While there are many very good reasons NOT to lean or rely on our own understanding, the most important is that God tells us not to! Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Even though that’s a whole lot easier said than done, it is something we all have to make a real effort to do while we stand on the power and promise of God’s Word for the restoration of our marriages. And one passage of scripture that helps make it easier, when we truly understand and believe it, is Isaiah 55:8-11, which says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

God’s ways are infinite, so it’s just not possible for us to understand His thoughts and ways when we ourselves are so finite. God operates in a divine realm of the supernatural and as humans, we are limited and bound in the natural realm. In that respect, we’re not unlike goldfish kept in a small fish bowl; their entire realm of knowledge, understanding and experience is restricted to the bowl in which they live. Yet there’s a whole wide universe beyond what they could possibly understand or relate to. As Romans 11:33-34 puts it; Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

That’s why it is so vitally important to learn to TRUST God and to put our hope and confidence in the power and promise of His Word, as we rely on His ability and faithfulness to carry it out. We even have God’s personal assurance that we CAN do that in Isaiah 46:10-11, which says I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. And Numbers 23:19 says God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? So putting all of our faith, hope and confidence in the power and promise of God’s Word is actually easy when we understand this about His nature and put it together with Proverbs 21:30, which assures us that There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.

Once we truly understand God’s power and faithfulness to carry out His Word and accept that we can’t ever fully understand His thoughts and His ways, the only thing left for us to do is our best to acknowledge Him in all we say and do. And that’s not possible without seriously studying His Word to learn everything we can about Him and His ways. For instance, we need to know that God opposes the proud, especially since most of us naturally tend to be controlled by our pride. Yet, 1 Peter 5:5-6 instructs Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

And it certainly takes a lot of humility to resist leaning on our own understanding, because we think we NEED to know what’s going to happen, what is happening, and even what might happen. But where’s the trust in that? There isn’t any, because the only reason we thing we have to know or need to know is because we think there is something we can do IF we know, and in almost all cases, that’s just not true. And as many of us can testify, most of the things we “worry” about never come to pass anyway, and so much of what we think we know or have “figured out” ends up being totally wrong. So besides being evidence that we don’t truly trust God and that we are not putting all of our hope, faith and confidence in the power and promise of His Word, leaning on our own understanding and trying to “figure everything out” on our own can get us in a lot of trouble. And that’s because we tend to act on what we think we know, whether it’s true or not, and unfortunately many of us also have testimonies of the devastating results caused by leaning on our own understanding.

The best way to illustrate the danger of leaning on our own understanding instead of trusting God with all of our hearts is to share some testimonies that prove it, which I’ve requested permission from two of the FAM Fellowship members with restored marriages to do.

First, soon after being served by her husband with legal separation papers, one of our ladies heard that her husband and the NCP (non-covenant person) had just been to Disneyland and she was VERY upset to say the least. She told me that he never did anything like that with his family, because he always said they couldn’t afford it, so she was very hurt and angry. Relying on Romans 8:28 and God’s promise to work everything out for our good when we love Him and are called according to His purpose, I suggested that a trip like that might just be what it took to make him realize that he couldn’t afford to keep a “kept woman!” We discussed it quite a bit for a few days, but I kept reminding her of god’s Word and that she had to put her trust in the Lord and NOT look at the circumstances; and on top of that, she didn’t even know for certain that this was true, even though she knew he was out of town that weekend. Even to this day, she doesn’t know what happened that weekend, but her husband immediately started talking about how broke he was and making a lot of comments about wanting someone to love him just for who he was and we never heard about the NCP after that! So look how much time and energy was wasted fretting over something that God so obviously used for good – if it even happened! They are now restored and God has given them a wonderfully blessed relationship and a totally NEW marriage! And she is constantly sharing encouraging praise reports of how the Lord is working in their relationship and what a total romantic her husband has become!

And only hours before her marriage was restored, one of our ladies came VERY close to TOTALLY blowing it, because she had let her mind run away with her and was reaching all sorts of wrong conclusions by leaning on her own understanding. She was cleaning out some stuff that her husband had just thrown in his car when he had to clean out his desk at work, and she found some OLD notes and cards from a woman at work. By the time she called me, she was on the warpath and her pride was in full control and humility wasn’t even a remote possibility. We even had harsh words as I tried to convince her how wrong her attitude was and how dangerous it was, but she would have NONE of that! She felt totally justified and entitled to demand an explanation, which seemed even more difficult to understand since she was the one who had been unfaithful in their marriage and had been standing for restoration for six years! I gave it my best, but when we finally hung up, I was not convinced that I had persuaded her to take a different course of action than her flesh wanted; I had suggested simply putting the things in a box and telling him that she had cleaned out his car for him, and that his stuff was in the box. Well, in the end, despite a terrible battle with the devil and her flesh, that is what she ended up doing; PRAISE THE LORD! And that very thing is what led to the restoration of their marriage! After she told her husband she had put his things in the box, he came to her a little later and wanted to explain the cards and notes, and it was through that conversation that he told her that he loved her and they were able to make a renewed commitment to their marriage! And there’s no doubt that if she had given in to her flesh and not humbled herself and trusted the Lord instead of leaning on her own understanding, the outcome would have been VERY different, because she would have made all sorts of accusations that were totally untrue! And what a blessing it is for all of us to see that they’re like newlyweds now, and how their marriage is so much better than ever before! And there’s no way of knowing if that would even be the case today if she had not recognized the dangers of leaning on her own understanding instead of trusting the Lord with all of her heart and acknowledging Him in all of her ways!

God just wants us to trust Him and rely on the power and promise of His Word and not our own understanding, and when we humble ourselves that way and deny the pride of our flesh, HE WILL LIFT US UP IN DUE TIME and we will most definitely be blessed and encouraged, because His Word will Never return without accomplishing the purpose for which He sent it!

Posted Friday, November 30th, 2007 at 7:29 pm in Seeds Of Faith.