Day 4 - Week 38 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path."

How many people do you think would know who Billy Zeoli was talking about when he was quoted as saying, "Every morning, he walked into the Oval Office he quoted Proverbs 3:5-6.  That's how he started his day."

First, you're probably asking, "who is Billy Zeoli?"  When you see the picture at the bottom of today's blog and read the caption, you'll get the answer to both questions. 

I hope and pray that every President of the United States would always be as humble as this one who daily acknowledged his need for God's wisdom above everything else.   Can't you imagine the overwhelming desire on a President's part to be given Godly wisdom and guidance in their decisions?  Knowing that each choice you make could possibly have life or death consequences for people in various places all over the world, it seems would drive anyone to their knees on an almost hourly basis to seek God's blessing on their plans.

But when we stop to think about it, everyone of us are often put in decision-making positions that will have consequences for us and for others.  And how often do we drop to our knees and ask God for His guidance and blessing over our decisions?  Every choice made by every person can make significant differences in their own and other peoples' lives and should only be made after bringing the situation before God and asking for His perspective and insight to be given.

It is easy to think that someone in an important or powerful position has more important decisions to make than you and I do; their decisions may affect more people, but our decisions may have just as profound an effect on a smaller group of people..and very often have life-altering effects on our lives---decisions made that alter the course of the rest of our life here on earth.

Don't dismiss any area of your life as unimportant or too insignificant to bring before God---He says to acknowledge Him in all our ways, there is not even a thought process that He does not want to be a part of, just as Paul exhorts us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, that we are to "take every thought captive in obedience to Christ."

OK - here's the picture...did anyone guess?  I am glad to know this about President Gerald Ford.  He came into the Presidency through an unprecedented route, and it encourages me to know that he asked for God's wisdom each day as he led a nation going through times never before experienced.  I pray that I will do the same as I lead my life in the days ahead.

U.S. President Gerald Ford and Billy Zeoli bow their heads at a National Religious Broadcasters Annual Congressional Breakfast in 1975. Zeoli served as an informal chaplain in the Ford White House.

Week 2 - Day 38 - Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

This verse couplet is actually a three "if" and then a "then"....

1.  IF you trust in the Lord with all your heart
2.  IF you don't lean on your own understanding
3.  IF you acknowledge God in everything you do....

THEN HE will direct your paths.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart:  We've talked in the past about how important trust is in the life of a Christ-believer.  Trusting God is foundational in our growth of faith.  It is the most critical element in our relationship with God, I believe.  And it is what God most wants from us....to trust Him with everything, with our whole heart, our whole being.  To place everything that is "us" in His loving hands and allow Him to move in our lives at will.

Lean not on your own understanding:  Sometimes we become fairly convinced that we're just about the smartest people on earth, don't we?  There's the catch...even if we're the smartest person on earth, that person is SO inadequate in their knowledge, wisdom and understanding than the God of the universe, our Creator God, who has infinite wisdom and the endless knowledge.  If we are trusting the Lord with all our heart, then we will start to see that HE is the One that we need to be leaning on for direction and for guidance.  That His wisdom surpasses ours in such an immeasurable amount we would be fools do to otherwise.  I often say, "Who is the only one who knows the story from beginning to end?  Isn't that the one who will be able to make the best plans?"  Well there is only One that can claim that ability..and He is the One that I need to lean on....and certainly not my little pea brain full of universal understanding!

In all your ways acknowledge Him:  This one is probably the hardest!  As much as I trust God, as much as I know that He is the One with absolute knowledge, I can still get so headstrong and caught up in "this-life-o-mine" that I simply forget to say, "God, every plan I make, every journey I set out on, every task I pick up to do...I place them in YOUR hands, to guide me at Your will.  If the step I am about to take is not in Your plan for me, stop me now.  You are the One that I trust my life to and I ask You to direct my path.  I don't want to go anywhere where you are not there beside me."  I get stupid and in a hurry and just start rushing down a road that is not in God's plan.  And the smartest thing I can do once I realize that is to stop dead in my tracks, ask forgiveness, and ask Him to show me the quickest way back to His divine path for my life.

Because that's the promise!  God does have a divine path for our life that He has designed knowing who we are and what we are capable of becoming.  It is on His path that we will find true fulfillment and peace. 

You often hear "my way or the highway"...well God's way IS the highway...it is the highway that He has paved to our destiny of eternal life with Him.   Not to say that His highway of design won't contain a few troublesome spots (maybe even a flat tire or two!), but those will be by His allowance in order to develop the growth of character that He desires for us. 

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Day 1 - Week 38 - Promises, promises...and they are all trustworthy!

Unliike the promises that are made by others in our lives that many times do not hold up over time and under pressure, we can be assured that God's promises are absolutely trustworthy.  They have been proven over the centuries...what God says He will do, He does!  Sometimes our earthly experiences that have brought disappointment to us affect the way we view the promises that God is holding out for us to take hold of...don't let that happen!  No matter how others may have disappointed you, God never will. 
Let's review our verses and then...just like waiting for dessert after the meal...we'll get our new promise!

The Gift of Prayer (3)

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.

1 John 5:14   Now this is the confidence we have before Him, whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

1 John 5:15   And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

The Gift of Assurance (10)

1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony:  God has given us eternal life and that life is in His Son.

1 John 5:12-13  The one who has the Son has life.  The one who doesn't have the Son of God, does not have life.  I say these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life.

John 14:1  Your heart must not be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansion, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3  And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you unto Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Your heart must not be troubled or afraid.

Isaiah 26:3-4  You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You.  Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

Isaiah 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed . (KJV)

Isaiah 53:6  We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquities of us all.

Praise and Thanksgiving (4)

1 Peter 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  According to His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Psalm 100:4  Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.  Give thanks to Him and praise His name. 

Psalm 100:5  For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Revelation 4:11  You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.


Promises of God (10)
Matthew 6:33  But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (ESV)
Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose.
Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
1 John 1:7  But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 1:9   If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We've received five out of our ten promise verses...starting the next group of five.  Do you think they will be as wonderful as the first five?  You know they will!  ALL of God's promises are wonderful when we accept them and bring them actively into our lives.

So here is this week's promise---I'm actually going to combine two verses that Robert J. Morgan separates in his text that we are utilizing because I think you just can't say one without letting the next immediately flow from your mouth!

Proverbs 3:-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  (NIV)

This is the translation of the verse that I am most accustomed to and the one that I taught my children as they grew up...I knew it was important to get them to realize that as smart as they thought they were (and as we all know, teenagers can think they are very smart!), that God's ways were always the best ways and the most trustworthy.  Thankfully, (as in "Thank You God!"), I thoroughly enjoyed my kids' teenage years, but I know so much of that had to do with the fact that they had already come to the understanding that they were God's children and that God was the One who established the ground rules for their lives.  They both continue to grow and mature in their faith and I am so proud of the people that they have grown to be. 

As much as I love the NIV translation quoted above, listen to the way The Message states it:

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.

Some times I just need to hear the plain and simple words that The Message uses---makes it so clear, doesn't it? 

Day 7 - Week 37 - 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Let us plead guilty before God, be humble, and willing to know the worst of our case. Let us honestly confess all our sins in their full extent, relying wholly on his mercy and truth through the righteousness of Christ, for a free and full forgiveness, and our deliverance from the power and practice of sin. - Matthew Henry

Deliverance from the power and practice of sin---that is what we ask God for when we confess in an honest and humble manner.  We admit that without the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, we are defeated and powerless against our sinful nature. 

BUT...as John tells us a little later in this same epistle, greater is He that is within us than he who is in the world.  As saved believers in Jesus Christ, God, with all His power, lives within us.  I think we often underestimate the power available to us through His Spirit dwelling within each of us.  We do not have to live lives of defeat and feel that we are trapped within the tentacles of sin.  He is able to free us of all sin, there is nothing that can stand against the will of God, and His will is that His children break loose from all entrapments that keep them captive to lifestyles of power-zapping sin.

It almost sounds like a super-hero tale, doesn't it?  Well, we have the Super Hero of all super heroes living right inside of us right now.  What is it that you need to rid yourself of so that you can live a life more fully committed to His will?  I am convinced that when we confess to God the things that are standing in our way, and humbly and earnestly ask Him to remove them from our lives, He will not waste any time in doing so. 

I am so ready to rid my life of the hindrances that retard my growth and spiritual maturity.  I am asking God right now to enlighten me to see, step by step, and possibly sin by sin, the things I need to change, or even eliminate, from my life so that I can then ask Him, in His power, to start cleaning up His house in my life.  As long as I am willing to let go, and I relinquish my willfulness to God's power, then I believe the change has started.

As always, we have a choice.  We can try to live a God-pleasing life relying on our own power, or we can admit to our God that our power isn't enough, that we need Him to supernaturally empower us so that we can live the victorious life that He has laid out for us.  A life that reflects love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control...seems like those would be things that would portray the Holy Spirit living in our lives!

Day 6 - Week 37 -- 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Jeremiah 33:8 I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me.

Ezekiel 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

Ephesians 5: 25-27 Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

1 Corinthians 6:6-16 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

I love it when you can see the same promises of God reflected in both the Old and New Testaments.  It reminds me that God does not change - He always has been a God of forgiveness and purification. 

These verses reinforce to me that God not only cleanses and forgives, but He makes all things new..what we once were, when His cleansing occurs, we no longer are.  Does that mean that we never sin, that we never fall back into some old temptation? 

I know it cannot mean that we never sin again, because you and I know that every saved believer still encounters sinfulness in their lives.  Some would say that they never again are tempted by an old sin pattern or addiction, while other very strong Christians say that they have been, and some have even succumbed to that old temptation, only to realize the pit that they have again fallen into was Satan's trap, and they once again ask for God's forgiveness, and guess what....He is faithful and just to forgive them and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness and, He in His graciousness, pulls them up out of that pit and puts their feet back on solid ground. 

I think the main difference in saved believers and those who are have not ever accepted God's grace and mercy exhibited to us through Jesus Christ, is that we as believers are so disappointed in ourselves when we realize that we have, once again, inflicted pain on our Jesus, as He hung on the cross.  For every sin committed added to Jesus load of pain as He took on the sins of the world.  When you love your Savior, that is the last thing you want to do.  So believers grieve over their sin, but we rejoice in the fact that we have a God who has been so ready, throughout time, to provide cleansing and redemption.

Thank You, God, for the cleansing of my life...guard me from sin...make me aware of Satan's schemes...and let me walk in Your light!

Day 5 - Week 37 - 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Life is full of opportunities, isn't it?  So many opportunities to achieve and to fail.  When we move forward we can feel so proud, so good that hard work has paid off, and that we have finally achieved a goal that has long been awaited.

But when we fail...we can really do a number on ourselves, can't we?  We can replay the failure over and over again in our mind, thinking of all the things we could have done differently, the steps that we missed along the way that would have made a difference, and we regret the things that will never be because we fell short, screwed up, or just plain failed.

But God, our good God, doesn't want us wallowing in the muck of failure when we fall short in His eyes. What He says when we sin is, "Confess it and get over it."  When we do things that in times of self-examination and review we understand are contrary to God's laws or when the Holy Spirit convicts us of areas of our life where we've been ignoring God's will for us, then I think that God's plan for us is to admit it, acknowledge that He is faithful to forgive, and then quit wasting any more time reliving the mistake and, instead, start growing in the ways that He is ready to show us.

How much time is needlessly spent looking backwards when God has already cleansed us of all of "that" and is ready to grow us up into people that every day more closely reflect the image of His Son. 

God is faithful and just to forgive.  Trust Him...trust His promise.  He is so good to His children.