The Lodestar

Proverb 3:5—6 says: 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.”

Trust the Lord with All Your Heart

This might be the most well-known line in the entire passage—and the hardest to practise. Even as born-again Christians, our hearts can lean toward scepticism, often second-guessing anything we cannot immediately see or quantify. Trusting someone you cannot physically see, like God, is far more complicated than trusting a doctor, a therapist, or a friend.

Psychologists refer to this as the “availability heuristic”—our tendency to trust what we can most easily recall or visualise. Since we often experience people and things with our senses, we naturally gravitate towards them when making decisions. But God is faithful to show up when we lean on him, and the more we trust him, the more we see his hand at work. Trusting the Lord is not a one-time achievement but a rhythm that develops over time. It is hardest in the beginning, but each act of trust becomes a building block for the next.

Lean Not on Your Understanding

If verse 5 is a command, then verse 6 is the consequence. In an ideal world, trusting the Lord and leaning on our understanding are opposites—you cannot truly do both. This is echoed in Jesus' warning about spiritual compromise: “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

We often operate in reverse order: we exhaust our logic, strategies, and plans, and when all else fails, we finally ask God. Our inclination is self-reliance. It feels more productive and more immediate. But God is asking us to flip that order—not because he demands control, but because his understanding far exceeds ours. To trust fully means we stop treating God like a backup plan and start treating him like the blueprint.

In All Your Ways Submit to Him

This is, in my personal journey, the hardest of all. Submission sounds simple in theory, but practically—what does that look like? For me, it started with a daily surrender that sounded like this: “My spirit is willing, Holy Spirit, take control.” Submission, like trust, is not a one-time decision; it is a continuous process. It is a daily, deliberate offering of our will.

And the phrase “in all your ways” is not only referring to major life choices. It includes the little things—what to wear, who to spend time with, whether to speak or stay silent. I often find it easier to say yes to watching a film than spending ten minutes in prayer. But those are the very areas where I need to invite God’s direction. True submission is asking, “What would you have me do?” in every decision, no matter how small. That’s where transformation starts.

And He Will Make Your Paths Straight

The reward of all the above is not a stress-free life but a guided one. “He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:6) doesn’t mean everything will go as we hoped or expected. It doesn’t promise that life will be without detours, delays, or doubts. But it does mean this: God will not abandon us to wander.

A straight path, in God’s terms, is one marked by clarity, purpose, and his favour. Even when we do not see the full destination, he is lighting each step. We may not understand the route, but we can rest knowing the Guide knows exactly where he is leading us—and it is always for our good (Romans 8:28).

(Sheba Mathew is a speech-language pathologist based in Vancouver, Canada, who finds joy in words and the wonder of the mind. She sees creativity as a divine gift and embraces her extremely sensitive nature as a lens that brings depth, colour, and compassion to everything she does.)