Have you guys ever met someone that thought they had all the answers? I’m sure that most of us hate being around someone that thinks that. They’re opinion is the only way to look at it and they make sure that you know it. There are some really intelligent people out there and I don’t want to overlook that fact but we need to be able to recognize the limits of our own thinking.

I have a hard time with this. I try to convince myself that I have the best opinion in the room and that with enough time, I can figure out anything. I don’t like to admit that anyone is smarter than me and I don’t like to acknowledge that there are tons of things I don’t know. I don’t overtly try to come off as brilliant or something like that but it is certainly a motive that I sometimes have underneath the surface.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “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.”

This is one of those passages that is extremely easy to glance over and not really do anything about. The implication, of course, in this passage is that our understanding is not worthy of being leaned on. We are comparing apples and oranges when we compare trusting in our intelligence and trusting in God. His understanding is infinite and ours is finite.

One of the takeaways from this passage is that we ought to hold onto our own understanding lightly. We should be able to readily concede that the way we see things is not the only way. We should be able to admit freely that we could be wrong about a lot of things. This passage ought to position us as lifetime learners who have tons of humility because we trust in God and not ourselves.

Where is your trust? In God or in your own understanding? If it’s not in God then what are you going to do to move forward?