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.
– Proverbs 3:5–6
These are some of the most well-known verses in all of Proverbs, and part of me is tempted to pray according to a different verse. But these verses are so foundational. I find myself praying them all the time in my life over others’ lives. So let’s just soak it in almost like this is the first time you’re hearing it, and maybe it is the first time you’re hearing it, but even if you’ve heard it a thousand times, hear God saying Trust in me with all your heart. This is what it means to live by faith. It means to trust God with everything that’s happening in the world and everything that’s happening in our world, in our lives, with all our heart.
Proverbs 3:5–6 teaches us to acknowledge God’s wisdom in our lives.
Now to hold back in any way from trusting in God with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding, this is so foundational to faith, to realize that our understanding is not complete, that our understanding is not always accurate. We don’t see everything, and don’t know everything. We don’t perceive all that God is doing. So don’t lean on your own understanding and all your ways, acknowledge him.
Just think about what it looks like in your life today, all day long, to just acknowledge him in all your ways, at every moment, for the eyes of your heart to be attuned to God and his Spirit, a God consciousness to dominate your day and all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. He will lead you. He will guide you. That’s a promise. He will direct you in ways that are good for you.
He never directs us in ways that are ultimately bad for us. No, always, always, always, he will make straight our paths. Does it mean the path will be easy or smooth? No. But it does mean that it will ultimately be good. So let’s just pray these verses over our lives. God help us to trust in you with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding.
Proverbs 3:5–6 is foundational to living by faith.
Lord, help us to live by faith today in every way, with every facet of our lives and every facet of the world around us, to trust that you are sovereign, to trust that you are almighty and all good. God, help us to not live based on our understanding, but to live based on faith and trust in you and to acknowledge you in all of our ways. God, all throughout our day, help us to acknowledge you. Help us to be aware of your presence with us, of your leadership in our lives of your Word to us.
Help us to live today tethered to your Word and your Spirit acknowledging you in all our ways and we trust… We believe… We know you’ll make straight our paths. God, make straight our paths today. Lead us, guide us, direct us according to your Word and your Spirit as we trust in you. Oh God, we praise you for the security we find in these verses and for the hope we find in your promises to us, specifically your promise to make our paths straight and to prove worthy of the trust of all of our hearts.
Prayer for the Shanenawa People
Jesus, we praise you for making all of this possible through your love for us on the cross… And in your resurrection from the grave, and your sending your Holy Spirit into our hearts. God, we pray with your Holy Spirit in our hearts for those who don’t know you in this way… Who can’t walk in this security… God, specifically for the Shanenawa people of Brazil, only 700 of them in this remote Amazon tribe.
Oh God, please cause the good news of your trustworthiness and your grace and your love and the gospel to spread, we pray, to the Shanenawa people of Brazil. Help us, God, to spend our lives for the spread of the gospel to all the peoples of the world. Make straight our path so that the nations of the world… All the people, groups, and languages of the world might be reached with the good news of your love. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love in Proverbs 3:5–6. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
