Lean not…

One of my favorite passages is 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 shall direct your paths.”

I love the rendering in the Amplified translation: “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”

It’s a well-known passage, but I’ve found in my own life that familiarity can sometimes work against understanding, as it’s easy to simply skim over the verse and not really pay attention to it. 

Lately, the second half of verse 5 has captured my attention: “and lean not on your own understanding,” or, “and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.” 

How many times do we recall the first part—trust in the Lord—yet somehow think we can both trust Him and rely on our own insight or understanding to guide us?

The word “understanding” is translated from the word bînâ, which means understanding or intelligence or insight. It comes from a root word meaning “to separate mentally (or distinguish), i.e. (generally) understand.” 

This idea of separating makes me think of Hebrews 4:12: “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.” (Amplified)

We may think that our own understanding or insight or wisdom can guide us even as we trust in the Lord, but this is false. Our own human discernment will fail us. 

Fully trusting in the Lord requires us to lay aside our own insight and rely on the Word—which is the true discerner of thoughts—and the Holy Spirit, Who is our Counselor (John 14:26).

May we (and I definitely include myself in this!) stop trying to fool ourselves into thinking that we can both trust in the Lord and rely on ourselves. And may we instead FULLY trust Him with ALL of our hearts.