Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Prov. 3:5,6)
This is one of the earlier verses I learned and memorized as a Christian. It is a good verse to know when life seems contrary to the way you think God should be handling things. Haven't we all done that from time to time? Haven't we all decided for one thing or another what we think God should do, or should have done differently? Come to think of it; Prayer is usually our response to what we think God should do at least, or even our complaint as to what we think He should have done either for us, or with someone else.
I must confess that my petition before the Lord right now is for the weather conditions for tomorrow to be favorable to my being able to get another flight lesson done. It was the most perfect day today of just about any flying day I have had since I started. The air was smooth as glass, calm winds, and sunny skies. It was the first time in 4 weeks that I have flown with my regular instructor today, and it was my chance to show him how I progressed since he was gone - everything went very well! He was pleased, and so was I. Tomorrow is iffy for the weather conditions, and so if I was running the universe, I would at least make the airspace in the Lock Haven Pa. area perfect flying conditions, especially for tomorrow!
So, how does that line up with the opening verse in this post? Not very well it seems. However, that being said, there are a few experiences I have had over the many years of walking with the Lord on this "Human Journey" that have taught me a few things, and some of which I hope to share as I continue posting.
If I remember the quote I am thinking of properly, it goes like this: "Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions." One sure fire way of avoiding the bad decisions is to follow the directions in the verse from Proverbs. "Trust in the Lord with ALL of your heart, and don't lean on your own understanding.." If there is ever a good time to meditate on something, that would be it right there. Go ahead, I will wait.....
..... Can you stand another aviation comparison? This comparison is one in which I am only familiar with because of stories from other pilots, not my own personal experience....yet. It has to do with flying the airplane using only instruments. It is what you would need to do if you were to fly into the clouds, and could not rely on what you see outside the cockpit. At my level of training, flying into clouds is NOT an option. To fly visually is called VFR (visual flight rules) and to fly by instruments is called IFR (instrument flight rules). Okay, I have talked to many pilots over the years, and the one thing they all agree on, is that when they are flying IFR, their senses tell them completely different information than their instruments are telling them! The instruments are telling them that they are flying straight and level, but their senses are telling them that they are turning or upside down! The problem is that if they do not trust in what their instruments are telling them, and rely on their senses instead, they will end up in serious and even fatal consequences!
Can you see the comparison? If you trust in your what your own senses; what your own emotions; what your own natural man is telling you to do in any particular situation, instead of trusting in the Lord with ALL of your heart, and not leaning on your own understanding, then there will be consequences to your actions. Not necessarily fatal, but indeed an experience you can use to make good decisions the next time!
Have you noticed yet in that verse that it specifically says that God will direct your paths! It does not say that God will direct YOU. It says that He will direct your paths. Your path really never changes, just the direction your path is going, and as long as you stay on the path He has placed you on, then you will end up wherever that path takes you that He is directing.
This is one proof for me to answer the question about being in the will of God. People talk about being out of the will of God, but I do not believe that is possible! No not ever! Okay, say some, then what about His perfect will, or permissive will, or acceptable will? That is not a biblical doctrine, it is a mis-understanding of what that verse means. (Rom. 12:2b) "...that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." There is only ONE will of God, and it is ALWAYS good acceptable and perfect!
Okay; I hear you saying; what about all the times when you go against what you know to be the will of God on purpose for whatever reason? What about all of the times you don't trust in the Lord and you do lean on your own understanding anyway? The fact is that no matter what, it does not change the fact that God's perfect will is still being accomplished! I am fully convinced that even during the times when I am knowingly or unknowingly doing something where I can agree with that Frank Sinatra song, "I did it my way!" the fact still remains that I am still following the path that God is directing, which happens to be in accordance to His perfect will!!
What? Look... I may have to take another post to complete these thoughts.. but I will repeat what I said earlier in this post. Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions. What we often times know are bad decisions, that go against what we think the will of God is, I believe that God has purposed it to teach us things we could not have learned any other way!
I will end with this final thought, and discuss it more in a future post... but I am fully convinced that even when we find out years later that we were wrong about something, our being wrong is still part of God's perfect purpose and will for our life. Said another way; God will let you believe what He wants you to believe (even if it is wrong), in order to bring you to the place He wants you to go! I can say I have learned a lot more from things I did wrong, than from things I did right!
No matter how it appears otherwise. No matter what your senses are telling you differently. It is always a good idea to remember to Trust in the Lord as He is Directing Your Path.
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