Trust, lean and acknowledge Him

Proverbs 3:5-8 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. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.

Trust, lean, acknowledge. Three incredible words of power, direction and life packed in two short verses of scripture. The Proverbs are full of wisdom and direction for us to live full, vibrant, victorious and long lives in the Lord. I think we often take the scriptures as suggestions as opposed to clinging to them for our very next breath. This was me for many many years. Lacking in depth of knowledge of the word and living off of Holy Spirit experiences and not having the intimacy with the Lord that I needed to thrive. It is possible to be born again and even filled with the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in tongues but be living in bondage and defeat. I was that girl. I gave my heart to the Lord and met my husband three years later. I was very content in the Lord when I met my husband. I was not “looking” for a mate. I had given that over to God in a very straight forward prayer one day. More like a begging prayer. Then I left it with Him and didn’t worry about it. My husband was an ordained minister and served as a youth and children’s pastor in two churches in rural Iowa. I was comfortable in sunny and warm North Carolina. I told God I would go wherever He wanted me to go and I would do whatever He wanted me to do. One month later my soon to be husband proposed to me on April 1st, April fools day. You can imagine that I wondered if I could trust his proposal.

It was the real deal. It was a marriage made by God. We think we find our mates but actually God already knows who we are to be with. It just takes us trusting and acknowledging that our paths would be directed by Him leading us to our mate. But we won’t be led by Him if we don’t acknowledge Him first. We Christians like to skip this part. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard believers tell me about their plans, down to when they are going to have a baby. Leaving out a very important detail. Their plans don’t have anything to do with God’s plans. Then we wonder why we get in predicaments that tax our bodies, finances and spirits. Because it was not led by God, that’s why. My husband and I came to a point in our life that we were living paycheck to paycheck. Robbing from Peter to pay Paul and struggling spiritually. It had become taxing on my emotions and body. I was living to just survive not thrive. It was my dream to thrive again but that truly seemed just that, a dream! Something very big was missing.

Was I trusting, leaning and acknowledging the very One I called Lord? Life became about paying bills, playing church and seeking my healing. I somehow forgot to seek, trust, lean and acknowledge my Lord. I had forsaken my first Love. My Christian walk became very messy. It was a day in and day out routine of “this is what I have to do to be a Christian”. I forgot that I really didn’t have to do anything to be a Christian and I was missing the most important thing to thrive as a heir to the throne. I was just to be His daughter that trusts, leans, and acknowledges Him.

I needed spiritual, emotional and physical healing. I needed my Father to rescue me. “My Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name”. A prayer that I’ve known since childhood but it was routine to me. Almost religious you could say. It had lost its meaning.

How was this possible?

The enemy can use every trial in our life and use it against us if we are not prepared to fight the battle. I had been caught up in hype and not hosting the presence of my Father. This journey went on longer than I like to admit.

One day came and He made my heart be still! He made me be still and said “I am, I AM and YOU ARE I AM STRONG!” It shook me to my core. It began to resonate with me that He was in me and I was in Him. I was I AM STRONG. I began to acknowledge that and that truth began to grow in me and I learned to trust Him. From that trust I began to lean on Him day in and day out. Many nights as well because I was still physically suffering and had insomnia. I would pray the 23rd Psalm in the night when I couldn’t sleep and I repeated it until I fell asleep. I was seeing progress in my spiritual life but not my physical or mental life yet. Then one day I was crying out to Him and told Him that “IT IS NOT WELL!” I was tired and dissatisfied with the fact that this was how it was going to be the rest of my life. I said NO and got serious about seeking, trusting, leaning and acknowledging Him. I studied Proverbs 3:5-8 and saw what it was saying, that these things would be health to my flesh and strength to my bones. That was a supernatural to natural exchange. If I trusted, leaned, acknowledged, feared Him and turned from evil I would have a life worth living again. The word acknowledge in the Hebrew language is “yada” and it means to know. In the context of Proverbs 3 it means to know the Lord intimately in the highest form; with direct intimate contact like a spouse. Spiritually meaning, intimacy with God in prayer and presence is that which conceives and births blessings. I began to spend time with Him day in and day out. I had found my first Love again. Sitting, reading, praying and praising. I had my joy back! I had my HOPE back. I know my hope wasn’t ever truly gone but it felt like it was. You could say that’s all I was holding onto. So if life has you in a whirlwind and you feel overtaken by the storm. Hold on! Because our hope, who’s name is Jesus, is still alive and He is ready to rescue you.

I encourage you with everything within you to seek, trust, lean and acknowledge Him. We need to be “yada-ing” with the Lord everyday. Seeking Him in His word, prayer and in presence. He is a faithful God and I know He will reward the efforts of your heart and see you through.

Dee White

Dee White has been walking with the Lord for over 20 years and has found a way to use her God given gifts, personal experiences and passions to minister to others. She has walked the road of depression, anxiety and suffered with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The Lord has completely transformed her and she has been delivered and healed from all of them. As an artist and disciple of Jesus she finds great comfort in writing and loves to share her heart and the heart of the Father through devotions, storytelling or her art. She is passionate about seeing others set free and living a victorious life in Christ.

She has resided in South Carolina for 10 years and attends Bridgeway Church in Greenville, SC with her husband and two children.