When the Lord said in Proverbs 3:5 & 6, "[5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. [6] In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths," He meant it. Here is how I know it.
On two occasions in my life, my neighbours' dogs have barked endlessly in the middle of the night. Eventually, I got fed up and phoned them in the middle of the night to ask them to silence their dogs. That was the end of both of the relationships. The last neighbour refused to speak to me for 7 years and found all kinds of silly things to complain about.
I then decided a barking dog is not worth a broken relationship, and the Holy Spirit gave me this brilliant plan. Every time the latter dog barked, I simply asked the Lord to give it peace and to remove the trigger. Within seconds, it stopped barking. This happened without fail.
We then moved home, and guess what? My neighbour has three barking dogs among the hundreds of others across our little town. Guess what else. God gives them peace instantly every time I pray, causing them to stop barking.
Wouldn't you say that the above counts as making my path straight, as Proverbs 3 puts it?
Another thing I love to do is to tell everyone about it, giving the Lord the glory. He loves glory, and every time you do it, He looks for the opportunity to help you again so you can give Him the glory publicly.
If we examine human nature and honestly reflect on ourselves, we can understand why verse 5 above was added. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 'All your heart' means with your entire heart, but it also means with everything your heart is concerned with. 'Leaning on your own understanding' often tells us we think it's petty. "Why would God concern Himself with irritating, barking dogs. He has much greater worries than those."
The Lord loves us so much that our concerns are His concerns. If barking dogs irritate me, they do Him as well, for He feels for me. To Him, empathy with His loved ones is part of His love for us. That is why He sent Jesus to empathise with our state.
The other thing is that good relationships between neighbours are important to Him. His Word refers to it all the time. So, if He could resolve my problem with barking dogs before I mess up the relationship with my neighbour in my attempt to solve it, He redeemed a relationship.
The barking dogs issue is only one practical example. There are many petty things in your life that the Lord wants to help you with if you just call on Him. Like the hijack attempt on my car. Men smashed my car windows, and in my fear, I only managed to cry, "Help Jesus!" The next moment, they ran away.
Faith is not something you say, it's something you do. What's the point in serving the Lord and reading the Bible if you don't apply it practically in your life? God said it, I believe and apply it, that settles it..
Take the Lord at His Word and believe Him.
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