Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Proverbs3:5-6 (NLT)
My freshman year of college, I borrowed a friend’s car (I didn’t have one of my own) so I could take a group of friends to the movies. I was especially interested in taking one of the girls in the group to the movies and wanted to play it cool so she’d be impressed.
Our college was in the middle of downtown Minneapolis and the theaters were at a mall in the suburbs. I had been out there a couple of times although I wasn’t driving and
didn’t really pay attention. But I had a pretty good idea of where I needed to go and I had the keys, so away we went. I had been driving for about thirty minutes (it should have taken 15 minutes) when people started to question my navigational skills and suggesting we stop for directions, which of course, was out of the question. So, instead of asking for directions and getting back on the right path, I continued to drive, confident that I could figure it out.
Well, to make a long story short, I drove around for almost an hour, never found the mall, and we missed the movie. It took me a while to live that one down and it taught me a valuable lesson: don’t overestimate your ability to get there on your own.
King Solomon was known as the wisest man who had ever lived, and he wrote most of the Proverbs, a collection of wise sayings. In Proverbs 3, he reminds us not to depend on our own ability (understanding) and to instead trust in the Lord. The result? “He will show you which path to take.” Thanks to the GPS in my vehicle and in my phone, I don’t really get lost too often anymore. I am also willing to stop and ask someone now. But there are definitely times that I feel lost in life. There are times when I really struggle with a decision to make or a direction to take. There are also times when I know I need to “recalculate” an area of my life. That’s when these words from Proverbs come to mind. They remind me that if I will seek God and trust Him with my life, He will show me the right path to take.
Is there a decision you are trying to make, or a turn around you need to make? How much are you trusting the Lord to direct you?