Proverbs 3:5-10 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. 8 It shall be health to your body, and strength to your bones. 9 Honor the LORD with your substance,and with the firstfruits of all your increase: 10 So shall your barns be filled with plenty, and your presses shall burst out with new wine. (NKJ)
What’s wrong with my own understanding? First, it’s very limited. Second, at it’s best, it’s still carnal.
Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (NKJ)
When we think we can do it on our own, we end up obsessed with our own efforts and never get around to experiencing real life and peace. Fixation on myself is a dead end. Focusing on my own understanding is the opposite of focusing on God. When we get absorbed in self-efforts, we ignore God and end up thinking more about our way than God’s. In effect, we close our eyes to who God is — what He has done and is doing.
Proverbs 28:25-27 He that is of a proud heart stirs up strife: but he that puts his trust in the LORD shall be prospered. 26 He that trusts in his own heart is a fool: but whosoever walks wisely, he shall be delivered. 27 He that gives unto the poor shall not lack: but he that hides his eyes shall have many a curse. (NKJ)
Jeremiah 17:5, 7-10 This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind, who makes the flesh his strength and turns his heart from the LORD.” 7 But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is Him. (Berean) 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when the heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be anxious in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (NKJ)
Our desire must be to do HIS will instead of our own.
Ephesians 5:14-21 Therefore he says, Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. 15 See then that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise, 16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 18 And be not drunk with wine, in which is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God, even the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; 21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (NKJ)
Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it untrue. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17) Doubt comes by hearing false information.
Matthew 13:9-16 He who has ears,let him hear.” 10 Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?” 11 He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ 14 In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. 15 For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’ 16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. (NKJ)
The reason people don’t get healed is because they don’t understand what He has done nor who they are.
Matthew 13:24-28 Jesus presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared. 27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. (NKJ)
John 10:10 The thief comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (NKJ)
