Latest / Reformed Thinking / Trusting the LORD: Wisdom’s Heart, God’s Guidance, and the Straight Path (Proverbs 3:5–6)

Transcript

Trusting the LORD: Wisdom’s Heart, God’s Guidance, and the Straight Path (Proverbs 3:5–6) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Our mission here for you is
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always the same. We're trying to cut through all
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the digital noise, all the information flooding us, to
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really get a grasp on the central concept of biblical
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wisdom. And not just the concept itself.
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No, not just the concept. We want to understand how it
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actually operates in the the messy, challenging decisions of
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our actual lives. And today we are going right to
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the heart of it. We're drilling down into the
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source material that focuses entirely on just two verses,
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Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6.
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It's a passage that's probably familiar to a lot of people
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listening. Trust in the Lord with all your
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heart and do not lean on your own understanding in all your
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ways. Acknowledge Him and He will make
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straight your paths. It's.
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So familiar, but that familiarity can sometimes, you
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know, make us miss the depth. You really can.
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That passage, right away, it sets up this absolute critical
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tension, doesn't it? This conflict between trusting
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ourselves and, well, relying on God.
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It's the central conflict. So the mission for this deep
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dive for you listening is to pull apart how this short
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passage can function as a a complete, actionable guide for
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every decision you make, right? We need to see where our human
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insight fails us and where our real security actually rests,
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especially when the path ahead gets, you know, murky and
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unpredictable. And we have to see it not as
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just a nice poem or a platitude for a coffee mug, but as divine
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instruction for a life that's lived under God's governance.
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And that means we have to define the object of our trust, the
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posture, the practice, and then finally the promise that's
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contained in these verses. Hashtag hashtag IME the problem
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with self rule and the human condition.
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OK, so let's start by unpacking this.
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Let's look at the default setting of the culture we're all
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swimming in. It's constant advice we get.
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The world's prescription is almost universal.
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Believe in yourself, you're absolutely everywhere.
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Motivational seminars. Pop psychology all over social
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media. Follow your heart.
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Follow your heart, trust your instincts.
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Right. And the source material we're
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looking at just describes this so well.
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It talks about a culture that treats self trust as the highest
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possible virtue. It in effect baptizes autonomy.
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That's a great way to put it. It baptizes autonomy.
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The whole idea is that the self is the most competent authority
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in the universe. And that advice, I mean, it's
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appealing, right? It's sound, empowering.
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It promises this freedom that at the end of the day, it just
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can't deliver. It can't.
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Because if I'm the highest authority, well, then I'm also
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responsible for every single outcome.
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Precisely. And the source material points
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right to the anxiety this creates.
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It's inevitable if your life is built on the, you know, the
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shifting sand of your own personal insight.
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That whole structure has no way to interpret the storm when it
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finally hits, right? If my perspective it my
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feelings, my logic, my sincerity, if that's the highest
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authority, what happens when my perspective feel?
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What happens when reality just violently conflicts with what I
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sincerely want? That is the crucial reality
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check, because when you follow that advice to trust yourself,
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the confusion, the the crushing weight of it all, the panic that
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follows, that's the evidence that the instrument you're
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trusting is just not reliable. The moment things fall apart,
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you realize you're leaning on something that was way too weak
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to bear the weight. And Scripture is just so much
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more honest about the human condition than our culture.
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Is that much more? The biblical diagnosis is clear.
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The human heart is not a neutral compass.
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No, it's morally corrupted, it's deceitful, and our understanding
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is fundamentally limited. We just don't have the capacity,
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let alone the moral purity, to handle the full weight of
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decision making on our own. You know, disconnected from
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God's Word. And the problem is this natural
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tendency we have towards self rule.
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It's so strong that it even manages to put on spiritual
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clothing even within the context of our faith.
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It takes these subtle forms that can look like piety, but really
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it's just the self still running the show.
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We have to expose the subtle forms.
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That's where the real danger is for believers.
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Our sources point to two main forms of this subtle
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self-reliance inside religion. The first one is pragmatism.
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Pragmatism. OK, so measuring truth by
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results. Exactly.
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It's the logic that says OK if this method works, and by works
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it means it generates the outcome I want, like church
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growth or wealth or comfort. Then it must be right?
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Then it must be right, regardless of whether it
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actually aligns with biblical principles.
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It puts the result above the moral rule.
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Can you give us a concrete example of that?
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I mean, how does that show up in the day-to-day choices of
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someone who says they're following Christ?
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Sure. Think about a business leader
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who feels that pressure to, you know, cut some ethical corners
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to meet a deadline or to land a contract.
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The pragmatic voice says this method is aggressive.
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I know, but it works. The outcome is justified because
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we need the success. In a church context, it's that
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impulse to borrow marketing strategies or, you know,
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emotional engineering techniques from the world simply because
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they swell the numbers, even if they compromise the clear
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preaching of the Word. Right, so the method is valued
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because of the result you can measure.
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Which means the self's desire for success is still the metric,
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not God's revealed will. That makes perfect sense, and
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the second form, mysticism, is maybe even more pervasive today.
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This is replacing the objectivity of Scripture with
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impressions and personal hunches.
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Oh, this is everywhere. When you hear someone say with
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total confidence, God told me I need to do X or I just had this
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really strong feeling that I should quit my job and move.
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You're often hearing an elevation of a private,
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unverifiable feeling over the clarity and authority of God's
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revelation. Both of them, pragmatism and
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mysticism, are just different flavors of trusting internal
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data, my feelings, my success rate over external revealed
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truth. The common thread is that they
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both bypass the primary authority of God's written Word,
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and that makes them subtle forms of self-reliance, even if they
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sound very spiritual. So if we agree our starting
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point is flawed, that we're prone to self rule, our
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instruments are unreliable, where did problems start?
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It doesn't give us a new technique for success.
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No, not at all. Proverbs 3, which is sitting
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inside this larger call to covenant faithfulness.
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It demands a total relocation of our confidence.
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Wisdom begins not with clever techniques for managing our
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outcomes, but with moving the focus entirely away from the
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self and toward the Lord Yahweh. So the first lesson is about
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posture before God. Wisdom isn't about just getting
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smarter, it's about acknowledging that we are
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dependent creatures who need to be submitted to the Creator.
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And that submission requires, first and foremost, a radical
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redirection of our trust. OK, let's focus on that object
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of true confidence, trust in the Lord.
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Our source material says this is the foundation of wisdom.
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Because wisdom starts with God Himself.
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It demands a a radical transfer of confidence from the creature
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to the Creator. And this is such a crucial
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clarification about what biblical wisdom actually is.
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It is not primarily a matter of just sharpening our intellect,
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though that's valuable. It's not about getting more
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experience or developing better strategies, though we should be
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diligent. It is, at its core, a question
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of object. Who bears the weight of your
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life? Who are you actually resting on
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when the outcomes are hidden, when the decisions feel
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impossible, and when the pressure is on?
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The answer is a call to exclusive reliance.
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It's a confession that the Lord alone is competent to govern, to
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provide, to judge and to save. We're moving from
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self-sufficiency to divine sufficiency.
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And the specific name used here, the Lord Yahweh, is absolutely
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critical. This is not generic
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spirituality. And that matters, because
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biblical trust isn't faith and faith It's not just optimism
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about chance or some vague confidence that the universe is
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going to work out for you. It's reliance on the specific
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personal God who has spoken, who revealed himself, the redemptive
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history to Moses, to Israel, and who bound himself to his people
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by promise through covenant. The text just assumes that whole
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covenant will frame. That's why trusting the Lord
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means resting specifically in His revealed character.
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We are trusting in His Holiness, His righteousness, His perfect
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wisdom, His goodness, and His faithfulness, not in our own
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ability to figure out or predict the future.
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So we trust in what he is, rather than our hope for what we
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think he might do for us. Exactly.
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That posture immediately confronts every substitute for
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security that we try to cling to.
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And we are tempted, aren't we, to trust things we can see and
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touch? Constantly.
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And Proverbs knows that human impulse.
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It's the same impulse that Psalm 20 verse 7 addresses.
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Some trust in Chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the
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name of the Lord our God. Proverbs confronts every modern
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substitute for security, military strength, huge
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financial reserves, personal charisma, political influence,
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or just that general illusion of control that technology in our
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society. Give us the world says trust
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what you can measure what you can audit what you can control.
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And Scripture says trust the one who is sovereign, the one who
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measures you. And because Yahweh has made
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Himself known in His Word and supremely in His Son Jesus
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Christ, this kind of trust is not some irrational leap into
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the dark. No, it's a rational, appropriate
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response to the light that he is given.
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Explain that because trust often feels irrational, especially to
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someone steeped in a culture of self-reliance, it feels like
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letting go of the wheel. Well, it's because the God of
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the Bible is not silent or unknowable.
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He has made definite, objective statements about reality, about
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His nature, and about His redemptive plan.
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So trusting him is the most reasonable, the most sane act a
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creature can perform. So refusing to trust isn't
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intellectual sophistication. No, it's moral rejection.
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It's enthroning the self as the final judge over the Creator.
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And that distinction between relying on God's revealed will
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versus trusting our private impressions, that seems to be
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where so much modern spirituality gets disconnected.
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Trust grows where God's speech is honored above everything
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else. The more his definite promises
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govern our expectations, and his clear commands shape our
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choices, the more stable our confidence becomes.
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We're leaning on the rock of his revealed nature, not the
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shifting sands of an emotion or a hunch, right?
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God's reliability is grounded in his unchanging, revealed
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character, not in how sincere or intense our feeling is at any
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given moment. So to trust the Lord is then
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completely linked to resting in His sovereign Providence.
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This is where the theological traditions we hold to become so
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relevant. The Reformed conviction is that
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God isn't some distant hands off deity.
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He is the living governor of all things, wise, holy and
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purposeful. We confess, as the Westminster
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Standards teach, that God executes His purposes in the
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works of creation and Providence.
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That conviction is the antidote to anxiety.
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It frees us from all the frantic manipulation.
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It saves us from the panic of unanswered questions because we
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know that nothing happens outside of God's wise and holy
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decree. Trust is the souls.
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Amen to God's fatherly rule, we acknowledge He's not only strong
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enough to help, He's wise enough to lead us exactly where we need
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to go, even if we hate the scenery along the way and.
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This conviction directly challenges that pragmatic spirit
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we talked about earlier, especially when it shows up in
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the Church. It does.
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It challenges the temptation to trust our methods more than we
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trust the Master. Exactly.
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When a local church gets obsessed with branding, with
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marketing, with emotional engineering, or chasing the
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world's definition of success, it's showing a functional
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reliance on human ingenuity rather than on the Lord.
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God calls his people to trust Him alone.
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He builds his church through the ordinary means of grace, the
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faithful preaching of the Word, prayer, the sacraments, not by
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borrowing the world's confidence and technique.
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When we genuinely trust the Lord, we become content to just
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obey His established means and leave the results entirely to
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His sovereign hand. And the absolute deepest footing
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for this command, trust in the Lord, is found in the gospel
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itself. The God who commands our trust
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is the same God who has already proven himself trustworthy at
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the cross. You just have to look at Romans
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8.32. He who did not spare his own
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Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
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graciously give us all things? Because God gave the greatest
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gift when we were his enemies, His heart toward his reconciled
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people is settled. So Christian trust is reliance
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upon the triune God who we approach as Father through the
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Son, the one who embodies and gives us wisdom.
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The believer learns to trust not just because they're commanded
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to, but because they have been rescued and reconciled.
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The Lord alone can forgive our guilt, purify our heart, direct
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our path, and bring us safely home.
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OK, so if the object of our trust is the Lord, the next step
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in this instruction is defining the posture that's required.
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
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This is a demand for undivided allegiance.
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And that word heart in Scripture, it's not the, you
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know, the squishy emotional core of our modern language.
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It is the central Control Center of the entire person.
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So it includes the mind, the intellect.
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It includes the mind, the will, the decision maker, the
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affections, our passions, and the conscience, the moral gauge.
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So to trust God with all your heart isn't a call to just have
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more intense religious feelings. It's a totalizing demand for
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sincerity and for supremacy. God is claiming the throne of
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our entire internal life. He's not going to be just a
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helpful assistant that we consult on major life choices.
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And that demand immediately exposes the hypocrisy of partial
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trust. We might confess God's
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sovereignty, but our anxiety shows where our functional
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saviors actually are. We say God is enough, but our
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internal emotional turmoil just betrays us because our real
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security is invested somewhere else in money and our reputation
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and the approval of other people, or just in the illusion
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that we can control the outcome. And what's so challenging is how
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often our self-reliance masquerades as, you know,
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acceptable prudence. We wrap up our distrust in very
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respectable language. It is one of the most common
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sins among serious people. We cloak distrust by saying,
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well, I'm just being realistic or I'm planning responsibly.
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I'm not just relying on faith or I need to keep my options open
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because you know, God might not come through on this one.
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But when circumstances tighten, that's when the divided trust
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gets revealed. Yes.
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We treat our fears as if they're concrete realities, but God's
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promises suddenly become these abstract possibilities.
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We go through the motions of prayer, but only after we've
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tried every other lever of self protection and control we can
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find. And this is the exact
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instability that James warrants about the instability of the
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double heart. A person who is double minded is
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unstable in all their ways. So stability, single mindedness,
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peace, all of that is tied directly to a single hearted
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reliance on God, right? So wholehearted trust often
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requires repentance. It requires us to identify where
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our heart has been split and to return it in submission to the
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Lord. So the posture of wisdom is this
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humble dependence that says, Lord, I submit to your word even
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when it crosses my deepest preferences or seems completely
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illogical to my current understanding.
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And that leads us right to the powerful prohibition that
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follows. And do not lean on your own
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understanding. The proverb uses such a vivid
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physical image. Here it does.
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To lean is to rest your weight on something for support, a
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staff on a journey, a crutch for an injured soul, a structural
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beam. The Lord forbids us from making
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our understanding our human judgement the load bearing
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structure of our lives. We have to pause here because
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this is so often misunderstood. The command does not condemn
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reason or learning, does it? Proverbs itself is full of calls
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to get knowledge and listen to counsel.
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Absolutely not. Biblical wisdom is not anti
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intellectual. The target is autonomous
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understanding human judgement that's set up as the final
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supreme authority, refusing to be corrected by divine
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revelation. So the danger isn't that we
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think. No, the danger is that we think
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as though God, treating our personal perspective as decisive
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and treating Scripture as negotiable.
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We think our own insights are sufficient.
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And the problem isn't just that we're finite, it's that we're
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morally corrupted, which is why the Reformed doctrine of sin is
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so vital here. Our problem isn't just a lack of
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information. Our minds are darkened, our
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affections are disordered, and our will is bent towards self
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rule, just as scripture details. So to not lean is to refuse the
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pride of independence. It's recognizing that even our
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sharpest intellect isn't morally neutral, our instincts aren't
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spiritually safe, and our sincerity is no substitute for
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divine truth. That is the core of wisdom.
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It rebukes the secular confidence that says trust your
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gut, and it affirms the biblical command that says deny yourself.
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The posture of wisdom is cruciform.
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The self is not crowned. It is put under the authority of
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Christ. This brings us back to those
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contemporary disguises of leaning on your own
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understanding. This is where this wisdom gets
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really practical. We identified 4 major forms in
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the source material. Let's spend a little time on
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each one. Agreed.
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The first disguise is pragmatism.
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We touched on it, but let's look at how it leans.
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It leans heavily on results. Its motto is if it works, it
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must be right. Which sounds reasonable on the
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surface, right? If I achieve my goal, wasn't my
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strategy validated? Only if the goal aligns with
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God's reveal priorities. Pragmatism operates
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independently of biblical morality, it says.
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The end justifies the means. For instance, we might see a non
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Christian business model that involves, you know, cut throat
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competition and financial deception and we might be
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tempted to adopt it because it works to generate wealth.
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So we're leaning on the efficiency of the technique
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rather than the holiness of the Lord.
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Yes, it contradicts the biblical priority of integrity and
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justice by making financial success the measure of truth.
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And that leads to the second disguise, mysticism, which leans
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on impressions. This is pervasive.
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It elevates subjective impressions.
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Inner voices suppose it's supernatural nudges above the
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written word. The danger is that saying God
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told me X becomes the ultimate conversation stopper.
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It bypasses scripture. It bypasses wise counsel.
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It bypasses sanctified reason. The person is relying on the
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authority of their internal experience, not the external
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authority of the Bible. It's a subtle form of spiritual
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self trust that invites spiritual chaos because feelings
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are fickle and can be easily manipulated.
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This has to be a huge trap for believers who genuinely want to
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hear from God but lack the theological stability to tell
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the difference between the spirits illumination of
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scripture and just their own personal desire or anxiety.
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It is the desire for some secret mystical knowledge often masks
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an unwillingness to submit to the plain, difficult commands
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that we find in Scripture. It's an attempt to find a
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shortcut around the hard work of systematic obedience and humble
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submission. OK, the third disguise is the
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prosperity gospel, which fundamentally leans on a
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bargain. The bargain is the promise of
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material entitlement. The theology dictates if I trust
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enough, if I speak enough positive confessions, God must
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give me ex health, wealth, success.
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It confuses God's Providence with a formulaic transaction.
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The person is leaning on the strength of their own faith,
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technique or some perceived contract with God, rather than
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resting in God's wise, sovereign, and sometimes painful
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direction. It makes God subservient to the
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person's desire for comfort and ease.
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Precisely. It denies the wisdom that can be
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found in suffering, and it refuses to acknowledge that God
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often guides his people through scarcity, weakness, and trial
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for their greater sanctification.
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It's just self reliant alliance dressed up as high faith.
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And finally the 4th disguise, therapeutic religion, which
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leans heavily on comfort and self affirmation.
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Therapeutic religion makes the hearts comfort and emotional
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stability the highest standard of truth.
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If a biblical teaching or a command causes me to stress or
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it lowers myself esteem, then that teaching must be
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reinterpreted or dismissed. It reduces the entire process of
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Christian discipleship to self esteem management.
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Yes, instead of seeing discipleship as a call to
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repentance and submission to Christ, which often involves the
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painful confrontation of sin, it reduces it to finding ways to
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feel better about ourselves. We're leaning on our own
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psychological comfort as the measure of righteousness rather
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than the Holy of God revealed in Scripture.
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So the posture of wisdom is really a 2 handed act.
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Then one hand clings to the Lord with an undivided heart.
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And the other hand has to actively release that false
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support of autonomous self trust.
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And this is something that's cultivated daily, not in some
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dramatic one time moment. It's cultivated through the
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ordinary means God has appointed Scripture, being read and heard,
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prayer offered in submission, the fellowship and counsel of
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the local church, and just steady, disciplined obedience.
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This is the only way to avoid those subtle traps of leaning.
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So if trust is the inner engine of the heart, then in all your
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ways acknowledge him is the practice that makes that trust
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visible in the real world. Right trust that just remains an
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inward sentimental feeling is not not the trust that Proverbs
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is commanding here. And that phrase, in all your
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ways, is just so sweeping. It's exhaustive.
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It gathers up everything. We habitually try to separate
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the sacred and the secular Sunday morning and Monday
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afternoon. Prayer time and business
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planning. Worship and work.
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The Lord refuses to be confined to a religious corner of our
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lives. He claims all your ways, your
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patterns, your paths, your daily habits, routines, relationships,
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financial choices and your professional ambitions.
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This is Wisdom's practice. It's not an occasional
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consultation with God, but an entire life lived.
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Corumdeo. And we should probably define
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that Latin phrase for our listeners.
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Corumdeo means before the face of God.
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It means living intentionally, knowing that everything you do,
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whether you're balancing your checkbook, making a hiring
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decision, or talking with your neighbor, is observed by and
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claimed by God's Lordship. So the world says
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compartmentalize your faith. And Scripture says consecrate
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everything to God's rule. So what does acknowledge mean in
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this context? Precisely?
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It seems to mean a lot more than just, you know, tipping your hat
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to his existence. Oh, far more.
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It means recognizing him as the defining, controlling reality of
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your existence. Owning him, honoring him,
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submitting to him in every concrete choice that makes up
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your day to know or acknowledge God in Scripture is a practical,
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relational act that bears fruit in obedience, humility, and
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dependence. Acknowledging him, then, is the
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absolute opposite of just using God to bless our predetermined
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agenda. Yes, it's bowing before God so
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that He can radically remake our agenda according to His will.
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Our sources point to three essential acts of
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acknowledgement. First, submission to His Word.
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God is not acknowledged where His commandments are ignored or
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rationalized away, or selectively applied only when
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it's convenient or comfortable. 2nd dependence upon his wisdom.
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And this shows up primarily through prayer.
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Prayer is not a religious formality or an afterthought.
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It's the believers first resort, openly admitting self
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insufficiency and seeking his specific wisdom for the decision
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at hand. And. 3rd alignment with his
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priorities. His glory, His Holiness, the
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advancement of His Kingdom. These things, rather than our
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personal comfort or ease or worldly approval, become the
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ultimate measures by which we plan and act.
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They're the filters for every decision.
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This comprehensive command forces us to confront our
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tendency toward practical atheism.
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We might hold perfect Orthodox doctrine in our heads, but we
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live as if God is irrelevant to our budget, our calendar, our
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professional ambition, or our relationships.
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It's the business owner who acknowledges God on Sunday but
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excuses dishonest practices on Monday because that's just how
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business is done. It's the individual who talks
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about God's will but then refuses God's design for
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marriage or family in favor of cultural fashion.
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The Lord is not acknowledged where sin is coddled or
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rationalized or just renamed for convenience.
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And as we discussed with Mysticism, acknowledgement is
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not about chasing some special secret sign.
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It's about the hard work of applying revealed truth.
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Yes, God guides His people chiefly through His settled
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Word, illuminated by the Spirit, applied with sanctified reason,
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and confirmed through the counsel of the Church.
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Acknowledgement requires us to be unwilling to use the phrase.
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I feel God is leading me as a way to bypass the clear
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instructions we already have or to avoid accountability to
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others. And because the command is so
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comprehensive in all your ways, we have to trace its application
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across life's specific spheres. Let's start with planning.
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In planning, acknowledging God means we make real, diligent
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plans. Proverbs itself encourages
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planning, but we do so with humility, always echoing James
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4.15. If the Lord wills, we will live
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and do this or that. We clan as if everything
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depended on our effort, but we pray as if everything depended
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on God's sovereignty. So we have to shift our question
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from can I do this successfully to should I do this under God's
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word? Does this align with his
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priorities? That distinction is crucial.
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It changes planning from a quest for self fulfillment into an act
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of Worshipful obedience. Then what about money?
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Acknowledging God with our money means we view every dollar not
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as our possession, but as stewardship.
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This requires generosity, scrupulous honesty, and all our
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dealings and cultivating contentment.
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We have to refuse to treat our wealth, our four O 1K, or our
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financial reserves as our functional Savior.
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We hold on to resources loosely, recognizing they are just
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instruments of service in God's hands.
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Next work How does Proverbs 3.6 govern the nine to five world?
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It requires integrity when no one is watching, diligence
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without laziness, and excellence without idolatry.
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We have to refuse to make our career the source of our
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identity or our justification. Acknowledging God means we work
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for Him. Understanding our job is a
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calling, but our identity is in Christ.
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The measure is faithfulness, not status.
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And relationships may be the most flex fear of all.
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In relationships, acknowledging God demands truth telling,
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keeping vows, practicing forgiveness, pursuing peace
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without compromising holiness. It requires ordering our family
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life, marriage, parenting, friendship according to God's
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design as revealed in Scripture, not according to the constantly
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shifting definitions of cultural fashion.
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Acknowledgement means seeking God's glory and how we treat the
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people closest to us. And finally, church life
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acknowledging God means we cannot be a self-made Christian.
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Right, we have to place ourselves under faithful
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preaching, receive counsel from qualified leaders, practice
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accountability and pursue holiness with the people of God.
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The Lone Ranger Christian, guided only by their inner voice
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or their self selected influences, is refusing the path
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of submission and acknowledgement that God has
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ordained through the body of Christ.
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So this practice, acknowledgement in all these
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different spheres, it becomes a rhythm.
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Yes, a steady rhythm. Scripture shapes the mind.
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Prayer bends the will to submission, and obedience trains
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the affections to delight in the Lord.
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This practice is at the same time bracing and liberating.
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Bracing because it shatters the illusion that any corner of our
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life belongs to us independently.
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And liberating because it replaces the crushing burden of
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self direction with the easy yoke of God's lordship.
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When God is acknowledged in all our ways, we walk like a child
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who knows His Father rules and leads, and that allows us to
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obey steadily even when the path ahead is obscured.
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And that leads us finally to the magnificent promise that is the
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reward of wisdom. He will make straight your
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paths. After calling us to trust the
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Lord wholeheartedly and to renounce the crutch of our own
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understanding, Proverbs assures us that this God centered living
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is not aimless. The language here is Rd.
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language, isn't it? The path is the course of your
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life, and to make straight is to clear it, direct it, level the
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way so that it leads exactly where it ought to lead.
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This is God's pledge of guidance.
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The life surrendered to Him will not be abandoned to chaos or
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confusion or ultimate ruin. The Lord becomes the shepherd of
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the path. But we have to handle this
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promise with care, because it's the promise that is most easily
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twisted into a slogan for worldly success.
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I think most people read Proverbs 3.6 as a guarantee of
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painless circumstances or rapid promotions or a trouble free
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future. As if trusting God obligates him
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to smooth every difficulty and hand us the specific outcome we
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want. And that is a fundamental
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misreading. Proverbs is not a prosperity
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manual. It's covenant wisdom for a
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fallen world. The straight path is not the
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same thing as the easy path. In fact, sometimes the path that
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is straight in God's eyes is the one that runs straight through
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hardship and personal loss. Scripture holds those two things
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together constantly, God's guidance and God's trials.
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We think right away of Psalm 23, where the Shepherd leads us in
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paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
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Even though that path takes us through the valley of the shadow
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of death, the path is still guided.
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It's still purposeful, it's still righteous, even when it's
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terrifyingly dark. And the immediate context of
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Proverbs 3 confirms this. The verse is right after our key
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text. Verses 11 and 12 speak
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explicitly of the Lord's fatherly discipline.
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My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, for the Lord
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reproves him whom he loves as a father the Son, and whom he
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delights. So God straightening often comes
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by way of correction. He directs his children not only
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by opening doors we want, but also by closing doors that would
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harm us. And not just by granting our
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desires, but by frustrating our idols.
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A wise father straightens a child's course by refusing what
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will ultimately harm him, not by indulging him.
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If we read the promises purely 1 of ease and comfort, we will be
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absolutely scanty vandalized when God's guidance includes
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pain, failure and correction. Discipline is God clearing the
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crooked timber out of our soul. This is where that doctrine of
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Providence, that God wisely ordains and governs all things,
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it really steadies the soul. Guidance is not superstition and
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life is not a game of chance. Proverbs 16.9 tells us the heart
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of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.
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This doesn't mean planning is useless.
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It humbles our planning. It doesn't make our choices
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irrelevant, It makes them accountable to God.
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We don't need God to owe us a fully detailed map for the next
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5 years because He gives us Himself, the Shepherd who walks
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ahead of us. So how then, does the Lord
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normally straighten A believer's path?
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In practical terms, we've talked about what it isn't.
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It's not chasing signs or whispering secret information.
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His ordinary way is wonderfully plain and accessible.
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God guides by His Word, which is illuminated by His Spirit and
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applied with sanctified, humble reason.
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He guides by prayer that submits rather than dictates.
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He guides through the wise counsel we get inside the church
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body. And crucially, he guides through
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a sanctified judgement that's shaped over time, through long
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obedience. A lot of believers looking for
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that special revelation try to bypass the slow work of
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character formation. But the Lord straightens paths
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by making the person straight. He forms our character, renews
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our mind, and trains our heart to delight in what pleases Him.
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So guidance is often less about receiving special directions for
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which option should I choose, and far more about what kind of
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righteous person am I becoming as I choose.
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And we have to acknowledge the moral weight of this promise.
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A straight way is fundamentally A righteous way.
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Contrasted with the crooked paths of sin, deceit, adultery,
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injustice. God's guidance is intrinsically
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ethical. Sometimes the deep confusion we
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feel in our decision making isn't because God is silent, but
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because we've already decided, consciously or unconsciously, to
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keep a sin or to ignore a clear command.
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Right. The Lord will not guide you into
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disobedience. He may very well leave you in
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the confusion and misery of your own crookedness until repentance
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restores your clarity. The path God straightens is the
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path of obedience. The promise gives great comfort,
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though, especially to those who fear that choosing obedience,
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choosing the righteous path, will financially ruin them or
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destroy their career or lead to social isolation.
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It will not. The Lord can lead you through
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real devastating loss, loss of comfort, loss of status, loss of
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ease, and still keep you entirely on the right Rd.
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The loss of worldly goods is not ruin if it results in the
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preservation of your soul on the straight path.
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And finally, this promise is utterly secured in Christ.
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Left to ourselves, every path we choose is bent away from God by
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our corrupted hearts. But Jesus Christ is the
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perfectly trusting, perfectly obedient Son who walked to the
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straight path. We refused, He bore the
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judgement or crippledness deserved at the cross, and
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united to Him we are LED as adopted children.
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The Lord Straightening is the long, patient, fatherly work of
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conforming us to His Son until every single path we have
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walked, whether it was painful or pleasant, ends in God's
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glorious presence. Hashtag #outro.
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So let's synthesize this whole instruction from Proverbs 3.5 to
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6. We've defined the four essential
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components of wisdom. First, the object, trust, the
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Lord, Yahweh, the covenant, keeping God.
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Second, the posture, all your heart, renouncing the false
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support of our own autonomous understanding.
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Third, the practice acknowledge Him in all your ways, living
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corum deo across every part of life.
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And 4th, the Providence. He will make your path straight,
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even if that path involves discipline.
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The call here is not for a better technique for managing
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your life. It is a call for a better Lord
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to live under. And if we look at why Christ is
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the conclusion of all biblical wisdom, it's because our core
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problem is not just that we need better directions.
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We are sinners whose paths are naturally crooked and bent
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towards self destruction, right? Christ is the perfectly trusting
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Son who bore the just judgement our crookedness deserved at the
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cross. The secured comfort in that is
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absolute. The God who did not spare his
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own Son, but freely gave him up for us, will never abandoned his
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reconciled children in the wilderness of this life.
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Providence is no longer some terrifying fate.
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It is now fatherly guidance. So a final thought for you, the
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listener to consider and apply immediately.
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Examine where you are currently leaning.
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Repent of self trust, of prayerless planning, of
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rationalized sin, and of that modern habit of just using God
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to bless your predetermined agenda.
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The contrast is stark and immediate.
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The world says find yourself and follow your gut.
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Christ says follow me and the promise holds true.
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The follower cannot finally be lost because the shepherd
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himself makes the way straight.