My favorite verse is Proverbs 3:5-6. I can quote it without even thinking about it. It’s one of the few sets of verses that I don’t find myself second guessing the wording or the reference. It says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” There’s so much in those 2 verses, but 4 words in particular have always stood out to me: “in all your ways”.
In all your ways. In ALL your ways. What does that mean? Because “all” encompasses a lot of things, and surely the Lord isn’t asking us to acknowledge Him in ALL the things…. Or is He? It seems difficult to see the Lord in the hard things, and it’s not always top of mind to see Him in the good things.
When you make a mistake.
When you are successful.
When the kids keep needing you.
When you get the joy of a new baby.
When you live in the pain of infertility.
When the list keeps getting longer.
When it just isn’t fair.
When nothing is going right at all.
When it is all going exactly as expected.
When you keep making mistakes.
When your dreams come true.
When the world looks like chaos.
When the money just isn’t there.
When peace seems unattainable.
In all the ways…
…Acknowledge Him.
How incredibly freeing would that be? There is absolutely nothing that we can do to make ourselves experience peace. To actually FEEL better. The greatest lie we have been taught to believe is that we should not feel uncomfortable. The lie that feeling uncomfortable must mean that something is wrong. The lie that we need to strive to FEEL comfortable. And oh how we strive. Our lives are surrounded in strife. Lacking true rest, never choosing to rest in just knowing who God is.
Because trusting in the Lord requires trusting His hand. Even in the uncomfortable. In the past that you do not want to face. In the shame we feel while telling and owning our past. How many times do we recall something in our past, and it makes us cringe? We hold so much shame in that memory and hide it at all costs. But that image that we try to hide, that we try to suppress? All God wants us to do is hold that image – the one that makes us feel all that shame – He wants us to hold it in our hand, and just give it over to Him. To look at Him and see that He does not hold any shame over us. Because all things can be used for our good. Not just the pretty polished versions of our stories.
All the things.
The versions of ourselves that we aren’t ready to admit from our past. The versions of ourselves that we don’t want to admit belong to us now. The mistakes that we keep making over and over again. Even if we repented 5 seconds ago and messed it up again.
Because isn’t that why Jesus came? To save us from the depravity that keeps overtaking us? Our desire to live a life without discomfort or pain or strife is our souls longing for what God’s original design for us. For Eden. For a life walking in relationship with our Creator, without separation due to sin or shame. For a life not enslaved to brokenness. Our hearts desires are echoing what we know our future will hold. And that future for us as believers is an eternity filled with everything perfect, with nothing marred by sin.
We have the choice to acknowledge God in all things. Because He is in all the things. Not in just the times where we choose to acknowledge Him. Our perception of reality is limited. In reality, He is in all the things regardless of our acknowledgement. He is still the almighty God of the whole universe and everything in it, even when we fail to acknowledge His power. Our faith in Him does not change Him. It changes us.
My prayer for me, for you, is that we would allow God to change our perception of reality. To allow us to embrace the truth of who God is. The truth of who God says we are. The goodness of God. He is working out all things for our good, He will make our paths straight.
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