Proverbs 3:5 imparts wisdom to its readers: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” There is a big difference between trusting in the Lord and trusting other persons or things. Our trust is not in angels or people or rituals or methodologies but in the Lord alone. And, as the writer of the proverb points out, our trust is not in our own understanding.
To trust in the Lord with all our heart, we must wholly rely upon God’s promises, wisdom, power, and love to help us in every circumstance. Human understanding is subject to error. God, on the other hand, sees and understands all. He is the One we can lean on and trust. We should trust the Lord with all our heart because human understanding is tainted by sin, limited wisdom, impulsive assumptions, and faulty emotions. We are not always right. Proverbs 14:12 reminds us of this: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (emphasis added). Sin taints our understanding and leads us to destruction (Ephesians 4:17-18). “Our knowledge is partial and incomplete” (1 Corinthians 13:9, NLT). Should we base our understanding on what is partial, sinful, or destructive? Or should we trust in the God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise, loving, and has good plans to guide, satisfy, and establish us (see Isaiah 58:11)?