When God Said "Champion", He Did Not Mean Runner-Up!

Proverbs 03

"Trust the Lord with all your heart,

and don't depend on your own understanding.

Remember the Lord in all you do,

and He will give you success."

(Proverbs 3: 5, 6)

Trust is an expensive treasure. The more you remember what you are trusting in, the more you admit how precious is that treasure for you. As human beings, we live in a society by trusting each other. We seek the avenues to build this trust on our families, neighbours, friends, colleagues and whoever is with us in this journey of life. Some of us try to build this trust also on our savings, our wealth, our regular income and even assurances such as insurances. This trust is strengthened each time when we remember these beloved people and these assured things are there for us. Our own understanding makes us remember these assurances and help, and we begin to remember them always.

Remembering time and again our point of trust keeps our relationship towards it growing. We look up to them and we know that they are there when we need them. Every repeating incident of seeking help from these people and things in which we trust just assures us that we can run next time too. Slowly we begin to plan things and keep the next steps based on this trust we have built. We remember these people and these things when we try the next step. But we also feel disappointed and hurt when things do not work the way we trusted them to be. The trust is lost. The above passage that we have read, and especially the verse that we have chosen to meditate on, reminds us of this process. But it reminds us of the Lord! Not about the people, things and our understanding, but about the trust that we must have in our Lord.

We are called to trust the Lord with all our heart. A lot of times we find ourselves trusting the Lord with a back-up plan. The moment when you decide to trust in the miraculous power of the Lord who is able to make 'everything out of nothing', you will realise that your human understanding within this little brain begins to dictate you. Your own little understanding of the world suggests everything that may sound possible and impossible based on human limitations and natural possibilities. 

But let us remember, that the moment you begin to measure your trust in the Lord by your own understanding of the world, your faith loses its value. From the time your mind calculates God's promises through your own understanding, your trust in the Lord is no more a cherishable, an extravagant and special one - it is just another one of those trusts that we discussed in the beginning.

Proverbs 3:5 reminds us to trust the Lord with all our heart (not partially, but fully) and not to depend on our own understanding. Sadly, a lot of our trust in the miraculous power of the Lord loses its essence when we do the following two things -  when we do not trust the Lord with a full heart and the moment we start depending on our own understanding of His promises. Never ever estimate God's promises with your own understanding! The Lord's ways are greater, mightier, bigger and more marvellous than we ever thought it to be. Never let your mind guess the alternatives. Never let your own understanding suggest "maybe this what God meant when He promised." No! When God promises something, He means it. When God promises you a "champion" he does not mean a runner-up -  He means a champion! But all that you need to do is to wait for the Lord for His time and to trust Him with all your heart. And most importantly, let us not depend on our own understanding. When we trust in the Lord more than our own understanding we will understand how even through a 'runner-up' phase God makes us champions. Let us not settle until that promise happens. Let's wait on the Lord. Let's continue to trust Him.

The next thing that we learn about trusting the Lord from the selected verse (Proverbs 3:6) is that we have to remember the Lord in all that we do. We must learn to acknowledge the presence of the Lord in all our steps and we must submit ourselves to Him. This remembrance of His promises, of what He has done to us in the past and of what He is able to do in the future is our praise and worship in everyday life. What we do at church on a Sunday service with songs, music and words of praise is brought into action when we do this in our everyday life. The more we remember the Lord in all that we do, the more we are acknowledging His presence in our life and we are praising and worshipping Him. And this is the lifestyle of a faith-filled and Christ-believing life. And this is the way Christ Jesus taught us - to trust the Lord with all our heart, and to remember the Lord at all times and in all circumstances. 

Isn't it saddening sometimes for us to realise that we had acknowledged the presence of the bank savings, funding, insurance, allowance, income and many other assurances when we started something and finally when everything failed and we sought the help with the acknowledgement of the Lord's presence? Isn't it heartbreaking to find that we had built our trust on people more than we trusted God when we ventured into something and finally realised that we trusted on mortal beings? How lucky, we could wonder, were those who first sought the Lord. Maybe they are still on the climb, but we know that they are climbing the right ladder, because they remembered the Lord right at the beginning before remembering anything else. These are the champions who did not allow their own understanding to dictate their trust but remembered that they have the Lord on their side. They may be runners-up of today, but we know that this is God's way of leading them to be tomorrow's champions. God promises great success for those who remember Him in all that they do. Indeed, the Lord has blessed those who trusted Him with everything others may have sought before, because of these champions first sought the Lord.

If God promised to make you a champion, He did not mean a runner-up! He will make you a champion. Maybe your present place is even less than a runner-up, but remember, as long as you trust in the Lord with all our heart and not depend on our own understanding, you are surely on our way towards becoming the champion that God promised you. Remember the Lord in all your steps and He will give you success. 

I pray that the Lord will lead each of us to trust in Him with all our heart. May the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ help us to trust in the Lord fully and not to measure, calculate and project the promises of God in our life through our own little understanding. And may the presence of the Holy Spirit help us to remember the glory and power of the Lord in whom we trust and to help us see the promises of God coming true through this never-changing faith. 

May God bless you.

Yours in Christ,