Stars, Maps & Compasses

We turn in the Word of God to Proverbs 3:1-12. The Book of Proverbs is the inspired wisdom of a father being shared with his son.

"My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life in peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart, so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the firstfruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.

"My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."

We shall focus on Proverbs 3:5-6, familiar and so necessary: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

One of the pressing problems that you and I face as God's children is the problem of guidance. We have decisions to make, and the older we grow, the more important these decisions become and the more complex they become, and sometimes the more difficult they become. There are those who have the idea that when you have been saved for five, ten, fifteen, twenty years, that discerning the will of God in every matter becomes routine. And God doesn't want it to be routine.

As I read the lives of the great saints of God in the Bible—men like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David—and as I see the working of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the apostles, I discover that sometimes making decisions can be very, very difficult.

I remember hearing a very famous preacher say (and if I named him, all of you would know him), quote, "I had a very important decision to make and did not know what to do. I had written a book on how to discover the will of God, and I was almost afraid to say I had written it," unquote.

Let's talk today about this matter of guidance. I want us to focus on Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I suppose within the hearing of my voice there are different attitudes toward this matter of guidance. There are many people who pay no attention whatsoever to the guidance of God. These are the people that James wrote about over in James 4, when he said, "Go to now, you that say today and tomorrow we shall go into such a city, and we shall buy and get gains, stay there for a year, whereas you ought to say, 'If the Lord will, we shall do this or that.'"

There are multitudes of people who make decisions day in and day out without ever consulting the guidance of God. Now, I don't think that most of us fit into that category. If I speak to someone right now, you have to admit that's the way you live. I want to warn you: you'd better begin by trusting Christ as your savior. That's the place to start. That's the beginning of the will of God.

God is not willing that any should perish. God will have all men to be saved. The very first step for you to take in this matter of guidance is to give your heart to Christ. You say, "Well, I can live my own life." Certainly you can, and you can die your own death, and you can reap your own harvest. I would warn anyone who's trying to live apart from the guidance of God: you are heading for trouble.

Unfortunately, there are some Christians who consult God's guidance only when they're in trouble. God becomes sort of an information booth, a celestial lifeguard, and they paddle their canoe and they take care of all their work, and then a storm comes or something else happens, and they run to God. This is tragic. It's so tragic when people come to God for guidance only when they're in trouble.

Now, I think that most of us here, if not all of us, are interested in the guidance of God in our lives. Some dear senior saint may say, "Well, Pastor, I'm very close to those pearly gates, and I don't need much of the guidance of God." Oh yes you do, I tell you, my friend. If you have twenty-five years left to live, you can afford to make a few little mistakes. If you may only have five or four or six months, you can't afford to make one mistake.

The older you get, the more important it is that you get God's will and you follow it every single day. Don't say to me, "Well, I don't know about tomorrow, I don't care about tomorrow." Please care about tomorrow. Please care about the will of God. I can guarantee that it is more exciting, more wonderful, and richer to walk in God's will than not to. I don't care what age you are or where you are spiritually. I can guarantee that if we get out of God's will, we're going to suffer.

Now, let's look at this matter of guidance. I want to, first of all, point out to you that you and I need guidance and we have it. I like to think of this passage, Proverbs 3:5-6, in terms of three metaphors: the star, the map, and the compass. The star is the Word of God. We get our guidance from the Word of God. The compass is the Spirit of God. He directs us. The map is the Providence of God, the way he works things out in our circumstances.

Now, God never guides us contrary to his Word. God never guides us contrary to the leading of his Spirit, and God never guides us contrary to the circumstances that he permits. This is one reason why in the ministry today I've discovered more and more that the will of God and the leading of the Spirit is a mystery. It's not a mystery if you know the Word and if you walk with God.

Many times believers are looking for special signs. Now, I don't want to say that God hasn't given special signs, because he has, and he may do it again. But when you and I walk by signs, we're walking by sight and not by faith. But when you and I walk by the Word of God and are led by the Spirit of God, we're walking by faith and not by sight.

This is a faith life we live. It's a pilgrim life, and we don't always know where we're going, but we know whom we're following. And this, I think, is the important thing. God has given us his Word. The Spirit of God teaches us the Word, and he leads us as we fellowship with him. Then the Lord controls the circumstances of life that we ought to follow or not follow.

Now, let's get into this Proverbs 3:5-6 passage and let's analyze it. And I think it's going to encourage us and inspire us. First of all, I want you to notice a wonderful promise: "He shall direct thy paths." That's a promise—he shall direct thy paths. That's a wonderful promise. God says, "I'm going to be your guide. You're not going to walk in the dark. I'm going to direct your path."

You remember in Psalm 23:3, it says, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." In Psalm 37:23, it says, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way." God promises to guide us. He promised to guide Israel. He gave them a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He promises to guide you and me today in these dark and difficult days.

But not only is there a promise here in verse 6, but there are some very practical provisions in verse 5. Let me show them to you. Verse 5 says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

I want you to notice that there are three conditions for divine guidance, three provisions for divine guidance. God doesn't guide people automatically, you know. We have to meet certain conditions. And this promise in verse 6 is based on us meeting three conditions, and the conditions are in verse 5.

First of all, he says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." Then he says, "And lean not unto thine own understanding." Then he says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him." Three very simple and yet very profound statements. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him.

The first one has to do with the heart: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." The second has to do with the mind: "Lean not unto thine own understanding." The third has to do with the will: "In all thy ways acknowledge him." Heart, mind, will—the whole inner man is involved in the guidance of God.

Let me take these one at a time. First of all, he says we must have a believing heart. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." Now, that word "trust" means to roll over upon, to rest upon. It's the idea of giving God your burdens. You're relaxing on the Lord. You're giving him your burdens. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee," Psalm 55:22.

We are not to be burdened down Christians. We're supposed to give our burdens to the Lord, roll them over on him, rest upon him, trust in him. And the extent to which we trust the Lord is the extent to which he can guide us. Now, please keep in mind, when you and I trust the Lord, we're giving him all of our heart. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart."

We're not to have a divided heart. There's that word "all" again. It's very important. In verse 6 it says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him." In verse 5 it says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." God wants us to give him all of our heart. When you trust somebody halfway, you really don't trust them at all. When you trust somebody ninety-nine percent, you really don't trust them at all. God wants all of the heart.

You remember in the Song of Solomon 4:9 where the bridegroom says to the bride, "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." One of thine eyes—what does that mean? Well, it means you've won half my heart. You've given me half of your affection. But he says in the next phrase, "With one chain of thy neck." That's the whole heart.

God doesn't want half of our heart. God doesn't want part of our heart. God wants all of our heart. So when it says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart," it means we're to give him our whole heart, not part of it. And to the extent that we trust him, he can guide us.

Now, notice what he says next. He says, "And lean not unto thine own understanding." In other words, we're not only to have a believing heart, but we're also to have an enlightened mind. We're not to depend upon our own wisdom, our own understanding. We're to depend upon God's wisdom.

Now, I don't want to take verse 5 and 6 and make them contradict common sense, because God gave us common sense. God gave us experience. God gave us knowledge. And God gave us understanding, and we're to use all of this. But we're not to depend upon it. We're to depend upon God. We're to use the understanding God has given us in the light of God's Word and God's will.

You see, when we depend upon our own understanding, we're looking at things from a human point of view. But when we depend upon God, we're looking at things from God's point of view. And God sees the end from the beginning. God knows what lies around the corner. God knows what's best for us. And so we're not to lean unto our own understanding. We're to lean unto God. We're to trust him.

Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. God's ways are higher than our ways. And when we lean unto our own understanding, we're limiting ourselves to human wisdom. But when we trust in the Lord, we're opening ourselves up to divine wisdom.

So we're to have a believing heart—trust in the Lord with all thine heart. We're to have an enlightened mind—lean not unto thine own understanding. And then thirdly, we're to have an obedient will. Verse 6 says, "In all thy ways acknowledge him."

Now, what does it mean to acknowledge God? It means to recognize him. It means to give him his rightful place. It means to submit to him. It means to obey him. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Everything we do, every decision we make, every step we take, we're to acknowledge God. We're to recognize his Lordship. We're to submit to his will. We're to obey his Word.

And when we do this—when we trust in the Lord with all our heart, when we lean not unto our own understanding, when we acknowledge him in all our ways—then he shall direct our paths. That's the promise. That's the provision. That's the condition. And that's the result.

Now, let me show you something very interesting here. These three conditions involve the whole inner man. The heart, the mind, and the will. And when God has our heart, and when God has our mind, and when God has our will, then God has us. And when God has us, he can guide us.

But if we hold back any part of ourselves from God, then God cannot fully guide us. If we trust him with our heart but we lean unto our own understanding, he can't guide us. If we acknowledge him in some of our ways but not in all of our ways, he can't guide us. We've got to give him everything.

And this is what makes guidance so difficult for many Christians. They want to trust God with part of their life, but they want to run the rest of it themselves. They want to acknowledge God in some of their ways, but they want to do their own thing in other ways. And God says, "I can't guide you that way. I can only guide you when you give me all your heart, when you lean not unto your own understanding, when you acknowledge me in all your ways."

Now, I want you to notice something else here. When we meet these conditions, God gives us a promise: "He shall direct thy paths." Not "he might direct thy paths," not "he possibly will direct thy paths," but "he shall direct thy paths." That's a promise. That's a guarantee. That's something we can count on.

And notice what he promises to direct: "thy paths." Not "thy path" singular, but "thy paths" plural. Why? Because life is made up of many paths, many decisions, many choices. And God promises to direct us in all of them, if we meet the conditions.

So we have a wonderful promise here. We have practical provisions. And we have a personal responsibility. We're to trust in the Lord with all our heart. We're to lean not unto our own understanding. We're to acknowledge him in all our ways. And when we do, he will direct our paths.

Now, let me close by pointing out to you that obedience is very important. Look at verse 6 again: "In all thy ways acknowledge him." That word "all" is very important. It means everything. It means every area of our life. It means every decision we make. It means every step we take.

God doesn't want us to acknowledge him in some of our ways and then go our own way in other areas. He wants us to acknowledge him in all our ways. And if we persist in disobedience, if we persist in going our own way, then God will have to chasten us.

Look at verses 11 and 12: "My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth."

You see, God loves us too much to let us go our own way. If we're disobedient, he'll chasten us. He'll correct us. He'll discipline us. Not because he's angry with us, but because he loves us and wants what's best for us.

Disobedience always brings trouble. God has to chasten us. He says down in Proverbs 3, verses 11 and 12, "Whom the Lord loves he chastens." He says, "Suppose I don't want to do what God wants me to do." Then he'll get you to do it. First, he'll rebuke you. And then he will chase you. And then he will deal with us in love, even if it hurts.

You do this with your children. If a mother or father do not get the obedience of a son or daughter, they're raising a tyrant. And God wants my obedience. Now, if I'm disobedient, I can come and confess it and repent, and he'll forgive me and he'll get me started right again. But if I persist in my disobedience, "Oh, whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth." And I have tasted the chastening hand of God, and so have you. It's been good for us. While we were enduring it, it hurt, but afterward it was good for us.

An obedient will. Now, once again, there's a little word in verse 6 that disturbs us: "In all thy ways acknowledge him"—all. All. That means that nothing in my life is left outside of God. "Now, Lord, here's an area you can't touch. I can't guide you if you're going to trust that. If you can't trust that to me, I can't guide you, my friend."

What he's saying here is simply this: God wants all of my heart. God wants me to obey him in all of my ways. If in anything I do I can't acknowledge God, I shouldn't do it. If I persist in some practice, if I persist in some deed that cannot truly acknowledge God, he won't guide me.

These are the three conditions for the guidance of God. Did you notice that they are internal conditions, not external? Internal. He says to us, you've got to have a believing heart. Take all of your heart and entrust it to the Lord. He tells me I must have an enlightened mind—don't depend upon your own wisdom or experience. You use that in the light of the Word of God as the Spirit of God teaches you.

And he says I must have an obedient will. Now, this is all I have. This is the whole of the inner man: my heart, and my mind, and my will. That's all I have. And when I take the heart and the mind and the will and yield them to the Lord, and I give him my body the way Romans 12:1 tells me to do, he has all there is. And when he has all that there is of you, he will give you all that there is of him.

And if we seek for his guidance and give him all of our faith and acknowledge him in all of our deeds, he'll guide us in all of our paths.

Sometimes it takes patience to wait. Sometimes the Lord tests us by just waiting. Sometimes we wonder if God even cares. But I can guarantee from Proverbs 3:5-6 that God will guide in his paths. If he's not guiding, the fault is not his, the fault is mine.

The psalmist put it this way: "Thou wilt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." I can't beat that. We have all this and heaven too. We have God.

Blessed this life, it's God's glory. What more could we ask? The psalmist looked back and said, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life"—that's God's guidance—"and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

How sad it would be to come to the end of life and meet God face to face and discover we've been on a detour. How tragic it would be if we'd wasted our life. Can't go back and live with them again.

It behooves each one of us to start every day in fellowship with the Lord, with an open book, and say, "Oh God, I'm going to claim your promise. I want to have a believing heart, so use the Word of God to build my faith. I want to have an enlightened mind, so use the Word of God to teach me your truth. Renew my mind. And Father, I want to have an obedient will, and so may your Word get into me that I might do those things that please you."

Take these promises with you: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

May I close by once again saying to you who don't know the Savior: you can't claim this promise. You're walking on that dark road that leads to destruction. The promise you need to claim is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." That's the first step toward the guidance of God.

Let's pray.

We pray, our Father, that this Word, familiar as it may be, will take on fresh meaning as we practice it. I pray that any here today who need to come back to your will will do so. I pray, Heavenly Father, for those who have never been saved, that they might come and trust the Lord Jesus. Use the Word to do for us what will bring the most glory to your name. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.