Don't Get Stuck On Your Own Understanding
From Pastor Kevin King
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all our ways, and He will direct our paths. Psalms 1:1 says blessed is the man that does not walk in the council of the ungodly. Ungodly council is going to come, people are always going to tell you what you should do. Not all council is ungodly, but all council from the ungodly is. However, the psalmist says we are blessed if we let it go in one ear and out the other. In other words, do not put it into practice. In a similar fashion, Solomon gives us wisdom on how not to get stuck in life following our own council.
Solomon says we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding. Our own understanding is just what it says, it’s how we understand things to be. God gave us a mind and rationale with which to think, reason, and count the cost of things. And so in that regard, we should not view ourselves as dumb or incapable. But Solomon does add that we can take it too far when we lean on our understanding, when we depend on it to prop us up. Notice that when we lean on our understanding, we stand still, propped up against our understanding like we’re propped up against the wall. We’ve stopped moving and are simply standing still in life, relying too heavily on how we see things. We’ve become stuck spiritually and stopped making any progress.
The solution to this is to trust the Lord with all our hearts and acknowledge Him in all our ways. We are to turn to Him and recognize that He is the God of all wisdom and just may know more about the situation than we do. If we would just include Him and find out what He thinks, He will direct our paths. All of a sudden, we’re moving again. We’re being directed down a path. We’ve come off the wall and are making progress again. If you feel stuck and like you’re spinning your wheels, throw your understanding to the wind this time and see what God thinks. He will get you going again.
