Don’t Lean On Your Own Understanding
As we approach the holidays, Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us a good reminder as we may have to face decisions, whether by choice or because of circumstances beyond our control.
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How do you make a hard decision without leaning on your own understanding? In this solo holiday episode, Chris Howard lands here: trust the Lord with all your heart, acknowledge him in all your ways, and keep taking steps, because Proverbs 3:5–6 promises that God will make your paths straight. The verse doesn’t tell us to ignore our understanding. It tells us not to lean on it. Chris talks about the two ways we get stuck (sitting on our hands, or trusting ourselves too much), regretting the changes he was too afraid to make, what Adam and Eve’s choice in the garden teaches us about limited knowledge, and coming to God with childlike faith. Below: the key takeaways, the Scripture discussed, and the full episode transcript.
A Holiday PSA
With Mike out for the holidays, Chris records on his own. Christmas is full of family, fun and festivity, but it can also be a very hard season for many people. If you’re having a great time, look for someone who isn’t and reach out, so they know they’re thought of. And don’t take anything for granted this time of year.
A New Year Brings Decisions
A new year brings resolutions, changes and decisions, some we choose and some forced on us, like a lost job or a sudden change. Decisions can be hard, especially when they affect family or your livelihood. Fears, anxieties and the pull toward comfort get in the way. But God doesn’t call us to a life of comfort. He calls us to a life of obedience. Chris admits there were times he was afraid to change and didn’t. If he had those moments back, he’d embrace the change and take the uncomfortable steps.
Don’t Lean on Your Own Understanding
Proverbs 3:5 (ESV): “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Chris emphasizes the word “lean.” The verse doesn’t say to disregard or ignore your understanding. There are two ways to get it wrong. One is waiting so long for an answer that you sit on your hands and never move. The other is trusting yourself so much that you go with what’s comfortable, or the picture in your head, and disregard what God may have for you. God gives wisdom from above, orchestrates circumstances and reveals more as we take steps.
In All Your Ways, Acknowledge Him
Proverbs 3:6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” All of them, not just the ways we prefer. Bring the decision to him, look to Scripture for what he says about your work or family, and pray. With the Holy Spirit as your advocate, it’s never a one-sided conversation. And the promise assumes you’re on a path and moving. The path may look winding now, but God does the straightening.
We Don’t Know Better Than God
In the garden, Adam and Eve reached for knowledge God had forbidden, and we still live with the results until Christ returns. We repeat that choice whenever we tell God, “It has to work out this way.” We have no idea what he’s protecting us from or what good gifts he has in store. Acting on our own limited knowledge can lead us down a path that was never meant for us.
Come Like a Child
Take the decisions you’re facing, whether chosen or forced on you, to God and ask him to make your paths straight. It may take more faith than you’ve been exercising, or more humility. God loves childlike faith. He isn’t Santa Claus. We’re asking for what he wants and what brings him glory. Chris compares it to a little child raising their arms to be picked up, or a teenager or grown child calling with a question. Parents love that, and so does our Father. He wants us to seek him, and he wants to provide.
Scriptures From This Episode
Proverbs 3:5–6 (trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths)
Also mentioned without a specific reference: Adam and Eve and the tree in the garden, God’s word not returning void, the Holy Spirit as our advocate, and childlike faith.
Go deeper: Proverbs 3: What Does Trust Look Like? · Scripture on Decisions · Scripture on Trusting God · Keep Trusting Even When You Can’t See · Scripture on Obedience · Navigating Through Joy And Pain In The Holiday Season
Full Transcript, Not Quite There, Episode 32: Don’t Lean On Your Own Understanding
Chris: Hey, everybody, this is Chris Howard with Not Quite There. Hopefully you’re having a wonderful couple of weeks since Thanksgiving, as we barrel full tilt toward the Christmas holiday. What a great time of year this usually is. We have a lot to look forward to: family, fun, festive, all this alliteration here. Fa-la-la, fir trees, you name it. But we also know it can be a very difficult time of year for people. You definitely don’t want to take that for granted. Hopefully you’ll find encouragement during this time of year. And if you’re one of those who are having a wonderful, great time, be on the lookout for those who aren’t, and maybe reach out and try to help instill some joy by making sure they’re thought of as well. That’s it. That’s my PSA for tonight: don’t take anything for granted this time of year.
Chris: One thing I tend to take for granted is having Mike Mobley sitting across from me as we banter back and forth on episodes like this. That is not happening tonight. Mike is going to be out for a couple of weeks celebrating Christmas and the new year, and then we’ll come back strong in January of 2025. Wow, it’s going to be 2025 already. Can you believe it? Where has the time gone? 2024 seems like it just flew by, and we’re heading into a new year.
Chris: This is the time of year when people start to think, if they haven’t already, about resolutions: changes they’d like to see in 2025, things they’d like to do, leaves they’d like to turn over. It tends to bring about a lot of decision-making whenever we approach a new year. Maybe you don’t have to make a decision, but maybe you’re thinking about one. And as you’re thinking about it, maybe you’re wondering which decision to make when presented with an option or two or three. Maybe an option was presented to you that you didn’t like: you’re no longer employed and you’re looking for a new job, or you’ve had a sudden change and you’re having to make some decisions all of a sudden. So certainly, whatever your circumstances are, you heard it from me here: decisions are easy, right? Nothing to worry about, especially if it impacts family or your livelihood. Nothing to see here. Just make a decision and go right now. No.
Chris: Decisions can be hard. They really can. Emotions tend to get in the way when we’re making decisions: fears, anxieties. Sometimes we see all the negative that could happen if we go down a certain road, and sometimes we want to go to the comfortable spot. What do we feel comfortable with? And we know by now that God doesn’t call us to a life of comfort. He calls us to a life of obedience. So we start to think, what decisions do I need to make that will be pleasing to God? And we can spend a lot of time spinning our wheels, thinking about what we should do, so that we never take action, or we’re very slow to take action. I’ve done that several times that I can think of in my life, where I was afraid to make a change and therefore didn’t make a change. If I had that time back, I’d probably look at it a lot differently now. In fact, I would embrace the change, move forward, and take the steps that were more uncomfortable during those times.
Chris: All that said, God gives us help, primarily, for me, in a verse I tend to lean on when making decisions. I’m sure quite a few of you are familiar with it: Proverbs 3:5. I’ll read from the ESV. It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Did you hear me emphasize “lean”? “Do not lean on your own understanding.” I emphasize it because it doesn’t say disregard your understanding. It doesn’t say ignore your understanding. Other translations mention your own insight, your own wisdom, your own knowledge or your own prudence. But this translation says do not lean, again, emphasis on lean, on your own understanding.
Chris: A lot of times I think we can spend too much time waiting for an answer, sitting on our hands, not taking action and not moving. Then there are other times when we’re trusting ourselves way too much, and we’re leaning on our own understanding. We go to what we know and what we’re comfortable with, or to a picture in our mind of what needs to happen, and we totally disregard what God may have for us. So there are two sides of the coin, and either one can be unhelpful. I believe we need to really wrestle with what it means to have understanding, wisdom, prudence and insight, and then what it means to make sure we’re not just depending on what we know. Certainly God gives wisdom from above, and God can orchestrate circumstances for us. We have an opportunity to move forward in that and let God unveil what those things are going to be as we take steps. And certainly God knows more than we do. He’s omniscient. He’s all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving, all-understanding. Everything that is good, you can ascribe to God.
Chris: And he tells us in his Word, right after Proverbs 3:5, in Proverbs 3:6: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Not in some of the ways. Not in the ways I want to. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Present it to him. Talk to him about it. Look for what he has to say about what you’re wanting to do, whether it’s work or your family. Look to the Scripture and find what he has to say about those things. Pray to him. The Holy Spirit talks to the Father. You have an advocate in that. You’re never alone in your conversation with him. It’s not a one-sided conversation.
Chris: “He will make straight your paths.” So he does the path-straightening for you. He’ll provide the right route. He’ll make sure you get there. I want to dive into that path. It assumes you’re on a path, that you’re moving forward and taking steps, and he makes that path straight. It may seem like a winding path right now, but he will make it straight. So certainly you have help from God in this. It’s not a decision to be made in your own understanding. We don’t have the knowledge or the comprehension or the ability to see things from all angles the way he does.
Chris: This goes back to the Garden of Eden, where God forbade Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, and yet they did. And of course we know what transpired from there. We’re still dealing with it today, until the return of Christ. We might understand that decision, wanting to know. And certainly in our own situations, sometimes we think we know better than God. How crazy that sounds. We tell him, “No, this has to happen,” or, “It has to work out this way,” and we have no idea. We have no idea what he’s keeping us safe from or protecting us from, or what good gifts he has in store for us if we take the way he wants us to go. Adam and Eve made that decision, and too often we make that decision too. Out of our own limited knowledge, we go down a path that’s not meant for us.
Chris: So all that to say: maybe you just need to do it again. Take these decisions you’re looking to make, or that have been forced upon you, to God. Ask him to make those paths straight. And it won’t come back void at all. Sometimes it’s going to require us to exercise more faith than we have been. And sometimes it’s going to take humbling ourselves in a way we haven’t, either ever or in a while. However, we do know that God likes us to approach him with childlike faith. So the closer you get to that, the more you’re going in the right direction. I’d say we’re going in the right direction whenever we approach him as our Father and ask these things of him. He wants good things for us. He wants us to be obedient to his calling. He wants us to listen to his voice. He wants us to ask of him. These are all things that, as we read through his Word, he says are okay to do, and that certainly applies to you.
Chris: So it’s not Santa Claus here. We’re not asking for the things we want. We’re asking for God, and for what he wants of us: the things that are going to bring about his glory. So maybe you need to make a decision here. Maybe there’s a decision coming up in 2025, and you just need to be reminded, when it does happen, that God does care. He does want to make that path straight for you. He loves it when you acknowledge him and when you seek him. Many of us are parents, and we loved it when our children were little and would raise their arms and want us to pick them up, take care of them and love them. And even as parents of teenagers or grown children, we love it when they reach out to us and ask us a question, and we can help provide the answer. It’s the same way with God. He wants us to reach out to him. He wants us to seek him, and he wants to provide. So I encourage you to do that. That’s definitely something I’ll be doing in the days ahead.
Chris: If you have any questions about that, or just want to reach out and let us know how you’re doing with making decisions, I would love to hear more, even if it’s a story of making a decision and God making your path straight. We love good stories too. Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful couple of weeks, a Merry Christmas and a happy new year, and we’ll talk again in January. For Chris Howard and Mike Mobley and Not Quite There, Merry Christmas.
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