Wisdom Doesn’t Have to Know It All

Today’s passage is one of my favorites. It teaches us to trust God and not to rely on our own understanding, but to submit to God in all of our ways. If we follow this wise advice, He will direct and make straight the path before us.

Proverbs 3:7 encourages us not to be wise in our own eyes. This verse confronts us with the need for humility. We often think we can handle situations on our own because we think we are far more capable than we are. But God knows that apart from Him we can do nothing. We can do all things through Him, but nothing without Him (Philippians 5:13; John 15:5). God’s Word advises us not to think more highly of ourselves than we should (Romans 12:3). If we follow this instruction and humbly depend on the Lord in all situations, we will avoid a great deal of misery and experience His blessings in our lives.

When we lean on our own understanding, we often fall into reasoning—rotating our minds around and around a subject, wanting to know who, what, when, where, and how. Reasoning causes most of us a lot of frustration and confusion. I know that the more I reason, the more confused I become. The rule I have for myself concerning reasoning is that I am free to think about a situation, ponder it, and ask God to reveal hidden things to me, but when I am getting no answer from God and becoming confused instead, then it is time to cast my care on God and be satisfied not knowing the answers I’ve tried to figure out.

If God withholds knowledge from us, He has a good reason for doing so. If nothing else, His silence serves as an opportunity for us to grow in learning to trust Him. I was once the type of person who wanted to know every reason behind everything. I eventually realized I was addicted to reasoning. I could not settle down and be content unless I thought I had all the answers. Eventually, God’s grace set me free from the drive to know so much. I discovered that sometimes the less I know, the happier I am. Trusting God and not leaning on my own understanding is the best stress reliever I know of.

Ask yourself: Which part(s) of my life am I obsessed with planning or trying to understand?