“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
In the Christian life there is absolutely no substitute for giving the Lord Jesus access to every circumstance and need. Indeed, as O. Hallesby wrote in his classic volumn on prayer, every conscious need is the Lord Jesus knocking at the door of the heart desiring access, so that He can deal with it. The very practical and decisive act of giving Christ access to the need, is essential if the believer is to trust Him fully and specifically. It is also a declaration of our own inability in every way, without Christ, to meet any need that we may have or will face. Christ is the all-sufficient, ever-present, Life of the believer, in whom “…all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth.” (Col. 2:9) Scripture tells us that the believer is “complete in Christ.” What does this mean from a practical standpoint? In Jesus Christ there is no lack of resources to meet any need, within the heart, or in the circumstances of life. When David wrote, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” he is declaring the same thing. Everything that David needed to glorify and honor God was in Christ. And so, it is with the believer, especially on this side of Pentecost. When the Spirit of God came in great power at Pentecost, believers were baptized into Jesus Christ, and the work of Calvary was applied and manifested in them by the all-sufficient, all-powerful Christ. The Lord Jesus had come to dwell in their hearts by faith. His fullness had come to fill them. But how does the believer practically appropriate the living, overcoming Christ in present circumstances?
The first, and continuing, discipline of the believer is that of taking a position of faith. Simple phrases like, “…Trust in the Lord,” or “Have faith in God,” are not abstract ideas to be just recognized and acknowledged. They are God’s clear, concise, compassionate directives to trust Him wholly. The man or woman who believes God supremely, having yielded their lives to Him, to serve Him, are those who have turned away from any reliance in themselves, trusting in that which cannot accomplish the will and purposes of God. They are those who choose not to trust first what they see, think, or feel. In essence they “deny themselves,” ignore and forget themselves, and their petty resources, to look only at Christ, who alone can meet every need. When Shammah, in the Old Testament, took his stand in a field, while his fellowmen were fleeing the Philistines, he did so because he deliberately chose to believe God. That decision, refusing to look at himself, but only to God, resulted in a tremendous victory over the Philistines. Shammah believed God, and in essence, gave Him access to the need of the moment. The result was that in essence, Christ came into the situation responding to decisive, deliberate faith.
When Solomon wrote the Proverbs, he spoke a great deal concerning wisdom. True wisdom is accepting the Scripture’s testimony that Christ is everything, and the absolute Conquering King, who by the Spirit dwells in the heart. The believer’s present victorious position is at the right hand of the Father, for he has been raised up with Christ to reign from there. However, if the believer is to know Christ’s victorious Life and sufficiency, he must practically open the door by prayer, and give the Lord Jesus access to every need. Isaiah said the same thing, though put in a different way: “…and the government shall be upon His (Christ’s) shoulder.” (9:6) When the authority is specifically given to Christ to “come into” any and every circumstance and need, the promise is certain, “I will come into him, and sup with him and he with me.” (Rev. 3:20)
The reward of faith by acknowledging Christ in ALL our ways is that He shall direct our paths. (Pro.3:6)
Dear Father, Lead us certainly as we give the Lord Jesus access to every need. In Jesus’ name, Amen.