Acknowledge Him: Proverbs 3:6, part 3

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Let’s continue this swimming pool story with a part-3. Let’s say a child wants to learn how to swim but is rather afraid. The child doesn’t like how loud the other kids in the pool are, doesn’t like how they splash each other, doesn’t trust how they call to him or her to get in the water already. But dad is in the water, patiently promising that if the child jumps in, dad will catch him or her, will hold on to him or her, won’t let go, and will make it safe and fun. “Don’t look at them. Look at me.”

So now the child has to slow it all down and focus on the one who is trustworthy. The other kids are calling the child’s name, but they have to be blocked out so that the child can hear his or her name in the voice of the father only. Slow it down. Focus on dad. Only his voice. Look at his arms. See how much taller than the water he is. Remember how he carries you to bed, picks you up all the time. See how unafraid he is. Focus on dad. And jump!

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (ESV).

God wants you to focus on him. Is there any aspect of your life that is hard to entrust to God? What distractions are crowding out his voice to you? What things are asserting their fearfulness to you? Go ahead and tell him; pray it out loud. Tell him exactly what you compare him to. And then listen to him. Listen to his word in the Bible. God is waiting for you, in the pool, while you stand on the deck. He is waiting for you to acknowledge him in all those things.

God is the one who decides if a person is forgiven or unforgiven. He bases his decision on whether that person trusts in his Son Jesus to be the offering we need to satisfy justice for sin. If you can trust in Jesus, who died on the cross for you and rose the third day, then God will decide, in your case, that justice has been served and that you are forgiven. That’s what the Bible teaches.

So if God can decide all that, issues of eternal guilt and forgiveness, can he not also decide other things, like how to keep you safe, to send you out with purpose, to protect those you love, to make things work together for a greater good that you will see one day and agree with? Can you slow it all down and focus on God’s voice? Listen only to him? In everything? He is waiting for you!