Proverbs 3:5
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding"
The word trust is the word batah which is translated in the Septuagint by the word hope rather than the word believe in. The idea here seems to be that one must put one’s hope completely in God's ability to resolve the issues of life. You trust in Him and do not worry or fret things that are beyond your control.
A number of years ago I was putting my daughter to sleep and she absolutely insisted that I lie down next to her. She was frightened and could not go to sleep or calm down. When I lay down next to her, she checked to see that I was there and then rolled on to her side and within a minute or two was sound asleep. She had confidence that if Dad was next to her and watching over her, then everything was okay and she was safe. Her total confidence in me and my ability to handle anything that might come was amazing. I realized as I lay there watching her that this is the type of trust that I must have in the Lord. I must rest in His ability to handle everything in my world. As long as He is near to me, I am okay. My responsibility is just to do what He says, just as my daughter's responsibility was to do what I said.
When she began to doubt and lean on her own understanding, she saw monsters under the bed and heard sounds of mice running in the closet and shadows crossing the room. These things from her own understanding were so disturbing that she was not able to sleep. But she trusted in me then, and she knew that she was safe, because I would not let anything happen to her.
In the same way, when I lean on my own understanding, I invent all kinds of things that can derail a bright future – things that I can't handle. But if I just make sure that I do what God wants and submit my choices to Him, then I can have confidence in the future and know He will work it out. My job is to throw myself into the box that He has put me in and put my full confidence in His ability to change boxes and what comes into the box.
Until tomorrow,
Gil Stieglitz