SUBMIT TO THE LORD
Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV
[5] “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Wise Solomon! If only he had heeded his own words!
This stone, together with the fear of the Lord, should form a foundation strong and solid enough to built an entire edifice that can withstand the worst of storms in life. After all, submitting the Lord instead of putting our faith in our own faulty ideas is the way to go. Every other way, outside of submission to God’s ways and wisdom, will inevitably land us in disaster.
Look at this “stone”! What does it contain? Trust (confidence in God i.e., the fear of the Lord), heart (everything that we are), our own understanding (our own foolishness), submit (exchange self-will for God’s will), path (the way that leads to our eternal destiny).
What could be simpler than these few words that form the foundation of a life lived with the right attitude, under the right guide, on the right way, to the right destination. If the Bible had nothing else to say, we would still have enough wisdom to get us to where we want to go.
What the Bible does have to say, which takes up the rest of Scripture, is both the history of humanity’s departure from God’s way, and God’s solution that reveals His true nature, His love that underpins His mercy and grace. He intervened, at His own expense, to rescue us from self-destruction and set us back onto the path of submission, obedience, and eternal life.
The trouble is, for many of us, that we try our own understanding first, fall into the deep hole of consequences with no way out, and then only, dragging with us a load of trouble, we turn to the Lord to rescue us.
When we submit to the Lord, we give up the power struggle between His will and ours, adopt His will as good and perfect, and give Him the right and freedom to choose our way for us. That’s the way to go for a destiny that will take us to the Father. We will spend our entire lives, if we don’t heed these words, learning and unlearning the folly of independence and the wisdom of doing things God’s way!