“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths.” -Proverbs 3:5-6

This scripture became real for me when I was in college several years ago.  My first year in college was extremely challenging for me.  In addition to all the normal “identity crisis” challenges that people face when they are uprooted and attend college away from home, I eventually found out that my mom was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer.

In many ways, I felt like my life was spinning out of control.  At first, I tried to find peace the way the world finds peace.  I turned to partying, dating, lifting weights, and football.  I even tried to find equilibrium in my life by concentrating on class to get better grades.  In other words, I was trying to “numb” at times and seeking control at other times.

Slowly but surely, things began to unravel.  I was falling into a depression that I didn’t know how to climb out of.  As you probably guessed (since this is a church blog, haha) I eventually decided to turn my life over to Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

Almost immediately, peace rained down on me.  I can recall feeling a physical manifestation of warmth falling down on my body…like rain.

When we trust in the Lord Jesus with all of our heart, we are able to emotionally unload all of our burdens onto Him; that’s what I experienced and continue to experience today in Jesus.  The reality is that the burdens we face in life are often too much for us to bear.  And when we combine that with the weight of sin in our life, we are simply fighting a losing battle.  This is exactly where Satan wants us; he wants us to think we are being valiant as we endlessly strive to “make it.”  But in the end, we fall. 

This is where Jesus comes in.  As we look to Him… as we acknowledge Him in all our ways, Jesus most certainly will direct our paths and carry our burdens.  Matthew 11: 28-30 says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light and that He will give our weary souls rest!  But we must turn to Him and acknowledge Jesus as King and Lord of our lives if we want to experience this peace!  When we lay down our crowns before the true King, he is faithful to sustain us and give us lasting peace.

My wife and I have been making some challenging financial decisions lately. When I am not careful, I find myself going back into old patterns of trying to numb the uncertainty or grasp for control.  I think we are all prone to this if we are not grounded in scripture and renewing our minds on the truth of God’s word daily!  Once we are saved, our battles don’t just end!  To the contrary, they may even become more serious or intense!  As followers of Jesus we must acknowledge Him in all our ways, so that He can direct our paths and sustain us in our weakness.  When we walk this way, we don’t fall in the end.  We have the hope of Glory; the hope of running into the embrace of our heavenly Father on the last day!

  I’ll close with the lyrics to one of my favorite scripturally-based songs…

 “Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand.  When everything around me is shaken, I’ve never been more glad that I put my faith in Jesus.  ‘Cause He’s never let me down.  Hes faithful in every season, so why would He fail me now?  He won’t!” -Maverick City Music