It is a verse that would likely make the Top 25 memory verses in most children's church curricula.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
This verse is familiar enough that many adults who were raised in church know it by rote.
However, it is worth breaking it down and taking another look.
It tells us:
Trust is done in one's spirit with the heart.
Therefore:
Trust is not done in the mind with logic.
Trust is not done in the intellect with reasoning.
Trust is not done in the soul with emotions.
Trust is not done in the psyche with instinctual feelings.
Trust in the Lord is done in the heart¹ so that we can be in communion with each other.*
Do not lean on your own understanding; trust is not dependent on figuring it out.
That is why Jesus delighted in childlike faith. When He said, "Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it," Mark 10:15, He was speaking of a child's trusting spirit, not the body dimensions.
But wait, there's more...
Your logic, your reasoning, your emotions, and your feelings can determine your will. You can use all these elements of your soul to help you make a choice as to whether to trust God or not.
One could use logic: God does not lie.
One could use reasoning: God did send an answer to KatieLyn's prayers.
One could use emotions: Joe made her happy; you could see it in her eyes.
One could use visceral feelings: From childhood she'd always wanted to be a wife.
Any of those choices would have reinforced what God had told KatieLyn. All of them could have enhanced her trust in the Lord. That is what He had intended.
And then KatieLyn decided not to trust Him with all her heart.
Yes, that little word "all" is part of the verse. And that is the one that was twisted into deception. Five days before what would have been her wedding day, she was ensnared into deciding that since she could not trust God 100%, she should call off the wedding. She got a lot of support for believing that lie too.
The thing is...
The thing is, her supporters forgot the part about "lean not to your own understanding." Not relying on your own understanding is a co-equal command with "trust in the Lord." Reliance on one's own soulish understanding generally weakens one's ability to trust God, (as opposed to reliance on understanding received from the Holy Spirit). The more that a person is relying on his own discernment and judgment, the less he relies on the Lord.
KatieLyn tried to trust in the Lord with her own understanding, (the $10 word is perspicacity,) and her supporters were right there supporting her new-found doubt in God's ability, His provision, and most of all, in His character. Trusting in your own judgment is not trusting in the Lord, especially when He is saying, "I chose Joe for your husband," and you are saying, "No, I'm going back home."
*...
Back to the asterisk above where I wrote about God and man being in communion with each other— now I can link this to God's character. God's character is consistent. He does not change character, and so in that regard, we can know that when He said, "Whoever is of God hears the words of God," John 8:47, He meant it. When it comes to hearing God, there are some rules that are dependent on His character and some that are determined by our character. If our character is one of distrust in God, as shown by our action of preferring to trust our own judgment, and when our distrust reaches a level that our belief is no longer 'of God,' then we will have problems hearing Him. It is a deafness that we brought on ourselves by disobedience in trusting with all our heart.
It seems to be that in the case of the runaway bride, God had told KatieLyn His plan for her life, but then she kept going back and wanting reaffirmation after reaffirmation until she drove God to a point where He had to be a parent to his daughter. Parents do not let their kids keep questioning them indefinitely. It is really annoying to have a kid keep pestering you about things you have already told them and knew they understood the first time. So eventually He says, "Fine, I'm not forcing you to accept my blessing."
Is the "100% trust" standard unattainable?
Yes, in the spiritual realm of faith, we can trust the Lord with all our heart. Lots of folks are willing to trust Jesus 100% as their Savior, but choose not to trust Him as Lord of their everyday life. They still want control over where they live, what job they take, and whom they marry. They want to see what they are getting into, and so in the walk-by-sight realm, 100% confidence is unattainable. Like so many others, KatieLyn was making a nonsensical demand on God. If He wouldn't show her the proof-positive end at the beginning, then she would choose to refuse to trust Him 100%.
The Lesson
The first step to hearing God is to respond to the call to salvation. In the Shepherd and sheep analogy commonly used in the Bible, the saved sheep are in position to hear their Shepherd Savior. Whether or not they trust what they hear is another issue, and that is why the title of this post is 'A second step to Hearing God.' The sheep then has to trust its shepherd to lead it to the next pasture. Yes, God is merciful and we also have parabolic examples of His going out to recover the lost sheep; rescue and restoration comes with the salvation package. But do you really want to develop a reputation as a runaway sheep, or in this case, a runaway bride?
It isn't always running, however. Sometimes it is a slow drifting away. Hebrews 2:1 says, "we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it." Or as the Berean Literal Bible translates it, "it behooves us to give heed more abundantly to the things we have heard, lest ever we should drift away." It behooves us to trust what we hear from God the first time that we hear it, and then keep our attention on that, because if we get our attention on other things we put ourselves at risk of ending up in the wrong place.
♦ ♦ ♦
¹ Quick Review: You are a spirit (pneuma), this is the heart. You have a soul (psyche), which is your reasoning, emotions and your "chooser," that is your will. You live in a body (sōma), the physical body, which is a corpse without the spirit.
"It is the spirit in man's body, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand;" cf Job 32:8, that inspires the heart.
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