What does it mean that He will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:6)?

Yes, it was good and right to trust in Jehovah with all the heart, and to lean not on one's own discernment, as the tempter always advises to ruin, sorrow, and shame. This is the divine counsel for the heart. But the Israelite needed also to "acknowledge Him" in all his ways. And the heart if loyal would prompt to honour Him thus. For practical inconsistency is a burden to the upright; and it is due to Jehovah to own Him where He is apt to be ignored or forgotten in each detail of walk, and in them all. Nor was it even without present fruit, for He could not be unmindful, who never slumbers or sleeps. "And He shall make straight thy paths." He is Lord of all, no less than He is the Eternal, and concerns Himself with every obstacle and difficulty for such as would walk unswervingly according to His will.

The great danger for all, though for some of thought and experience more than others, is to seek counsel from within. Yet experience should have taught the reflecting a less flattering tale. All Scripture re-echoes what is here written, "Be not wise in thine own eyes." The bait of Satan was to become so, and man has ever coveted it. How blessed when we learn our folly and find an incomparably better wisdom open to us! Certainly to the Christian, to them that are called both Jews and Greeks, the crucified Christ preached to us is God's power and God's wisdom. What they counted foolishness is wiser than men; and what looked the extremity of weakness is stronger than men. Of God are we in Christ Jesus, who from God was made to us wisdom and all things. Well may we glory in Him.

But there is a word for conscience as well as heart, and none the less now, but more when, having been purged once for all, we have no more conscience of sins. "Fear Jehovah, and depart from evil." Was there ever true fear of Him without pardon? Certainly Psalm 130:4 makes clear that there is pardon with Him that He may be feared. Without it, what can the fear be but servile and tainted? This nerves the soul to "depart from evil." We hate it, because He hates it; and such doubtless it is in itself, intrinsically evil. We turn away from what the serpent commands, trembling at His word. A son honours his father, a servant his master. His honour, His fear, are no longer light things to us. And the effect is wholesome and blessed. "It shall be health for thy navel, and moisture for thy bones." The boast of altruism might perhaps in a way suit an angel, not a sinner nor a saint. We need to be blessed that we may be a blessing to others; we need and have God in Christ the Lord and Saviour. We love Him because He first loved us. Is it a wonder that all then goes on well? How sad when it is not so!

Verses 5 and 6 were deeply impressed on the writer at an early age, and have no doubt spoken seriously to many others before and since that time. There are many things in which our understanding is extremely faulty, and if we depend on it, we shall be badly misled. the only safe alternative is to trust in the Lord with all our heart. that is, fully and without reserve. He will certainly not deceive us, nor is there any possibility of His making a mistake.

The whole heart certainly involves all of our ways. In every activity we should acknowledge Him, so that nothing is left simply to our own judgment. If this is so, we may have full confidence that He will direct our paths (v. 6). If we are tempted to think, because we have proven something of God's gracious guidance, that we are wise (v. 78), let us judge this immediately, but instead realize that it is only by God's wisdom that we are blessed. On our part, we are to "fear the Lord and depart from evil." If the Lord is given His place, then we recognize that evil can have no place. This response to the Lord will mean "health to your flesh and strength to your bones" (v. 8). Of course, this is not merely literal. The bones are the framework of the body, so that spiritual health and strength are implied in this, the body being the daily activity, the bones the strength by which the activity is carried out.

He now enters into details in verses 5 and following. Two paths are before man - to trust God, or himself and his own wisdom for his happiness. This is just what Eve failed in; she did not confide in God, trust in Him and what He had said, for her happiness, but leaned to her own understanding, thought she should better secure it by doing what she thought would be advantageous. So every sinner; he thinks he can better secure his own happiness in doing his own will than in listening to God. Trust in God is the first positive active principle of life and wisdom; the next is owning Him in our ways, taking His will, authority, as that which is to form them, not our will and wisdom, and that openly (v. 6). He will surely direct our steps. No human wisdom can guide like that. It may be very cunning - know human nature. But God has a way which He has laid down morally for us - a path of obedience, of righteousness, and of God; and He who has done so orders all things. In the end His judgment will prevail. We may not see it prevail here - thus faith may be exercised; where His direct government is exercised, it will, but always in result. The end of the Lord is sure; heaviness may endure for a night, for a season if need be; but, for the faithful soul, joy comes in the morning, a morning near to come. But self-confidence is ruin. "Be not wise in thine own eyes" (v. 7). They do not see far if they only see self, and that is what always is in our own eyes. The fear of God, as we have seen, the moral path of His fear, is that on which He waits in goodness, however things may seem - this, and departing from all evil. This is something more than walking in His fear - there is an abhorrence of evil, partly in itself, partly as contrary to His will. I may walk in God's fear, do no evil myself, without, I think, being characterised by departing from evil. No doubt, walking rightly is not doing evil. But evil is in the world, and there is, so to speak, a positive character of relationship to it, that is, departing from it, abhorrence of it. Adam, innocent, would have walked uprightly, done nothing wrong; he would not have departed from evil, he had nothing to say to it. I have or may have. I depart from it, leave and break with it. This has to do with holiness. We have seen Jehovah owned by confidence, and in His servant's ways. It requires confidence in Him to guide one's ways by His will. Now we come to another way of owning devotedness of heart, owning all positive good and blessing to come from Him, and manifested in the ready but due offering of a willing heart. Thus blessing is found, temporal blessing; v. 8-10. It must be remembered that we are always here on the ground of present government in the earth. Higher objects may bring sorrow as regards this world, as it has ever been. Now we can only apply the principle. Peter's epistles give the degree in which this government applies to Christian standing.

236 We are ever directed thus to another form of this government - Jehovah chastens those He loves; v. 11. There is not only a government of the world for external blessing, but a direct personal government which occupies itself with the individual, a most gracious and precious truth. "He withdraws not his eyes from the righteous." God deals with us personally for our good - "that we may be partakers of his holiness," for our profit. It is wonderful grace that He, the High and Holy One, should thus perpetually occupy Himself with us, leading us to the enjoyment of Himself. For He deals according to His own nature and in respect of all that is inconsistent in us with it. The word draws two conclusions from this truth that it is God's love. It will not be without a cause in me; it will never be without love in God. Hence I am not to despise, for there is a cause in me which makes the Holy God of love act so; I am not to faint, for it is His love which does it. It is correcting a son in whom his Father delights. Anything that leads us to wisdom is indeed blessed we may now say, to what Christ is. He is the wisdom of God, as He is the power of God. His word should dwell in us richly in all wisdom. This is really wisdom.

But now there is another matter, and it is this. We spoke of the young man starting on the voyage of life, his hand apparently holding the tiller, and guiding the ship. Now many a young man, and even a young believer, thinks that this is not only apparently, but is really so, and that he is the architect of his own fortunes, and that it is his will that is to direct his future life. Many accept Christ as their Saviour, who have but a very faint idea of what it is to accept God as their Father; and yet the one relationship is as true as the other. And if the one makes them happy for eternity , the other is certainly the secret of true happiness for time . There is a wonderful difference between the young man who goes forth rejoicing in his own strength and sagacity, and thinks that he can outwit the world, and the humble Christian who leaves home placing the tiller of the little vessel of his life into his Father's hand, and trusts Him to guide him aright through the dangers and difficulties of each day. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Do not think that any detail of your new life is too small for God to guide you in. The choice of your business, of your future home, of your companions, should all be entrusted to Him; and He will greatly own and honor such confidence, and lead you in the very best path . For it is folly to suppose that if we have a loving and all-wise Father, He would or could do anything else. The poet's words are indeed true:

This perfect life is a life in which the LORD is the Counsellor and Guide. It is written that, "It is not in man that walks to direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23). And again we read, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." It is not merely that we refer to the Lord in some great emergency, but that we habitually wait upon the Lord in the details of life, great and small. Acknowledging Him, we shall find that He guides us: then shall we be able to say, "I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel."

Now our question is, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? What wilt Thou have me to do with my time, my strength, my money, my ability?" "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct they paths" (Prov. 2:6). But the direction must come from the word of God. Sometimes we do not know what to do — we want to do what is right and we don't know what is right. Well, you lack wisdom, don't you? and "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5). It shall be told you, "This is the way, walk ye in it" (Isa. 30:21).

We do not say that we shall always be guided in such a way that we are quite sure, and conscious of it at the time. When the Word of God plainly directs us, and we obey it, we may indeed be sure. In the smaller details of life, when it is a question of where we shall go and what we shall do, we may yet be most happily guided if our state be right, if in meekness and obedience we seek not our own pleasure but the pleasure of God. He has pledged Himself to guide us, and He will do so. The only thing that will hinder is the assertion of our own will or pleasure. If we go forward in simplicity and self-judgment, making our decisions with a desire for His glory, we shall again and again have reason to look back with thankfulness, discovering that indeed His hand has led us.

This, too, is the principle of real piety, because it keeps us in constant dependence upon God, and in constant reference to God. It is an amazing comfort for my soul to think that there is not a single thing all through my life in which God as my Father has not a positive will about me to direct me; that there is not a step from the moment I am born (though while we are unconverted we understand nothing about it), in which there is not a positive path or will of God to direct me here. I may forget it and fail, but we have in that word and will of God what keeps the soul, not in a constant struggle against one thing and another, but in the quiet consciousness that divine favour has provided for everything - that I do not take a step but what divine favour has provided for. It keeps the soul in the sweet sense of divine favour and in dependence upon God, so that like David we can say, "Thy right hand upholdeth me." Moses does not say, Shew me a way through the wilderness, but, "Shew me now thy way." A man's ways are what he is: God's way shews what He is.

This, too, is the principle of real piety, because it keeps us in constant dependence upon God, and constant reference to God. It is an amazing comfort for my soul to think that there is not a single thing all through my life in which God as my Father has not a positive will about me to direct me; that there is not a step from the moment I am born (though while we are unconverted we understand nothing about it) in which there is not a positive path or will of God to direct me here. I may forget it and fail, but we have in the word and will of God what keeps the soul, not in a constant struggle against one thing and another, but in the quiet consciousness that the grace of God has provided for everything - that I do not take a step but what His love has provided for. It keeps the soul in the sweet sense of divine favour and in dependence upon God, so that like David we can say, "Thy right hand upholdeth me." Moses does not say, Shew me a way through the wilderness, but "Shew me now thy way." A man's ways are what he is: God's way shews what He is.

316 There may be direct guidance, I cannot call it into question: when it is given, it is not fanaticism. We get right impressions by living with Christ. John did not go and get a place near Christ in order to know His secrets; but he had a place near Christ, and then the secrets were given to him. Only you cannot go properly to Christ, as John, to ask, unless you are living near Him. Only "trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding." You must live near the Lord, or you cannot reckon rightly on being guided. God's mercy may come in at any time, but "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." I should be filled with the knowledge of His will, and all spiritual understanding.