Trust In the Lord

One evening several years ago while eating dinner at a Subway, my youngest son asked me this question: “What do you think is the single most important scripture in the Bible?” Well, I laughed and said, “That’s a pretty broad question.” But right after that a scripture did come to mind, and it was this: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). I told him the verse and I also said that I couldn’t necessarily say that it is THE most important verse in the Bible. But the holy Ghost began to fuel me as I expounded on the significance of that scripture, and when I was finished I felt that it COULD be the most integral verse in the Bible. In retrospect there have been many times since then that I have felt exactly the same way about that verse. So let’s look at a few passages of scripture that go hand in hand with that verse, and see that it is indeed very significant to the faith of every true believer in Christ. “Labour not to be rich: CEASE FROM THINE OWN WISDOM. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (Prov. 23:4,5). Note and keep in mind how Solomon equated focusing on money with following after one’s own wisdom. We will come back to this and finish the article on a powerfully synonymous note. “Be not wise in thine OWN EYES: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Prov. 3:7). You may notice that this verse is only two verses after our text scripture, and I would also like for you to see what is right after the verse just quoted: “Honour 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” (Prov. 3:9,10). Here we see that fearing God and being not wise in [our] own eyes, or our own understanding, is equated with honoring God with our [worldly] substance and thereby being blessed in our earthly state. “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent IN THEIR OWN SIGHT” (Isa. 5:21). Now hear what was also addressed in this very same rebuke by the mighty prophet Isaiah: “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!” (Isa. 5:8) Those who were “wise in their own eyes” were the same people that were buying up all the property everywhere so that they could be “placed alone in the midst of the earth."

So again we see that leaning on one’s own understanding and being wise in one’s own eyes is synonymous in the Bible with striving after monetary substance and the worldly state of things. Now let’s hear Jesus on the same matter: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. THEREFORE I say unto you, TAKE NO THOUGHT [lean not on your own understanding] for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? … But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore NO THOUGHT [of your own understanding] for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” (Mat. 6:24,25,33,34). What we see here is that immediately after saying that we cannot serve God and money at the same time, Jesus admonishes us to not lean on our own understanding about how we are going to work out our worldly situations. He also gives us the solution to the whole matter, which is to put top priority and focus on seeking God’s kingdom and righteousness, with which comes the promise of being sufficiently taken care of in all things that pertain to this life. The only righteousness that we can attain to is by and through real faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:21,22; Gal. 3:7-9; Philip. 3:9). We can easily and rightly substitute the word ‘trust’ for ‘faith,’ and readily see the correlation in the preceding passage; which correlation is that being ‘of faith,’ and being money minded cannot coexist. Remember what I said about finishing with a bang? Well here it is: “Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (I Tim. 6:5). The apostle Paul was saying here that the ministers who equate having a lot of money and worldly gain with being ‘of faith,’ are destitute of the truth. Listen to what he goes on to say: “But godliness with contentment IS great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the LOVE OF MONEY is the root of ALL EVIL: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and FOLLOW AFTER RIGHTEOUSNESS, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness” (I Tim. 6:6-11).

If you need to, go back up and read again the passage from Matthew 6 and you will see that the apostle Paul was saying the EXACT same thing as Jesus. Also if you substitute the word ‘trust’ for the word ‘love’ in the verse about the love of money, you will see the true definition of what the “love of money” is. Here is what it comes down to, and it takes us back to our text verse from Proverbs 3:5: If we are NOT trusting FULLY in God from our hearts in all things, we are going to “lean on our own understanding,” and it is going to be mainly about how to get by in this life; because this life is where we are at and what we are dealing with daily. So the “love of money” is actually the failure to trust fully in God, and that failure throws us into a tailspin of ‘figuring out’ how to make more money so that we can be taken care of in our earthly state. In other words, if we fail to trust fully in God for all things, money becomes a god to us, and our own understanding becomes our guide rather than “the Spirit of truth” that Jesus sent back to us for that purpose (Jn. 16:13). It is certain that following our own understanding cannot take us anywhere good spiritually. That is how and why “the love of money is the root of all evil.” Therefore we would be wise to heed the instruction of the apostle Paul in this matter: “Be careful [worrisome] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philip. 4:6,7). If we can follow the plain truth of trusting fully in God and NOT follow our own understanding, we will be prepared for every eventuality, like Elijah of old who was fed by ravens and drank from a brook in time of famine (I Kin. 17:1-4). So in light of the scriptural realities that we have seen here, I would say that Proverbs 3:5 certainly qualifies to possibly be the most important verse of scripture in the entire Bible. Truly I believe that it was God’s Spirit that brought it to my mind when my son asked me that question. Considering the eternal weight that this truth carries, anyone who has read this article should read it several more times along with the referenced scriptures that aren’t directly quoted here. I assure you that much depends on understanding and believing the simplistic truth contained here. Amen.