The mysteriousness of God’s designs are purposed to move and stir His children to seek him earnestly in prayer and submit to His wise and loving providences with faith-filled meekness. It is most natural for man, however, to scan His work and lean on his own understanding. Our heavenly Father has lovingly tailored each affliction to remove with careful precision the props we place under our hearts – that we may lean completely upon Him. It is He, who “knows all our ways” (Psalm 139:3) and “holds all our times” (Psalm 31:15).

God’s servant must not stubbornly resist His pruning work, or despise his discipline – but instead, surrender the tight grasp of our own fair designs, that we may joyfully embrace God’s will for us. May God teach us to seek Him as David did in Psalm 27, that in the face of great armies and false witnesses, he desired most to inquire in God’s temple and gaze upon His beauty. The stillness of our souls in waiting upon Him reflects a deep trust that God “does all things well” (Psalm 119:65). 

Of My Own Understanding

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Anger, frustration, confusion, and despair

Roll overhead like dark clouds.

I attempt to lean

On the unstable crutch

Of my own understanding,

Leaving me painfully reaping

The consequences of placing trust

In what is seen.

Tailored affliction

Knocks the makeshift props

I had carefully placed under my heart,

That I may lean completely on

The Rock of Ages –

Who holds all my times,

And knows all my ways.

Seeming instability and insecurity

Cause me to deeply know

The anchor of my soul.

by Emily Burrows