PATHS MADE STRAIGHT

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NASB77)

I read the words again, my brow crinkling in the center as it has a habit of doing when something isn’t making sense to me.

I had read these words many times as I sat at the Well of His Presence, and often tucked them into my heart, carrying them into the day with me to be both savored and shared. But today they seemed jumbled up, like puzzle pieces that didn’t quite fit.

Just where are the straight paths? I thought to myself as I looked behind at yesterday. The path appeared anything but straight. It was winding wildly about, turning this way and that way. I hesitantly peered around the corner of tomorrow, my eyes following the path as it wound its way up a steep incline and then disappeared from view in a mist of uncertainty that hung in the air like an early morning fog.

I sat quietly thinking about what it meant to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and to acknowledge Him in all my ways. Hmmm….these thoughts about trusting God and acknowledging Him reminded me of Daniel. I had been reading all about Daniel in a women’s bible study I was attending at church. We were in Daniel chapter six this week and I quickly turned there.

Now we don’t know what took place in the lions’ den. We only know that Daniel was thrown there, a great stone placed over the entrance and sealed with the signet rings of the king and his nobles. But the morning finds Daniel unharmed as he tells the king that an Angel of God closed the mouths of the lions.

I have a vivid imagination and I just can’t help wondering what that must have been like. I thought about Daniel at the age of 80 being thrown in with the lions. These were not tame lions. I had learned that a healthy adult male lion could be as much as 9-feet in length and weigh between 413 to 466 pounds. That is BIG!

My palms began to sweat as I read the words in verse 16, “…and they brought Daniel.

I sat quietly and was certain I heard the echo of footsteps on an ancient path in Babylon; a path that took Daniel from his knees before God to the lions’ den.


I closed my eyes just as Daniel hit the ground with a thud. He lay there for a moment looking around him as the men above moved a boulder over the entrance to the den so there was no way out.

He lay still, his eyes staring into the darkness as movement captured his attention and he turned his gaze to the left as a figure stalked out of the shadows and moved toward him, slowly, quietly and yet with great power in each step.

A roar shook the very ground that lay beneath him, the air reverberated as other lions answered in kind. One by one, they walked from the shadowed darkness, coming ever nearer. Two of the males approached, circling around him, their breath hot on his skin. Their paws were twice the size of Daniel’s hands, and he knew with one swipe of just one of those powerful paws with razor like claws, his life on this earth would be over. It was then Daniel made his way slowly to his knees. He had resolved long ago to live a life loyal to the One True God, and a den of lions at the end of a dusty path in Babylon did nothing to change that. If this was the end of his earthly life, then he would end it the way he had lived it, on his knees praying to the Living God.

Daniel prayed, the lions paced, but their great roars were silenced, their powerful jaws shut tight by an unseen hand. While they paced and snorted and came so near to him at times that their fur brushed against him, they did not place a single paw on him. Daniel continued talking to God through the night in the midst of lions.

The morning found Daniel unharmed. And the jubilant King punished the evil doers and issued a decree to the entire kingdom that everyone should worship the God of Daniel.

I sat in the predawn stillness, pondering the path Daniel had walked, which appeared to be anything but straight. If God didn’t make someone like Daniel’s paths straight, what hope was there for someone like me? It was hard to understand.

“Don’t lean”, His voice filled the dawn and my heart looked up as He whom my heart loves drew near. I wanted to stay with Daniel a while longer, but instead He took me back to the verses in Proverbs.

“Don’t lean,” He repeated.

I asked Him to read the Words from His Book to me. Somehow it’s different when He reads them.

“Diana,” His voice echoed through my heart, “Trust in Me with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Me and I will make your paths straight.”

“But Lord,” I began as I set off to explain how my paths were so difficult. “…and what about tomorrow’s path? It is shrouded in mists of uncertainty,” I finished.

“Don’t worry about tomorrow for today has enough trouble of its own,” He said.

Well that is true enough, I thought to myself as I nodded in agreement with His words from Matthew 6:34 and sat down at His feet where I decided to quiet my noisy heart and be still and listen to the Lord. I leaned in close so I wouldn’t miss anything. Here, have seat next to me. There’s plenty of room at the feet of Jesus and we can lean in and listen together.

“I never promised the path would be easy, convenient, free from pain, danger, benefit reductions, difficult goodbyes of friends, lions’ dens or even death. I promised I would make your paths straight, and so I have and will,” He finished.

“You have made my paths straight?” I asked a bit tentatively as I looked at the squiggly paths behind me and wondered if perhaps He was looking at someone else’s path other than mine.

Following my train of thought (there are no secrets from God, you know), He took my path-worn heart to Romans 8:28 and He asked me to read it out loud. Why don’t you read it too?

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 (NIV)

He turned right around and headed back to Proverbs. My heart arrived there breathless as His voice thundered, shaking my soul awake,

“Do NOT lean on your own understanding. From your human eyes the paths appear crooked and out of control, but from my perspective, they are perfectly straight according to My sovereign will. Do NOT lean,” He repeated.

I thought about that. I hadn’t realized that I had been walking with a really bad lean lately.

I decided to turn His words into a prayer. Feel free to borrow it if you would like to.

“Father, I confess that I have been leaning on my own understanding. I have not been trusting in You with my whole heart, or acknowledging You in all my ways. I forgot that I was called according to YOUR purpose and I am not my own. You bought me with a price, the precious blood of Your only Son, Jesus. Thank you for Your great and glorious promises tucked into the words you shared with me today. You will make my paths straight and you will use it all for my good and Your glory. Like Daniel, help me to resolve to bow only to you – even if the path leads me to a den of lions. I love You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

What about you, my dear and precious friend? Do you feel caught up in a maze of twisty paths? Do you feel like Daniel, thrown to the lions and they are circling ever closer? Dear one, nothing can come to you that has not first past through the perfect loving will of your Heavenly Father. How are you doing in these things?

Are you Trusting in the Lord with all your heart?
Are you acknowledging Him in all your ways?
Are you leaning on your understanding or on His sovereignty?

Daniel was saved because He trusted in His God and the result was an entire kingdom turned to the Lord. Who is watching you and the way you are living as you walk the paths of your life today? So, dear one, trust Him, acknowledge Him and Do NOT lean on your own understanding.

An Original Conversation at the Well
By Diana Morgan
© Copyright October 26, 2011