The first S.O.A.P i have written on here
i just really felt like god wanted me to read this scripture so i decided to do a soap on it.
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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
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This verse made me think abit as most of the book of Proverbs is built on the idea of acquiring wisdom, but here it is made clear that we should never think we’ve completely succeeded in that important task! I feel one useful way I have found to look at this is I think called the “inverse indirect implication principle.” That’s when the Bible tells us to do something, because we’re usually doing the exact opposite (whether we realize it or not).
This isn’t in any way meant to despise the value of understanding. It is to point out that trusting God is even more important than that, and that we always need to submit to God’s leading even when it conflicts with our own understanding. And that if we humble ourselves enough to submit to that, we can walk in the center of His will — which is always the shortest distance to what we really want and need.
This also gets back to the common refrain in Proverbs that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” The opposite of fear could well be “contempt.” When I think I completely understand a situation, I have no fear — because I am in control. In fact, I am the fearless master of that little corner of the universe, and others should fear me. If I’m right — which I’m not. And since I’m not, I should tremble in the house of the one who truly is the Master of the Universe, and knows all the nooks and crannies of truth that my own human eyes will never see.
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I feel like this scripture is a hard lessen for me, as I have more-or-less built my whole life around developing my “own understanding.” That’s partly why I wanted to talk about it today because I feel god wants me to change everything big and small.
I can apply this scripture to my life through my emotions and through by submission to god. We need to make sure that if we are to say we give everything to god and those we don’t keep anything to ourselves and I mean nothing the devil can work on any little thing and turn it into a huge massive problem. When I was looking at my emotions and my submission to god I look at well for emotions I focused on self-understanding and one of the meanings of self-understanding is that it focuses almost exclusively on what we think. While that is important, it can easily become an addiction for intellectuals like me. To obey the command to “trust in the Lord with all your heart” requires expending effort in cultivating our emotional allegiance to God. I believe this is primarily done through praise and prayer, but is also shaped by entertainment and our experience of beauty.
Also for submission I focused on the people who know me and what they would say when I reach something I don’t understand for e.g. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have a tendency to rebel when things don’t make sense. I am usually pretty good at figuring things out, but this easily becomes an idol. When what God [or other authority figures] ask me to do something that doesn’t make sense to me, I become enraged, defiant or act out and take I out on the ones closest to me. If I truly trusted God with all my heart and more than I trust myself then submission would feel safe.
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Lord, I am still a stranger to your holiness. I have such a poor understanding of well everything: the world, my sin, your love. Father, teach me to rest in your love for me, and trust in your wisdom and power. Free me from the need to exert control and assert my independence that I may live securely like a weaned child with its mother. Help me to feed my heart and my soul with things that nurture my reliance upon you, based on awe and wonder at your beauty and your goodness. Cleanse my mind that I may receive everything I learn in the context of your glory and not of my own. I ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
hope after reading my soap that it made you think of what it is you are holding back and inspire you to jsut give it to god.
Created almost 3 years ago
