Has He Got Your Whole
World In His Hands?
What is the difference between a wise person and a foolish person? The wise man or woman seeks after wisdom as if they are searching for hidden treasure (Proverbs 2:1-6). They are like someone possessed by a craving desire to lay hands upon the hidden silver or gold. They dream about it day and night and pursue it with all theyve got. Last time we learnt that this wisdom is really Jesus. A wise person deeply desires a personal relationship with Jesus Christ more than anything else in the world. The foolish person is just the opposite. But more about this character later.
Proverbs 3:5 reveals a vital characteristic of the wise person that if applied will have a far-reaching impact on your life.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
Once again, just one sentence in the book of Proverbs is a treasure trove yielding many riches. The word trust in the Hebrew language literally means to lie down upon or to stretch out on. Every night when you go to bed, you lie down on your mattress and you put all of your weight on your bed. You dont keep one foot on the floor all night or have half your body on the bed and half off! You just stretch all of your body out on the bed and trust that bed to hold you up. If you dont put your entire weight on that bed, youll never get any rest.
The use of the term heart drives the point home even more forcefully. In the Bible, the heart is the centre or source of our motivation, desires, interests and inclinations. Your heart determines why you say the things you do (Matthew 12:34), why you feel the way you do (Psalm 37:4), and why you act the way you do (Proverbs 4:23). It is what you truly are instead of what you seem to be outwardly. My heart is me – the real me. Your heart is you – the deepest, truest you.
No holding back
Proverbs 3:5 is about putting your whole life fully in Gods hands. The wise person puts his entire heart into trusting God. There is no holding back and no half-heartedness in any area of his life. He doesnt trust God with some of his heart but all of his heart. His heart is undivided.
Another way of saying this is to be pure in heart (Matthew 5:8). Pure means to cleanse out and separate any foreign objects that are in something leaving it unmixed. When you see a sign in a grocery store promoting One hundred percent honey it means the honey is not mixed with anything else. Its an undivided honey.
So the wise person throws himself completely upon God casting all hopes for the present and the future upon God, finding shelter and security there. The foolish person is different. Look at these sarcastic yet thought-provoking words of Wilbur Rees as he creatively illustrates a foolish persons approach to life:
I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I dont want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.1
A foolish persons motives are mixed, impure not genuine. For example, the fool only loves people if they make him happy. His whole world revolves around himself – therefore everything must please him. He will like or love you but this affection is not one hundred percent. Rather it is what can I get out of it? He can never give himself fully to anyone else including God. I will become a Christian so I wont go to hell, to ease a guilty conscience, to get healed or to get out of financial difficulties. If I just get saved then God will be impressed and forgive me.
A wise person stands in stark contrast to this foolish self-centred approach to life. How can we trust God with all our hearts?
Dont let your feelings govern you
Deliberately choose to trust God with all your heart. There will be times when you will feel God doesnt love you, that life is confusing and circumstances depressing. There will be times of tears of sorrow and regret. But King Solomon warns us; Dont lean on your own understanding Dont rely on your own judgement. It is always limited and sometimes wrong. Dont let your feelings govern you they can be deceitful. The prophet Jeremiah said, I know, God, that mere mortals cant run their own lives, That men and women dont have what it takes to take charge of life. (Jeremiah 10:23, The Message Bible).
Ultimately we choose how we think, how we view life and talk about it. When we choose to trust God no matter what, its a choice in accord with who we understand God to be and who we really are forgiven and unconditionally loved children of God. If we believe God is love and that in love hes in charge of our lives and in his love hes with us guiding us through life, then its in accord with that that we trust him in every point of our lives.
In a real sense only God can give you an undivided heart (Psalms 51:10, 86:11). On the one hand we ask God for a united heart and yet on the other hand we are to cleanse our hearts (James 4:8). In other words choose to renew your mind. Set your heart right and your life will take care of itself.
Are you ready to put your whole life in Gods hands? This is easier said than done but dont be discouraged. But I lack so much faith we argue. Thats okay with God. Its a learning process. The good news is that God accepts us and loves us where we are with all our mixed motives. When we dont trust him with all our heart he still loves us. Isnt that amazing?
Why not start small by trusting him one step at a time? Share your everyday life with him deeply. Let him lead and guide you in every area of your life. God may be saying to you right now I am real. This whole thing is true. I love you. If you will take a tiny step of trust, I will prove myself faithful. How about it?
The wise person puts his entire heart into trusting God.
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