Acknowledge Him

By Truly         Proverbs 3:5,6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make you paths straight.


Proverbs 3 verse 6 says:
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Do you want God to make your paths straight?
Do you want God to direct your paths?


Do we ever! Yes, yes and yes! We want God to make our paths straight. We want a straight and clear path.


Then we need to understand how to acknowledge God in all our ways. We want to get this because we so want Him to direct our paths, to make our paths straight.


Proverbs 3:6 explains it for us. It explains by saying: “In all your ways acknowledge him.”
“In all your ways” sounds like a tall order. Acknowledge God in all my ways. How?


Shall we start with one of the more difficult times to acknowledge God. “In all your ways” acknowledge Him. How about in the midst of sin? “In all your ways” includes everything. It includes sinning. You can't say you never sin. Sinning unfortunately is one of our ways. Ask Adam and Eve. Our disobedience to God began with them. God has given us a way to be forgiven through Jesus. But He has not banished sin from man. We may be Christians. We may try to obey God. We may seek God. We may pray. We may forgive. We may love. But we are not without sin.


Looking at Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways acknowledge him.” Notice the word “all.” “All your ways” would include when you sin. “All” is not a word you can debate or translate to mean anything other than “all.” “All your ways” means your good ways and your bad ways. In your good ways, in your bad ways – in all your ways acknowledge him. In times of sin acknowledge Him. That is an interesting thought. While I am acting in a sinful way, I should acknowledge Him.


If you know God's Word, even just a little bit, you have an idea what God considers sin. So you usually are aware of when you are in the midst of it. For example, even a non believer knows that God says to tell a lie is a sin. No matter what your faith, deep down you know telling a lie is uncomfortable, uneasy and just wrong. For a Christian you know it is displeasing to God and a sin. In fact when trying to walk with God in a close relationship, you tend to try to avoid situations where you may want to tell a lie. Sometimes you may tell the truth despite it's complications to you because you want to avoid the sin. In other words, we know that telling a lie is a sin. We know what constitutes most sins.

So if we want to acknowledge God in all our ways, we need to acknowledge him right in the middle of our sin. Does it feel good? Is it easy? Not necessarily. However is it possible? Yes. It is possible.


How then? How do we acknowledge God while sinning?


We stop, take a breath, and acknowledge. “It's not easy!” you declare. When you are clearly, knowingly in the middle of sinning, stop. Stop for a minute. Take a breath. Acknowledge God.


Is God asking us to do this to make us feel guilty and load condemnation on us? No way. He is trying to help us acknowledge Him in all our ways so that He can give us clear direction in life.


Read it.
Proverbs 3:6
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.


God's Word explains how to get his promises. In order for God to make your paths straight you need to acknowledge Him in all your ways.


Acknowledge God in the time of sin is an interesting idea. I think we usually acknowledge God after our sin with our prayers requesting forgiveness. We usually sin and then go to God acknowledging Him with repentance. At that state, we are usually carrying a heavy load of guilt, and even worry that God is too displeased to forgive. When you acknowledge God after you sin, you can and will be forgiven but you can not turn back the time. You can't erase what you did. God is willing to forget what you did, but He is not stopping it in it's course. If you can learn to acknowledge God in the act or consideration of a sin, you might just be able to stop it.


This week let's try this act of acknowledging God in the midst of sin. We all have some kind of sin in our lives. It can be as simple as doubting God, a negative attitude, gossiping, lack of patience or more serious acts of sin. Whatever the case, try to catch yourself at the initiation of the sin or at least in the act, to acknowledge God.


Simply stop, take a breath and acknowledge God. When you acknowledge Him remember Proverbs 3:6


In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.


Think of it as it is, an act of obedience. You are obeying Proverbs 3:6 by acknowledging God in all your ways, even the not so good ways. Right?


At this time I feel that God wants us to work on the simple act of acknowledgment and nothing more. Maybe it is our stepping stone to greater acts of resisting the temptation of sin. I have to say thinking and acknowledging God is not usually at the top of my list in the act of sin. So I am more than willing to try this, do this and obey. How about you?


Let's look at Proverbs 3:5,6


Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;


in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.


Trust in the Lord and do this act of acknowledging Him in the midst of sin. We trust in the Lord with all our hearts. Yes, we do! So we can do this. What we are actually beginning to do here is trust God in our sin. God is our source of strength and power. Why not trust Him in our sin? I can not wait to see where our Father God is taking us now. He is going to help us trust his power with our sin. That is beyond exciting and amazing. We will just start with step one.

When in consideration of a sin, when in the middle of a sin STOP, take a breath and simply acknowledge God. When making this acknowledgment remember and think on Proverbs 3:6 that instructs us:

In all your ways acknowledge Him.

Meditate on just this portion of Proverbs 3:6. “In all your ways acknowledge Him.” Use it when you sin, when you think about sin, and when you don't. I look forward to a new way of dealing with sin this week. Don't miss out on this opportunity from God. Give it all you have got! I know you are ready!