Trusting in the Lord And Not In Our Own Understanding

Trusting in the Lord requires us to live our lives based on scripture rather than what we can see, hear, touch, taste or smell. Trust requires us to sometimes leave the boat of the sense world and make decisions that may conflict with “natural” wisdom.

Trusting in the Lord Means Trusting His Guidance

Years ago, our youngest son played basketball on a travel ball team here in Southern CA. His team traveled all over playing against some of the best teams in the region. One weekend we played in a tournament game in Riverside, CA. Not being familiar with the area, I programed the address of our game into my GPS the night before. Doing so would insure that there would be no problem in finding the gym the next day. Our family set out early on game day with our trusty GPS guiding us the whole way. 

[pullquote]For most of us, remaining mindful that trusting in the Lord to lead and guide us continually in the smallest issues of our lives can be challenging.[/pullquote]

Approximately one mile from our destination, the GPS guided us off the freeway. It told us to turn into an industrial park just off the freeway. My thoughts at this point were that the system was obviously wrong. I concluded that we were going to have to find the gym on our own. But since, we trusted the GPS this far (and we were early), I decided to continue following the system.

Sometimes Things Aren’t As They Seem

We ended up in an area full of factories and warehouses. It was 8:00AM on a Saturday morning and no one was around. The large blue address on the side of a huge warehouse building indicated that we had arrived at our destination. Disregarding my GPS, I continued driving down the vacant street. Having been to many basketball tournaments, I concluded that this address couldn’t possibly be the correct destination.




Other parents began arriving at the same address. Like a game of follow the leader gone wrong, we all formed a train of mis-guided souls. We all drove to one end of the street, made  U-turn’s then drove to the other end of the street repeatedly. Obviously none of us considered the address we were guided to by the GPS to be the correct one.

God’s Way Can Look Different Than Our Ways…

I decided to go inside the office of the building we were guided to and get directions to where we were supposed to be. I turned onto a road which led to a parking lot behind the warehouse building. To our surprise, we found that the parking lot was almost full of cars that couldn’t be seen from the street. A door on the side of the building (also not visible from the street) was open.

We parked our car and walked up to the door. Inside we found 4 very nice basketball courts and several games already going on! From the outside you never would have guessed that this warehouse would be a basketball tournament location. Trusting my concept of what a tournament location should look like more than trusting my GPS almost caused us to be late for our game.

Proverbs 3:5 – Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy path…..KJV

Being directed daily by God’s Word is a very simple and basic concept. But for most of us, remaining mindful that trusting in the Lord to lead and guide us continually in the smallest issues of our lives can be challenging.

We struggle with our “intelligence” and what we have been programmed to accept as true according to our knowledge and experience, versus the truth of God’s Word.  My experience in the scenario above about a basketball tournament being held inside of a warehouse is a perfect example of me basing truth on what I knew versus trusting a standard of truth, in this scenario, supplied by my GPS.

Trust God As Much As You Trust The Systems of the World

God has made following Him so easy, and yet we struggle each day and make it difficult. He’s given us His Word to navigate through life. Are you trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not leaning on what you think you know about your situation?

I want to encourage you today to lean on God’s Word regardless of what your circumstances are telling you and you will find that He will never lead you down the wrong path. For more inspiring messages click HERE