Proverbs 3:5. 5Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
We’ve been focusing on Proverbs 3:5 for the past few days and today we will add verse six which is the conclusion of this proverb. Wisdom requires acknowledging God in all your ways. The word acknowledge is the same word as to know. We could interpret the phrase this way – know God in all your ways. But how? How can a person know God? And how can we know him in all our ways?
There’s a big difference between knowing about God and knowing God, isn’t there? You can know about a person without really knowing them. I know about George Washington, but I don’t know him. God doesn’t want us to simply know about him; he wants us to know him. To fear him. To love him. To understand him. To trust him. And he wants us to do this in all our ways.
Do you see everything you do, every situation, every circumstance, every decision, every trial and temptation, every success and failure as an opportunity to know God better? To gain an experience of the holy? To gain intimacy with God, living face to face with him? Contrary to how many of us act, life is not divided into spiritual experiences and secular experiences. No, the truth is that everything is spiritual. Everything is an opportunity to know God at the deepest of levels. The knowledge of God through Christ can come in the home or office as much as it can in the church. The way of the cross in known as much in the kitchen as it is in the classroom. Walking by the Spirit of Christ happens down the neighborhood street and down the aisle. The life of Christ forms us as much on the living room couch as it does in the church pew. Jesus is transforming us into his likeness in and through all our ways.
The indwelling life of Christ in us makes this proverb not only a possibility but an ongoing reality. Because Christ is with us in all we do, we can know God through all we do. Everything we do, every experience we have is an opportunity to know Christ better. And not just know about him but to know him in sharing his life and his death. This is why Paul would say these words:
Philippians 3:10. that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Knowing Christ through suffering. Becoming like him in his death. Experiencing the power of the resurrection.
These are wisdom’s ultimate goals. This is the straight path. The path to becoming like Jesus. When we see that our suffering is his suffering and that his death is our death. When we can see that his resurrection power is made visible only as we embrace the cross. Only when we are not afraid to bleed. To grow weaker. To set aside all our rights and privileges. To make every gain a loss and every loss a gain.
You: Do you know about God, or do you know God?
You in Christ: There is no sacred-secular divide. All of life is a path to knowing God.Is this how you see your life? Do you see all your ways as worship?
Christ in you: How can you practice knowing God in Christ’s suffering through all that you do today?
Pray: Father, you are always with me, always knowing me. Help me to know you more and more through Jesus Christ’s indwelling life each day. Amen.
To Live is Christ 