Trust with Your Heart, Not in It (Proverbs 3:5-6 [7])

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. ⁶In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. [⁷Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.] —Proverbs 3:5-6 [7]

Can you think of a piece of wisdom you've received that has stuck with you? Is there advice a grandparent, mentor, or loved one gave you that comes to mind, especially when life is difficult? Often when we hit a major milestone in life people share their personal wisdom with us—mistakes they’ve made and lessons they’ve learned—about how to navigate the rough and bumpy road of life.

In the book of Proverbs, Solomon is doing something similar. He’s writing to his son to teach him wisdom (1:2, 8). In Proverbs 3:5-7, we find a key insight of Solomon’s wisdom. Here he makes it clear with three big ideas that the path of wisdom requires us to abandon self-reliance and live in exclusive dependance on the Lord. 

Big Idea One: The Problem We Face

The greatest hurdle to godly wisdom is us–you and me. In verse 5 we read, “do not lean on your own understanding,” and in verse 7 Solomon says, “be not wise in your own eyes.” To say it bluntly, we are proud people who think too highly of our own thoughts and abilities. 

When faced with a problem, we instinctively ask, “What should I do?” or “How do I fix this?” We look to ourselves for the solution. We might ask Google, find a tutorial on YouTube, or bring ChatGPT into the conversation, but all of this outside help is simply our attempt to fix our problem or understand our situation by our own abilities. We look to ourselves to make sense of the problems we face.

Big Idea Two: The Path to Take

The wise man, however, doesn’t look inside himself for the answer. He doesn’t look around to the world for solutions, either. He looks up: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

Solomon’s second big idea is that we need to humble our hearts and place our trust solely in the Lord. He says this three different ways in these verses. 

In verse 5 he commands, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” This means find your hope and security in God alone (see also, 2 Kings 18:20-22; Isa 12:2; 26:4).

Then in verse 6 he says, “acknowledge” the Lord in all your ways. Acknowledging God isn’t the football player pointing into the sky after a touchdown. To “acknowledge” God means you consult Him; you go to Him first with every problem and situation you face.

And in verse 7 Solomon simply instructs, “fear the Lord.” Reliance upon God should be marked by a fear of Him. This is a fear that acknowledges His power and finds peace in His presence. It is to be like a child who joyfully rests in the arms of her father, knowing the strength he is capable of, but trusting his unchanging love for her. 

All of these commands highlight the fact that believers should have complete dependence upon the Lord. The text even stresses the exclusivity of our trust in God by saying it is with “all our heart” and “in all our ways.” To say it differently, believers are to be entirely and exclusively dependent upon the Lord (Charles Bridges, Proverbs, 23). 

Idea Three: The Promise He Made

When this is your posture toward the Lord, the text says, he “will make straight your paths.” The third big idea is that there is a promise here to the faithful.

Does this mean God will make sure we never face anything hard or that life will never have bumps in the road? No. The Lord Jesus trusted the Father with all of His heart, praying in the garden, “Not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). And yet He went to the cross. So this is not a transactional trust where we trust God in exchange for Him making life easy.

Instead, the promise is that God will work all things for your good (Romans 8:28). For those whose trust is in the Lord, we have the promise that His providence, provision, and grace is for our good at all times. 

When life is confusing and you can’t make sense of a strained relationship, heartbreaking headlines, or a personal crisis, you don’t need the wisdom of the world to have confidence. In the face of life’s roughest roads there is only one wise path leading to hope: trust in the Lord.

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For Reflection

1. Is there a situation in your life where you’re trusting in your own abilities and understanding? What worldly wisdom do you tend to trust when life is hard?

2. Sometimes people describe trusting the Lord in impersonal ways (“God will work it out”). How do the commands in these verses correct a nonchalant trust in the Lord?

3. How does the Lord’s promise to make straight the paths of the faithful draw your heart to trust him?

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Ben James is Associate Pastor of Chapelwood Baptist Church in Indianapolis, IN. He also serves on the Administrative Team of Plant Indy, working alongside churches in the central Indiana area to plant and revitalize churches. Ben is a graduate of Indianapolis Theological Seminary. He is married to Brentyn, and they have four wonderful children.