The Shifting Sand of Our Understanding

 

Each of us has had the opportunity to place faith in things other than God. Our jobs, education, relationships, talents, and even our spiritual gifts have often been our focus instead of our relationship with God. The world is always changing. Putting faith in anything other than God is like putting faith in shifting sand. You can’t have peace in your life if what you put your faith in always changes.

 

We readily put faith in ourselves. We know exactly what we have experienced so we put faith in our experience instead of in what God declares is true. We cannot depend on the things we have experienced in life, whether good or bad, to be the foundation for our version of the truth.

 

Proverbs 3:5-7 are familiar verses where we are told not to lean on our understanding. In the Passion Version, it reads:

 

“Trust in the Lord completely. And do not rely on our own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go. Don’t think for a moment that you know it all.”

 

Leaning on your own understanding is like falling into sinking sand. The most certain way to not gravitate toward your own understanding is to keep God’s Word hidden in your heart. Proverbs 3:6 in the Passion Version says if we become intimate with Him in whatever we do He will lead us. It is only in an intimate relationship with Him that we experience the Word's ability to lead us.

 

In John 14:16, we read: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” 

 

The Holy Spirit will lead us back to God’s truth we have hidden in our hearts. 

But if we don’t have God’s truth abundantly overflowing in our lives, we can't give the Holy Spirit anything to bring to our remembrance. We have nothing to draw upon when confusing times come.

 

“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall” (Matthew 7:26-27).

 

A foolish man leans on his own understanding. He has heard the Word. He has heard testimonies to God’s truth and has even seen examples of its promises. But a foolish man still chooses to lean on his own understanding of what he has experienced in life. He puts faith in the shifting sand of His own understanding instead of putting faith in God. He ends up sinking into despair and disillusionment. Leaning on self will never produce peace. 

 

The Word of God changes everything. Nothing is impossible with God. There is no need for a backup plan with God. We can put our faith in His solid truth. When we lean on God’s understanding, we put our faith in the promises He has given us. We can walk in God’s peace no matter what we have experienced—no matter what our problems—because we trust in Him and not in ourselves.

“All praise to God,” Paul wrote, “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).

God’s grace has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. If we imagine ourselves sitting with Jesus, we can look down on our problems with Him. We can see our problems from His perspective and not from what our emotions and experiences dictate. When we see from His perspective, we don’t tell our God how big our mountain is. We tell the mountain how big our God is (Mark 11:23).

 

The Holy Spirit always wants to remind you how big your God is. His perspective of you is a victorious conqueror. The victory is already accomplished in Jesus. It is up to you to believe it, apply it, and rest in it.  

 

May we trust what Jesus has accomplished for us and stop focusing on our problems and the lies we have spoken to ourselves. Our own understanding will always be shifting sand. When hidden abundantly in our hearts, God’s Word becomes the rock-solid basis for our faith. We can trust in the finished work of Jesus because it is not shifting sand. His work never changes. He is our firm foundation. Jesus died once and for all time (Hebrews 9:12). May we settle this in our hearts once and for all time.

 

 

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