“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Prov. 3:5-6).

I love these two verses! They make the walk of faith (which pleases God: Heb. 11:6) simple!

But due to the sinful nature that we battle, we tend to make the walk of faith complicated, don’t we?

Let me break down this passage for you and show you a way to keep this simple. If you practice this method, you will find freedom and joy in walking by faith.

But I can promise you as well that walking by faith won’t be “a snap”; it won’t be easy because you must diligently train your spirit to overcome your mind: a mind that insists upon having everything figured out before you will truly trust God!

First, the Hebrew word translated trust — batach — carries the force of relying on someone for security. It can mean to lean on someone or something with the entire body.

Who are we trusting in? It is the LORD: This Hebrew name for God — Yahweh –refers to God as the personal, active, covenant-keeping God.

What does that mean for you and for me? That He is right there with us in a real and personal way — even when He is silent with us.

Moreover, He is at work on our behalf; it is His very nature to be at work on our behalf!

And finally, He is faithful to us; He keeps the covenant with us that He enacted to bless us.

That covenant also means He is devoted to us and is merciful to us. No wonder Solomon tells us to trust Him with all of our heart!

Therein lies a secret to walking by faith: our heart or our spirit is what must dictate to our minds.  The spirit must rule over the flesh.

Now here’s the really tough part: “Do not lean on your own understanding.”

Don’t we like to have it all figured out? Really, don’t we pretty much insist upon having it all figured out before we’ll really trust God?

But Solomon (the writer of Proverbs) gives us a major contrast: “Trust” is an intensive verb and it is a command.

Our trust is to be in God and not in ourselves. Do you ever lose by trusting in God?

But if we try to figure everything out on our own, we lose sleep, we get tied up in knots with worry, we get weighed down and the list goes on, doesn’t it?

He tells us in v.6 that in every single aspect of our lives we are to “acknowledge Him.”

To “acknowledge” in Hebrew means to “know,” and is the same word used of Adam “knowing” Eve.

The connotation obviously refers to an intimate, growing relationship with this incredible God.

To walk in faith requires that we have a daily, deepening and growing relationship with God.

Finally, note the promise in v.6: “He will make your paths straight.”

I can heartily testify to this truth, having seen God do this now for me and for others for 30 years.

Friend, do you want to keep this simple? Memorize these two verses and quote them out loud — to the LORD and to yourself — whenever you need to stand in faith.

Meditate on these verses — meaning “chew” on them; ponder them, speak them out loud — and do this over and over and over until in your spirit you know that you’ve truly placed the matter into the Hands of the only One who can really work it out for you anyway.

In time, you will be amazed at the power of these two, simple verses and at the power of God to work on your behalf.  And you will enjoy the freedom that comes with trusting God and not yourself or anything else! :-)

This is part three in a series that looks to investigate why this Saturday, Oct. 31, is so important in history: It is the anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, one of the most important days in history.

The Protestant Reformation was begun by Martin Luther, but an Englishman named John Wycliffe really paved the way for Luther — well over 100 years before Luther was born.

Wycliffe has been referred to in Church history as the “Morningstar of the Reformation” because this Roman Catholic priest and professor of theology also tried to reform the doctrine and morality of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Wycliffe (1320-1384) wasn’t the only Roman Catholic minister who led the way for reform before Luther: John Hus (c. 1373-1415), and Girolamo Savonarola (1452-98) were also very prominent in the movement.

Wycliffe was a professor of theology at Oxford who persistently called for the RCC to champion the needs of the poor in England. He opposed Transubstantiation, claiming that Jesus was present spiritually in the Eucharist — not physically present.

He also wrote and preached on the priesthood of all believers: that God’s people needed no priest to mediate with God for them. He argued chiefly that the Bible was to be the supreme authority over the RCC and its teachings.

The pope had him kicked out of Oxford for all the above, but Wycliffe moved to Lutterworth, England, where he undertook to translate the Latin Bible (called the Vulgate) into the common tongue of English (the people had no Bible available to themselves: it was reserved only for the clergy and academics).

Wycliffe’s supporters enthusiastically – and at the risk of their lives – copied his translation and gave the translation out to as many people as they could. Like their leader, they also preached what would later come to be known as Protestant doctrines. Their enemies derisively called them Lollards.

After his death, Wycliffe’s bones were dug up by papal command in 1428, burned and scattered throughout the rivers of England, washing eventually into the ocean.

Indeed, Wycliffe’s life and ministry paved the way for our own English Bible and for religious freedom throughout the world.

John Hus (1369-1415), a priest and professor at the University of Prague (in modern day Czechoslovakia), got hold of Wycliffe’s teachings and also began to expose the corrupt popes and church, arguing that Jesus, not Peter, was the founder and head of His Church.

He also preached that the pope was not infallible when he spoke on matters of doctrine and faith (ex cathedra) and he argued that the sale of indulgences were grossly unbiblical (100 years before Luther!).

The RCC burned him at the stake, but while he was dying, he sang hymns and quoted our Lord’s last words: “Into Thy hands I commit my spirit.”

These men both took a bold and courageous stand for truth; can we do anything less?