“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5
Life is full of mysteries and enigmas. Mainly because we don’t have all the pieces to life’s puzzles. We don’t have all the information we need to make a wise decision. We don’t have all the details in many situations. We are told only part of a story, without knowing the rest of the story. So we find ourselves left with more questions than answers. This leaves us in the lurch, with only the hope that we can “figure” things out.
So many things in life leave us feeling dizzy and confused. The bible tells us that God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33). Confusion is an earmark of life in a fallen world. No matter how deep our biblical knowledge is, or strong our faith becomes, life leaves us scratching our heads more times than we want to acknowledge.
So what are our options for the perplexities we find in life? For one, we can allow all the mystery and confusion to torment us with worry. This option will cause our minds to wander into dark holes that can weaken our faith. Another option is to try to figure things out. This option can cause us to stick our nose where God or others don’t want it to be. And in the end, this too can torment us and weaken our faith.
Our best solution is found in Proverbs 3:5 – “lean not on your own understanding.” In the first place, we don’t have to understand everything. Some things are not meant for us to understand, so we need to swallow our pride and accept that. How many times have we wondered about a situation, and when we found out what it was, we wish we didn’t know. Been there – experienced that – have you? Second, how many times have we assumed we knew something, only to discover how wrong we were? If God wants us to know something, He will reveal it to us.
The important thing is to be content with the fact that God knows everything, and we need to trust in His infinite wisdom and knowledge. God, for our good and his glory, will keep certain things a mystery to us. Real peace is found not in our trying to figure out life’s mysteries. Real peace is found in trusting the God who doesn’t have to figure out anything, because he has full knowledge of everything.
My advice to all of us is this: Lean not on our own understanding, but on the One who understands everything.
Darlene