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 (or direct). Proverbs 3
It’s so easy to ‘lean on our own understanding’, to slip back into that place where we trust in ourselves to find the best path and forget about the Lord. Yesterday was a busy day for us, but also not straight forward in some respects. I wondered if we’d taken on too much, ‘bitten off more than we could chew’ and said so to my wife. She, on the other hand, was sure God knew all about the arrangements for the day and would deal with it all perfectly. He did!
God actually used an overlap/bringing together of two situations to bring about release and blessings on a much greater level than would have been possible individually. My natural thinking was looking at the two situations apart but God eventually brought them together and both were enriched as a result. We do need to use wisdom (though it’s often man’s wisdom), but God will often take us beyond our understanding and give us His solutions instead.
The late Derek Prince commented that God often asks us to do things when it’s not convenient. We then have to make a choice, His will or ours. Are we willing to trust Him to work things out in His way, when it doesn’t appear to be best for us? It will cost us at times to say Yes to the Lord, but if we do He’ll use our sacrifice to bring blessings.
David had received a prophecy that he would one day be king of Israel. This resulted in him being hunted unceasingly by King Saul. It became so bad that he went to live with the Philistines, Israel’s greatest enemies. During this time, David twice had the opportunity to take Saul’s life.
8 Abishai said to David, ‘Today God has given your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.’
9 But David said to Abishai, ‘Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? 10 As surely as the Lord lives,’ he said, ‘the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11 But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.’ 1 Samuel 26
David could have taken Saul’s life, a man who was hunting him and his men relentlessly. Today we would probably say it was expedient (of an action, Convenient though possibly improper or immoral).
Will we choose the way that’s Convenient OR take the way that we know God wants for us. I believe that all Heaven waits to see what we will do.
God bless and keep you today.