THE WISDOM OF GOD

"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." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

I recently read an article called "178 Seconds to Live." It was about twenty pilots who were capable pilots in clear weather but who had never taken instrument training. Each was put in a flight simulator and instructed to do whatever he could to keep the airplane under control as he flew into thick, dark clouds and stormy weather. The article stated that all twenty pilots "crashed" and "killed themselves" within an average of 178 seconds. It took these seasoned pilots with skilled intuition less than three minutes to destroy themselves once they lost their visual reference points! …

When the writer of this proverb tells us not to lean on our own understanding, he is making the point that no matter how smart we are or how many life experiences we have under our belts, we still need to realize that human judgment is always limited and sometimes wrong. Sometimes our best notions about what ought to be said or done are ill-advised, dangerous, even destructive. When it comes to the key decisions in our lives, we almost always need deeper insights and a broader perspective than mere human wisdom can offer us.

What we desperately need is God's mind on the serious matters of life. He offers it to us through the teaching of His Word and the inner guidance of His Spirit. Our job is not to question it or to assume that we know better, like an overconfident pilot second-guessing the instructions of his instruments, but to trust that God does know better how to make our lives work. A helpful spiritual rule of thumb might be "When in doubt, always, always, always, trust the wisdom of God."

-- Bill Hybels in Making Life Work: Putting God's Wisdom into Action


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