovereign. Overall, we can trust what God does (in the past, present, and future) because of who he is—the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8). And we see the clearest demonstration of who he is and how he feels about us on the cross. For example, if he loved and died for us when we were his enemies, how much more so can we trust that he will lovingly guide us where we should go, now that we are his beloved children? Certainly, the gospel speaks peace to our anxious and weary hearts by reminding us we have a loving Father who is in control—not an indifferent, detached deity.
I love what Kevin DeYoung says in his book, Just Do Something: “We can take risks because God doesn’t” (45). He later comments, “If you are seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, you will be in God’s will, so just go out and do something” (104). Meaning, we can take risks with God-honoring intentions because He is sovereign over all things, doesn’t take risks with us, and will allow, deny, and confirm our choices accordingly to his greater plan. Even though we can’t see the future, he has already paved it out. Tim Keller also poetically writes about the mysterious way our free-willed decisions intricately work in junction with God’s sovereignty for his glory in his sermon entitled, Christ Our Head, saying:
God is so great that he works out a plan, a plan to work everything out for your good if you belong to him, and his glory, which takes into consideration your choices, and still works his plan out infallibly.
Ultimately, Proverbs 3:5-6 does not warn us to wait for God to make our paths straight as much as it encourages us to take a risk upon God’s amazing goodness, sovereignty, and grace. I have treated this verse my whole life like a decree to trust and wait instead of a reassurance to risk and trust. The first is paralyzing while the second is proactive. The first primarily trusts what God does in front of me while the second primarily trusts who God is eternally. Explanations are sometimes an excuse for trust. Let’s be confident in who God is, release our need for control, stop pleading for explanations or pre-cleared-out paths, and begin to blaze our own trails, recognizing who has already gone before us, is with us, and who will be with us through it all.
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Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, 45, 104.
Tim Keller, Christ Our Head, http://kellerquotes.com/everything-for-your-good/.
