Trust In The Lord
- Elijah McSwain
- Jun 9
- 8 min read
6/7/2025
Elijah McSwain, Sr.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV — Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Trust is a concept that is widely known among the world. The notion of exercising trust is a means of placing one's faith or confidence in someone or something. It is a display of reliance and dependency on another source outside of oneself. Trust is a firm belief that a certain outcome will prevail by confiding in an object’s power or person's ability to perform a particular task.
The human experience is one of consistently exhibiting trust.
Trust is demonstrated in the parental and child relationship. Children trust their parents to provide care, love, protect, and nurture them. Employees trust their employers to deposit their paychecks into their account on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Students trust their teachers to assess the proper grade for their hard work and study efforts. Adults trust their vehicles to power on at the push of a button to transport them from point A to point B. As people we trust that when we sit down in a chair that it will hold and stabilize us by its sturdy structure.
Evidently, trust is seen in many sectors of life.
The ultimate measure of trust involves trusting someone else completely with the entirety of your life. Proverbs 3:5-6 emphasizes that the people of God should have the upmost confidence in Him regarding every facet of life.
Place Your Confidence in the Lord
Solomon penned the phrase “trust in the Lord with all your heart”. To trust God means to place our upmost confidence in Him. The believer is to trust the Lord in every respect to the will of the human mind which is expressed as the heart. Our will should be submitted to trusting His will as we confidently seek Him.
Trust has been defined as “reliance on and confidence in a person. Scripture affirms the total trustworthiness of God, especially in relation to His promises to His people. Christian faith is, essentially, trust in the person and character of God.” 1
As confidence is displayed toward God, it is an act of faith in His power, instruction, guidance, direction, and person.
The Lord is trustworthy and reliable as projected forth from His nature. Therefore, we can trust Him as the trustworthy God.
The people of God place our trust in His sovereignty, providence, provision, and care by committing all of our ways to Him. Proverbs 16:3 (NKJV) affirms to “commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.” To commit is a stance of pledging allegiance to God’s authority as we esteem Him highly with our human affairs. Followers of God trust in His authority as we understand our lives are dependent upon Him. Humanity was created and fashion with an inner dependency upon others. We entered into this world as infants depending on our parents and this dependency lasts into adulthood in some form. We depend on farmers or crop producers for our vegetation. We depend on doctors when our health is in jeopardy. We depend on teachers for our institutional learning and the list goes on.
Ultimately, the main source of our dependency is of God.
We depend on Him for our existence, mobility, cognitive thinking, our livelihood, and our reasoning. Hence, confidence should be placed in God with all of our hearts. Adam Clarke commented “trust in the Lord with all thine heart — this is a most important precept: God is the Fountain of all good. He has made his intelligent creatures dependent upon himself. He requires them to be conscious of that dependence. He has promised to communicate what they need. He commands them to believe his promise, and look for its fulfilment. And to do this without doubt, fear, or distrust; "with their whole heart." 2 Psalm 62:8 (NKJV) articulates the sentiment to “trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
Trust and confidence in God should always be the posture of the heart for God’s people.
It has been noted that pouring out our heart is an idiom for opening up to God with all of our concerns and needs. It is joined with the idea of trust to indicate that through prayer and consultation with God that a person can rely on God to meet his needs. 3 To place confidence in God results in the heart of mankind being joyful and content as trust is found in Him. Psalm 146:5 (ESV) records “blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God.” Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NKJV) reiterates the same notion “blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.” Everyone who trust in God is blessed as God is their source of abundance that leads to a fruitful life. A fruitful life is based on His plan and will for our lives as we trust Him.
Avoid Self-sufficiency
Solomon advised to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thy own understanding”.
Lean not to one’s own understanding simply means to avoid self-sufficiency.
Self-sufficiency empowers people to make irrational decisions, act independently, and hold firm to the belief that they are ultimately in control of their lives. It is a way of life that does not include God. Thus, Solomon gives counsel not to take this approach by not leaning to your own understanding. The Holman KJV Study Bible acknowledges that “understanding is good (16:16), but only if it is from the Lord (9:10).” 3 Humanity is limited in our understanding on matters of the heart and life, thus, we need the infinite God of all wisdom, knowledge, and omniscience to lead our way. This will enable humanity, particularly God’s people from being wise in our own eyes. Proverbs 3:7 (NKJV) states “do not be wise in your own eyes.”
To be wise in our own eyes is to have a perverted or misplaced trust.
The reason behind this involves the fact that our own hearts are deceitful and misleading. Jeremiah 17:9 (NKJV) affirms “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
We are incapable of knowing our own hearts.
William MacDonald confirmed “there must be a healthy distrust of self, an acknowledgment that we do not know what is best for us, that we are not capable of guiding ourselves.” 4
So, it is best to avoid being self-sufficient. The manner of avoiding being self-sufficient suppresses the attitude of allowing our opinions to override the counsel of God.
The Apostle Paul in the latter portion of Romans 12:16 (NKJV) penned “do not be wise in your own opinion.” In the context of this verse, Paul essentially is expressing that Christians should avoid having a superior attitude toward other Christians. To use this verse in light of Proverbs 3:5, believers should not have a superior attitude in a manner of elevating their thoughts over the thoughts of God. Ultimately, Scripture proclaims that His thoughts and ways are higher than our way (Isaiah 55:8-9), therefore, it is unwise and impossible to attempt to elevate our thoughts over the Lord's.
Dependence upon the Lord will suppress self-sufficiency.
Confidence in His character and power suppresses foolishness. Proverbs 28:26 paints the imagery that whoever trusts in their own heart is foolish. However, trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts leads to the fountain of wisdom. Wisdom is a reward for confidence in God. Allen Ross emphasized the confidence is to be in the Lord and not in human understanding. Here the object of faith is what the Lord has said through the wise teaching of the Father. The call is for a trust characterized by total commitment—“with all your heart,” “in all your ways.” Understanding is now cast in a sinful mode (cf. 1:2, 6), so there is to be a difference between the trust that wisdom brings and the natural trust that undermines faith. 5
Self-sufficiency undermines faith in the Lord, but faith in the Lord diminishes self-sufficiency.
The people of God are a people of faith who place their confidence in God. Therefore, to be self-sufficient is not a fruit of the Spirit nor is it in our spiritual makeup or DNA. So, it is imperative that God’s people trust in the Lord with all of their hearts and lean not to our own understanding to avoid becoming self-sufficient.
Acknowledgement Leads to Divine Guidance
The conclusion of the matter is that trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and leaning not to our own understanding yields to our acknowledgement of God that leads to His divine guidance.
Relinquishing our control of every human affair by submitting to the authority of God allows us to experience every aspect of His guidance.
The relinquishment of human control means that God is invited into all matters of the heart. The consideration of inviting the Lord in our matters consist of including and acknowledging Him in our daily decisions and activities. David Guzik noted that “trusting God with all our heart means to honor and acknowledge Him in all that we do. It is the choice to “invite” God into our everyday life and conduct. It is to practice the presence of God in the regular and sometimes mundane things that happen every day.” 6
Inclusion through acknowledging Him leads to godly guidance from the wise, omniscience, and omnipotent God of heaven and earth.
Psalm 37:5 (NKJV) confirms “commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Charles Spurgeon wrote “our destiny shall be joyfully accomplished if we confidently entrust all to our Lord. And so, to all of us it is truest wisdom, having obediently trusted in God, to leave results in His hands, and expect a blessed issue.” 7
God orders the steps of those who seek Him in daily decisions and affairs.
Psalm 37:23 (NKJV) implies “the steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way.” It is documented that “figuratively, ordered refers to security and stability, and steps are related to one’s way of life, often represented as a path or road. Therefore, the Lord is the One who brings about a person’s stability in life (v. 31).” 3 Acknowledging the Lord in life leads to direction and stability provided by God as we walk on the path of life. Proverbs 10:17 (ESV) states “whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life.” Heeding to instruction is a pivotal point for individuals to trust God and to have a stable sense of direction. Heeding to instruction helps us to stay on a stable path as He directs His followers according to His will.
Keeping God in view as our focal point will serve as a constant remind to consult Him in all things.
Regular communication with God leads to an upward walk of life for the wise. Proverbs 15:24 (NLT) affirms that “the path of life leads upward for the wise.” God has an upward trajectory for the lives of those who exhibit trust in Him. Trust leads to God's intervention in our lives in the form of directing our paths. So, trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
References
Factbook. Logos Software.
Clarke, Adam. “Commentary on Proverbs 3:5”. “The Adam Clarke Commentary”. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/acc/proverbs-3.html. 1832.
The Holman KJV Study Bible
William MacDonald…..The Believer’s Bible Commentary
Allen. Ross. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Revised Edition. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. 2008.
Spurgeon, C. H. n.d. The Treasury of David: Psalms 27-57. Vol. 2. London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.
