Trusting God is foundational to the Christian faith. If you’ve been a believer for any length of time, you’ve no doubt already been exhorted to trust the Lord at some point or through some circumstances. When we begin to memorize texts of Scripture, some of the most common are texts that have to do with trusting God. As a young boy, I remember three texts that I committed to memory were Matthew 6:33, Romans 8:28, and Proverbs 3:5-6. And ironically all of them have to do with trusting God. The first tells us that we can trust God to provide for our needs as we seek his kingdom. The second tells us that we can trust God to work all things together for good. And the last tells actually exhorts us to trust God, encouraging us by the truth that he will make our paths straight. Trusting God is part and parcel with what it means to live as a Christian.
However, trusting God throughout life can be challenging, can’t it? And real life tells us that trusting God is not some simple exhortation that can be thrown around in conversation, yet is one that is desperately needed in our most troubling times. D. A. Carson writes in his book How Long, O Lord?, “A colleague of mine and his wife have been serving as foster parents for more than a decade. At one point they took in twin boys, just eighteen months old. This was the twins’ sixth home. They were judged irremediably impaired (wrongly, as it turned out). They had been battered for crying in at least two homes, with the result that when they went to bed the first night in their new home they wept themselves to sleep without making a sound.”1
Now as that couple peeked in their head in the boys’ room to witness the heartbreaking scene of these silent tears streaming down their faces, I have no doubt that as they themselves went to bed that night, one of the things they were faced with (whether they asked the question aloud or not) was, “What does it look like to trust God as we raise these boys?”
And we could all insert our own stories or settings, couldn’t we? What does it mean to trust God when you’re raising your children without a spouse in the home? What does it mean to trust God when you’ve received news that you’re going to lose your job next month? What does it mean to trust God when you come to college, are outside from under your parents’ roof, and are making decisions more independently than you have your whole life? What does it mean to trust God in your or my specific situation? After all, it’s an easy exhortation to give, but we should take time to think through for a bit what it means to trust God. What does it mean? What does it entail?
I think Proverbs 3 helps us answer that question. I think the main emphasis of this chapter is that we are to trust the Lord. I think that is a fair heading for the chapter as a whole: “Trust the Lord.” But the nice thing is that Proverbs 3 does not merely give us an exhortation to trust the Lord – thought it does that; see 3:5 – it also spells out a bit for us what it means to trust the Lord. Therefore, this morning, I want to note for us a few things from this chapter about what it looks like to trust the Lord as we walk through life.
So, what does it look like to trust God? First, it means that . . .
Now, the fact that trusting someone is tied to not trying to be wiser than that person is just a logical reality. Consider for a second a scene that most all of us have witnessed – a dad trying to get his young child to jump into the pool so that the dad can catch him. I’m sure I have witnessed this myself and I’m certain I was on the child’s side of this equation at some point, but in my most recent experience I’ve been on the dad’s side of this picture, trying to convince my youngest son to jump in.
And if you’ve been there, you know how it works. I scoot back a bit from the edge of the pool, tell my son to run and jump, and I promise him that I’ll catch him. Then, as if this template is just imprinted on his brain, he tells me that he knows a better way to work this. This has actually happened with every one of my children whether boy or girl or born in West Tennessee or Samara, Russia. The child begins telling you that you should scoot closer, he should not jump very far, and you should go ahead and hold their hands as they jump and not wait until some point after the jump has begun. And every time I explain that it’s actually harder to pull this off if I hold his hands, and I promise that I’ll catch him. Then, we go back and forth with me pleading for the child to trust me and my child telling me that he knows how this can be done more safely.
Do you see, then, the two sides there? I’m saying, “Trust me.” He’s saying, “No, because I know better than you.” That is, though my children have never said it to me in these terms, at that point where they’re negotiating how this jump is going to go, they’re saying, “Dad, the reason I’m not going to trust you is because I’m wiser than you. I know a better way.”
So, it’s just a good point to make in a logical arguing about trusting to tell someone, if you’re going to trust God, it means that you need to refuse to try to be wiser than God. But I don’t make this point because it just makes logical sense to me. I make this point because it’s right there in the text. Look at 3:5-8, and note that he contrasts trusting in the Lord with leaning on your own understanding and fearing the Lord with being wise in your own eyes. The author writes, “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. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.”
You see, trusting the Lord means that you’re willing to accept what he says as true, reliable, and good for you. You act on it. And you do not say, “I know the Scripture says . . . but . . .” So, trusting God means that we first stop trying to be wiser than God or think that we know better than him. Trusting God and not relying on your own wisdom obviously means that we do what he says, as we read in verses 1-2, “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments, for length of day sand years of life and peace they will add to you.
But there are two specifics given in these verses that I want to note as well. As we seek to trust the Lord and not rely on our own wisdom, it will involve us seeking to be holy as the Lord is holy. Note how the author writes in verses 3-4, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”
The father exhorts his son to be characterized by steadfast love and faithfulness. The imagery of binding them around your neck and writing them on your heart is imagery that suggests that we make them part of who we are and make sure they characterize us in all that we do.
But, if we’re careful readers of our Bibles to this point, these two characteristics – steadfast love and faithfulness – will sound familiar to us. We’ve seen these words before in a very important setting. One key place we hear these words together is in Exodus 34:6, the text where God reveals his very name and nature to Moses. There, the Lord passes before Moses and declares, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Now, in Proverbs 3:3, the father exhorts his son, “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.”
So, what are we to see here? It seems that we’re to see that we are to seek to be conformed to the image of our Lord. We are to be holy as our God is holy. We are to seek to characterize ourselves with those moral characteristics that are true of God so that we accurately picture who he is to the world.
What this means is that whatever situation we’re in throughout our lives, we can always know that it is God’s wisdom that we become more conformed to the imager of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is always God’s will. There are a number of circumstances where God’s will is not clear to us. We don’t know if we’ll be married, be healed of this sickness, get a job tomorrow, or what have you. But in all those circumstances (and any other) we can always know that it is the Lord’s will that we grow in holiness as our Lord is holy, that we are characterized by steadfast love and faithfulness as is our God.
And we also see that not trying to be wiser than God but trusting him means that we honor the Lord with our money. Note verses 9-10: “Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.”
One of the ways we demonstrate that we’re not trying to be wiser than God but trusting him is that we give our money toward the Lord’s purposes. Perhaps our money, more than anything, demonstrates our trust in the Lord. If we want to hold on to it tightly, it’s because we are not willing to trust the Lord to meet our needs, to fulfill his promises should we let it go. You see, the Lord loves a cheerful giver, not someone who gives begrudgingly or under compulsion but one who gives cheerfully. But why would you give cheerfully? After all, I don’t know how many of us spend money and love it. None of us would complain if a business said that they wanted to give us something for a great discount or free. We don’t go to buy and suit on clearance and say, “Wow, I was really hoping to spend more; this seventy percent off sale is quite discouraging to me.” So, what kind of person simply gives away money and does it cheerfully? The answer is the kind of person who gives money toward the Lord’s purposes and does it cheerfully and bountifully is the kind of person who know God, loves God, and trusts God.
Furthermore, there are promises that the Lord blesses the one who gives generously and cheerfully. In the Old Covenant the promises are like that which we see in verse 10. The Lord was going to bless them with riches. In the New Covenant, the idea is not necessarily contrary to that, but Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9 that the Lord gives us more so that we might continue to give generously, cheerfully, and in a way that causes others to give glory to God.
So, the first way we trust God is by refusing to try to be wiser than him but trusting him in our obedience, pursuit of holiness, and with our wealth. Second, trusting the Lord means that . . .
We see this in verses 11-12. There, we read, “My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”
Now, when we think of discipline, we usually think of it coming in the form of us doing something wrong, the Lord disciplining us, and then we repent. And that is a common way, I think, that we see the Lord’s discipline. The Lord’s discipline will indeed come to us sometimes because we’ve sinned and are not repenting.
But that’s not the only way the Bible speaks of the Lord’s discipline. The other means the Lord uses is simply the suffering and struggles of life and not simply because you’ve sinned and are not wiling to repent. That is, sometimes the Lord allows us to walk through suffering, and he intends that this suffering will help us to grow in holiness. But this suffering of life is itself the Lord’s discipline. And is seems that this is much of what the author has in mind here in Proverbs 3:11-12.
The reason I feel confident in saying that is because of the way the author of Hebrews picks up these verses in Hebrews 12:3-11. There, we read: “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.’ It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
You see, the author of Hebrews is simply talking about the suffering that comes in life, and he says, “This is the Lord’s discipline, meant for our good, that we might bear the fruit of righteousness.” And he wants us to know that the reason the Lord allows such discipline in our lives is because he loves us.
Now, we could despise the Lord’s discipline, right? If the father in Proverbs 3:11 warns us against despising God’s wisdom, then surely it is possible to despise it. Of course we can. Didn’t Job’s wife tell him, “Curse God and die”? She was telling him to despise the Lord’s discipline.
But that’s not the only way to respond to such discipline. Job showed us that. He says in Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” As we face the Lord’s discipline through the struggles and sufferings of life, the most appropriate way to respond is to cling to the Lord, rest in him, flee to him, and cry out to him. Those are all ways of saying, trust him. We trust God when we do not constantly murmur and complain against him in our sufferings but rather cry out to him, seek his comfort and care, and submit ourselves in trust to him.
Third, trusting God means that . . .
Beginning in verse 13 and running through verse 20, we have something like a hymn to wisdom. The father declares here that wisdom is a blessing and worth pursuing. In fact, wisdom is better than having silver, gold, or precious jewels, for wisdom gives long life, riches and honor, peace, and ultimately eternal life (I think that’s implied wit the reference to the tree of life in v. 18).
Now, by telling us how valuable wisdom it, the text is implying that we should pursue wisdom and diligently seek to grow in wisdom. Furthermore, it’s true that there is wisdom that we cannot have apart from the Lord answering our prayers. It’s not as if it’s just hiding over there behind a rock. That’s why James encourages his readers that if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask God. But it would be wrong of us to think as we read through the book of Proverbs that wisdom is not at our fingertips. Rather, the book of Proverbs presents itself to us as wisdom. That’s why the book begins in 1:1-7 telling us that by reading this book and obeying it we will gain wisdom.
And it’s fair to say that what is true of Proverbs in this sense is true of the Bible as a whole. Therefore, it is hard to hear an implicit exhortation in verses 13-20 that we should pursue wisdom as the most precious of treasures and not feel an exhortation to read, learn, and memorize God’s Word.
I mentioned this last week, so I won’t dwell on it too long today. But if you want to have wisdom, then you should seek to make yourself a master of God’s Word. You cannot read, learn, or memorize the Bible too much.
A few years ago, there were some who were saying that we needed to be careful that we weren’t idolizing the Bible. My exhortation, however, would be to try to make it your goal to treasure God’s Word too much. Don’t worry, I don’t think we have to worry about treasuring it too highly, for it is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with the Word of the Lord.
Beginning in verse 21, the father begins to tell his son some more of the blessings of wisdom. The one who obeys the Lord will rest, confident in the Lord, at night. The Lord will watch over him. But then he provides more detail of what it means to trust the Lord as he tells his son, starting in verse 27 and going through the end of the chapter that trusting the Lord will be demonstrated in our lives as we love our neighbors and do not envy those who exalt themselves.
He says in verses 27-30, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, ‘Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it’—when you have it with you. Do not plan evil against your neighbor, who dwells trustingly beside you. Do not contend with a man for no reason, when he has done you no harm.”
In short, we might summarize these verses by saying that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves. The command to love others as ourselves requires that we trust the Lord. After all, there can be a mentality that says, “If I care for others, who is going to care for me?” Consider, for example, that you have a harvest of food and your brother is hungry. Verses 27-28 tell us that we should give to him and not withhold good from him when it is in our power to do him good. However, we might say, “But I do not know who will watch out for me.”
The answer, however, was in verses 21-26. The Lord sees you. He is the one watching over you. You can pour yourself into loving others and know that the Lord will turn his eye toward watching over you.
This is also why you do not have to envy the one who seeks his gain through violence, exalting himself over others. The Lord’s curse is on him, which his blessing is on you (v. 33). He is scornful toward the scorners, but he will give you grace and honor (vv. 34-35).
Therefore, let’s ask ourselves, “Are we demonstrating that we trust the Lord?” Do we try to be wiser than God? Do we trust him with our wealth? Are we despising God’s discipline or trusting him, knowing that loves us and is working out the fruit of righteousness in our lives? Are we giving ourselves to knowing the Word, treating it as the most precious of treasures? And are we showing our trust in the Lord in our willingness to pour ourselves out for others, loving them, serving them, caring for them, and generally loving them as we love ourselves?
If you are not a believer this morning, are you willing to turn from yourself and your and trust in Christ today? Becoming a believer requires this relinquishing of self. You must say, “I’ll not look to my abilities, my good works, and what I can do to be right with God, but what he has done, and I’ll trust him.” Trusting God and not ourselves is counter to the principles of thought along which all the world works.
If you are a believer, are you sinking back into trusting yourself more than the Lord? Are you trying to be wiser than God even in seeking forgiveness, or are you trusting the finished work of Christ as sufficient for your salvation? Let us proclaim together our trust in the Lord this morning, if indeed our trust is in him, as we come to the table. Amen.