Leaning On His Strength - The One Year Praying the Promises of God

Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil. Then you will have healing for your body and strength for your bones.

Proverbs 3:7-8

God calls us to an obedience that will position us for the promise. He wants to protect us from the consequences of acting on our own, short-sighted opinions, which are dependent on only what we can observe and interpret. We have access to a wisdom that can see far beyond what we can see. We can tap into the wisdom of God, who can do far more than we can ever imagine. He wants us to act on his best idea, not on our own.

Earlier, the writer had put it this way: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, NIV). The words bring an image to mind: I’m coming to the end of an arduous hike. I’m tired, hot, thirsty. My shaking leg muscles won’t hold me up for one more step. Just then, I come upon a boulder. It’s cool and strong and immovable. What do I do? I lean. I lean all my weakness into its strength. Its coolness overcomes my heat. It holds me up when I can’t stand on my own. I receive from the boulder what I cannot provide for myself. I just lean.

Trying to navigate life in our own strength, depending on our own wisdom, wears us down. The stress and uncertainty even take a physical toll because God has created us so that all the parts work together—physical, spiritual, emotional.

We learn to trust the Lord and his ways so completely that the only thing we fear is walking outside his ways. His ways are not restriction, but protection. Even when our own perceptions seem to point us in another direction, the way of full and abundant life lies in obedience. Don’t lean on your own wisdom—fenced in by small thoughts and myopic vision. Lean all your weight on him, and let him carry you into his huge, unimaginable plan for your life. He promises that he will do just that.

Whenever I’m tired, discouraged, afraid, hopeless . . . I know these are the symptoms that highlight the places in my life where I’m depending on my own wisdom. Right now, I choose to lean on you. In this moment, I lean my weakness on your strength.

The time of business does not differ with me from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen . . . I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were on my knees.

Brother Lawrence(1614–1691), French lay monk and writer