"Following Jesus" -2

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil." (Proverbs 3:5-7) True wisdom can only come from the base of knowledge (whom ever); but the problem with wisdom that is without knowledge, is that the source of the wisdom is forgotten; which then makes one a fool. The reason that humility is so very important to following Jesus, is the fact that humility is the oposite of vanity; and vanity causes us to look to ourselves for direction, comfort, or understanding, instead of to the Lord. But you might say, Rich, you don't understand; God has shown me what to do already, and now I just need to obey. You know, there is a difference between hearing and listening, Don't You? If you were able to ask Solomon about what really matters to the bigger picture of things, I am sure that he would say that staying humble is way up on the top of the list. Because the primary problem that we have, especially as men (discretion intended), is that we always think we have it figured out on our own; and even if we don't, we think we will be able to figure it out as we go. So, when we get some kind of word or vision from the Lord, instructing us to do something; our natural way to process that within our minds will lean more towards vanity, then towards humility. I find it interesting that the word 'vain' can mean so many different things, but the primary meaning is 'sin'; which means to miss the mark. To do something that is called in vain, means that it was done without achieving what it was intended to do. That is why it is so very important to always trust God, and to never lean on our own understanding; even if we think we understand. Humility is what is needed to live our life, not just navigate certain areas...