Trust in the ...

This verse from the Bible is the favorite of more people than any other verse I know. This verse can really direct your thinking and feeling unlike most any other verse. So, it's probably worth a little pondering. Like

what is trust?
what are we really trusting "in the Lord" for?
what is the "heart"?
what determines our "own understanding"?

That probably pretty much covers it, don't you think?

"Trust" is willful vulnerability. It is the act of choosing (your will) to give up control (becoming vulnerable) to someone because we believe they will not take advantage of us in their actions.

So, "trust in the Lord" is choosing to give God control. That means we don't keep any influence or interest in the outcome. Its for God to decide. It is totally up to Him to decide.

"The heart" is an interesting thing to ponder. "The heart" is our basic, core assumptions that lay deep down in us that we never question but use to prove everything else. There are really only two orientations of the heart and a Christian can have either. One is the set of assumptions that relate to our fallen human nature. This influences us to see everything through the lens of equitable exchange. So, if we trust with all of our heart and our heart is a function of our human nature, we would see that we are trusting that God is really good at equitable exchange. If we do our part, He is obligated to do His. That is what our heart would tell us. It is our motivation to read the Bible more often and pray longer, harder, deeper, louder, with more skill and sincerity, etc. and we can trust God to do His part.

That's where "lean not on your own understanding" comes in.

A transformed heart is a heart that is no longer ours. It has a different set of assumptions, deep down in the soul. These core beliefs are the "mind of Christ." They tell us that God is Sovereign and He willfully does what He does according to His promises, not as a duty in exchange for our admirable actions. Sovereignty means that He acts independently of what we do, and that His purposes are what determines His actions, not outcomes that we think we need or want.

To "lean not on our own understanding" then means
Our view of the situation typically requires a solution that is circumstantially beneficial to us while God's view of the situation requires a solution out of His Sovereignty, mainly that His glory be revealed.

To "lean not on our own understanding" is not what we may typically think it means. We often think we must just quit trying to make sense of the outcomes in our life and accept what happens. What we must do is realize it is our own understanding of God that is wrong, not our misunderstanding of the circumstances. He does not function on equitable exchange like everything else in our world does.

We can read this verse "til the cows come home," but if we don't get that "all of our heart" is the problem. We can trust as hard as we like but we are prone to a heart that can only make sense of things through equitable exchange. We can accept and accept outcomes but eventually are likely to become very disappointed in what happens in our life. We can over time think that God cannot be trusted. He is either not capable or He doesn't care.

We are good Christians so we know in our head this is not the case, so we keep thinking - persevere, keep it up, "trust in the Lord with all your heart." We are left to ponder - maybe we are not doing it right or trying hard enough. The problem for us is that the wrong heart makes trusting futile. We are trusting, really hard, very sincerely in the wrong view of "the Lord."

Realizing our heart is likely not really trusting that God is Sovereign and good, but actually trusting that God is the "great trader", is why we must not "lean on our own understanding."

Now, maybe you knew all of this all along, that's fantastic.

Whether you knew this before or its a new perspective for you, its is always worth some pondering ...