As I said last week, the book of Proverbs was written by Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived. I remind you of that because of what he wrote in verse five of chapter 3: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Here’s a guy who could very easily be tempted to lean on his own understanding, but he had evidently learned that it’s better to “trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

Let’s face it, sometimes it is *so* hard to trust God with our whole heart. Sometimes the bills pile up and we don’t see any way out. Sometimes we’re misunderstood or mistreated. Tragedy strikes us or our family. We lose our job. Bad things happen, even to good people. And at those times we look up and say, “God. Are you there? Do you see what I’m going through? Why don’t you help me? I need you *now*!” And sometimes it seems as though our prayers are not heard. It seems as if God has turned a deaf ear.

Those are the times when we tend to lean on our understanding. We take the wheel. I mean, after all something’s got to be done!

We’ve all been through times like that, haven’t we? But it’s when life gets hard that God is giving us an opportunity to grow. Hang in there. Remember the promises of God. They don’t change, and He never fails. Never. Even in the darkest times of my son’s illness a couple of years ago, my wife and I never gave up on God. Slowly but surely, Steven recovered. At every turn, we prayed and we praised.

I don’t know what you’re going through right now, and I don’t know what God’s plan is for you, but I do know that trusting in Him with all your heart is infinitely better than leaning on your own understanding.