Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Proverbs 3:5-6 -- On Leaning on a Higher Wisdom

"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."
Proverbs 3:5-6


It's hard to "lean not" on our own understanding, because you know... we live there right now. :)  The verse after this asks us not to be wise in our own eyes, and I think that is generally the same idea... rather than trusting that we are wiser than everyone else, especially God, we should "consider [our]selves fools before God, and come down in the depths of humility" (2 Nephi 9:42).

Many of the problems we get into in life are rooted in pride... thinking that we know best, that we know how to handle things, that what we think is always the right thing, the best opinion, the answer to everything.  As we grow in wisdom I think we learn to listen more to others and to see things from different perspectives, and incorporate those perspectives into our decision-making.

Christ suffered for all of us, and gained a unique perspective where he can see things as we do... he actually knows what it is like to stand in our shoes, and to suffer our individual temptations.  He loved us enough to learn what it is like to be us, and his compassion is without equal, as is his advice, because unlike us, he knows the way out of our problems just as well as he knows what it is like to be in them.

Today, let's lean on God's understanding more than our own.  An honest look at our own lives will show us that we make some really bad calls, and Christ can help us with that, and teach us to do better, but first we have to be willing to hear him and not drown out the spirit with our own internal bellows of thoughtless selfishness.  Let's work on tuning in to a higher wisdom.

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