If you are like me , the tendency is to charge into the day intent on getting stuff done, attacking the to-do list motivated by self sufficiency rather than by humble dependence upon the grace of God.
And given the active presence of pride and self-sufficiency in our lives, it becomes so necessary for us at the outset of each day to devote time to humbling ourselves before the Lord and acknowledging our dependence upon him for all that awaits us.
Proverbs 3:5–7 is a familiar set of verses:
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 straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. (ESV)
Alongside my open Bible, this morning, I found the exposition of these verses by nineteenth-century pastor Charles Bridges in his commentary on Proverbs to be helpful and insightful. He writes:
Let our confidence be uniform. In all thy ways acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:6). Take one step at a time, every step under divine warrant and direction. Ever plan for yourself in simple dependence on God. It is nothing less than self-idolatry to conceive that we can carry on even the ordinary matters of the day without his counsel.
He loves to be consulted. Therefore take all thy difficulties to be resolved by him. Be in the habit of going to him in the first place—before self-will, self-pleasing, self-wisdom, human friends, convenience, expediency. Before any of these have been consulted go to God at once. Consider no circumstances too clear to need his direction.
In all thy ways, small as well as great; in all thy concerns, personal or relative, temporal or eternal, let him be supreme.
-Charles Bridges (1794–1869), from A Commentary on Proverbs (Banner of Truth, 1846/1968) pp. 24–25.
