Why You Need Scripture Before You Pray in Faith Proverbs 3:5-7
Have you ever made a decision that looked right, sounded right, and made perfect sense—only to find out later that you took the wrong road? Clear logical thinking has its place, but it has one major limitation: you don’t know everything. God does. That’s why Proverbs tells us not to lean on our own understanding, but to acknowledge Him in all our ways. When you do, He cuts a straight path through. So what does trusting God, refusing pride, and taking the straight road have to do with believing you receive when you pray? Grab your Bible and let’s talk about Why You Need Scripture Before You Pray in Faith. That’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.
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This Week: Discover why you need Scripture that covers your case before you believe you receive when you pray.
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Accept the Challenge
Trust. Search. Believe.
Don’t put the weight of your life on your own understanding—put your weight on God’s Word.
Take one thing you’re believing God for this week and ask the Holy Spirit to help you find Scripture that covers your case.
Search the Scriptures—do not assume the Scriptures.
Before you believe you receive, find the Word you should believe.
Scripture:
Proverbs 11:5 (NASB 2020) —
The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way, But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
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Each week's podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believers life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week's question:
Join This Conversation
Question:
What are you believing God for right now, and what Scripture have you found that covers your case?
Share:
Have you ever discovered that you were leaning on what seemed logical instead of looking to the Lord for His direction?
Remember:
Before you believe you receive, find the Word you should believe.
About Emery and Sharon
For nearly five decades, Emery has devoted his life to helping people grow in Christ through the power of the Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Together with his wife, Sharon — his partner in life and ministry for 44 years — he equipped believers to live Spirit-filled, practical lives of faith.
At the heart of the mission is this: helping believers apply God's words so faith becomes active and unstoppable.
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Podcast Notes:
Well again, welcome.
Let’s talk to the Lord.
Father God, thank you for your mercies-they are new and fresh everuday. Grant unto us today a spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing you more. Bring our experience up to the level of Your Word in Jesus Name, Amen.
What Believing You Receive Does Not Mean
Mark 11:24 (NASB 2020) — 24 Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.
We’ve been talking about the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
Recall the two things that ‘believing that you receive’ does not mean.
It does not mean imitate the a testimony that you heard.
Someone received from God and you copy that experience word for word and action for action.
You will find that it doesn’t work with any consistency.
Believing you receive also does not mean ignore the Holy Spirit of God.
Don’t Leave Your Helper Out of the Process
John 14:16–17 (AMP) — 16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever— 17 The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit of God is your Helper.
He is the Helper.
Why would you turn down help?
It’s obvious that you need help—why would God give you someone to help if you could do it on your own?
Oh my, doesn’t that make sense?
You need all the help you can get—so thank God for the Holy Spirit of God’s help in prayer.
Thank God that He helps us ‘find Scripture that promises us the things we ask for.’
Do not leave Him out of the process.
Before you believe you receive, find the Word you should believe.
What Are You Leaning On?
Every Jesus follower must commit to Proverbs 3:5.
Many can quote these verses—but the masses of Christendom do not live it.
They don’t even come close.
You’ll see that in a moment.
Having an ‘I already know that’ attitude with Scripture can be a brutal beast.
It can lull you into thinking you’re okay.
But, cutting straight to the truth tells the story.
So…
Proverbs 3:5–7 (NASB 2020) — 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. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
And with that thought here are the Definitions of the Day.
Let’s take up the major words in these two verses and see where we stand.
When I did, I realized I needed to grow.
First, the word ’trust’ [batach] means to have a strong confidence or reliance upon someone or something.
Then comes the word translated ’lean’ [shaan] which means to put trust or confidence in or lean on for support.
Try balancing your weight by leaning on a spear.
Center the tip in the palm of your hand.
If you lean on it lightly—it will hurt lightly.
Put your full weight on it though and watch out.
What you lean on matters.
There is much conversation today about support systems.
Think about what happened with Silicon Valley Bank.
Thousands of people and businesses had their money deposited there.
Who thinks of a bank folding?
What they couldn’t see was the weakness developing inside the system.
One day, that system gave way.
Now think about Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
Here is the question did anyone ask the Lord about putting their money in that bank?
I don’t know the answer.
What I do know is that Lord tries to get people’s attention.
Check out that scratching you have in your inner man.
Getting real with this—operating by leaning on our senses—by what I know and what I see, can lead to bankruptcy.
It seems logical to bank all your money.
That makes sense—until it doesn’t.
But what may have worked before—may not work now.
In one ‘banking’ day, investors pulled 40 billion dollars out of Silicon Valley Bank.
It shut the whole thing down.
The subsequent investigation showed the mismanagement of assets.
Who could see all those facts?
Those deposited couldn’t and neither can you see the all-in-all of a path YOU choose.
But, God can.
That’s why the next verse says, “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.”
Don’t put the full weight of your life on the limited support system of your own understanding.
Ask the One who can see what you can’t see.
Before you believe you receive, find the Word you should believe.
Now, you’re not alone here.
All of us have leaned on our own understanding and got left stranded at the bus station.
So cheer up.
God’s Word is still there for you to act on today.
Your Heart or Your Understanding?
Now comes the words ’heart’ and ’understanding.’
The word ’heart’ [leb] occurs 860 times in the Old Testament and it means the inner man.
Putting that back into Proverbs 3:5: trust, lean, rely, and have strong confidence in the Lord with your inner man.
On the flip-side: do not trust, lean, rely, and have strong confidence, in your understanding.
That’s the word ‘heart’—now the word ‘understanding.’
’Understanding’ [binah] is rational thought—clear and logical thinking.
We’re laying this groundwork because we’re talking about the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
Trust in the Holy Spirit with all your heart and do not lean on clear and logical thinking.
Faith is of the heart, where the Holy Spirit is—not your head.
Look to your heart before you look to your brain.
This is a marvelously difficult adjustment to make.
We have been trained from birth to use our heads.
Our entire education system is based on training clear and logical thought.
So it’s quite easy to try and take matters into our own brain cells.
Don’t Lean On the World’s Way of Thinking
The problem is worse than simply failing to check-in with God.
I mean you’re a child of God not some criminal on probation.
Relying on the Lord is trusting in who God is and how life in His Kingdom works.
When you lean to your logical thought patterns, you break the system.
The Kingdom of Heaven is not set up for Lone Rangers to make their own ‘decision-making’ calls—it’s designed for the all-knowing, only-wise God to do that.
Omniscience trumps logical thinking every time.
Here’s where the weeds get deep.
James 4:4 (NASB 2020) — 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Let’s look at the first sentence word by word.
4 You adulteresses…
The “you” here is plural—the KJV’s old word “ye” makes that clear.
James addresses the entire group using the feminine plural word—adulteresses.
What happened to the guys?—the adulterers?
The imagery is the Bride of Christ shunning her husband, the Lord Jesus, by engaging in a scandalous affair with the world.
Read it careful—understand it clear.
There’s major negativity in James 4:4 towards believers living by the principles of the world system instead of God’s.
4 …do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility [enmity—KJV] toward God?
Look at this: adultery, friendship with the world, and enemies of God—what a list!
On your best day, these words must never appear on your resume.
How bad is adultery?
It’s death-penalty bad according to the Old Testament.
What about the word ’friendship’ [philia] with the world?
Scanning the lexicons shows that ’friendship’ [philia] means love, fondness, devotion, or affectionate regard.
Now hang the words ‘with the world’ on the end of this definition and the problem is evident.
John 15:19 (KJV) — 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
If the world hates you, why would you want to shack-up with the haters?
No, you want to sever that relationship so that even the dust of the world’s way of operating does not stick to your shoes.
You’ve got to rid yourself of the world’s way of operating.
Have you heard someone boast, “I am a man of the world?”
I hope that someone is not a Jesus lover.
He should declare instead, “I am a man of God.”
If you’re unconvinced, there’s more persuasion for us in the first sentence of James 4:4.
Observe the words ‘hostility towards God’—that’s the NASB.
KJV says enmity.
Consider hostility or enmity [echthra]—it oozes out deep-seated ill-will, animosity and hatred.
Romans 8:7 (KJV) — 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity [same word echthra] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Devotion to the world system is deep-seated hostility towards God.
Now look at the next sentence in James 4:4.
Just to make sure we get this, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle James, repeats it for us but adds the chilling word, enemy.
Therefore whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
The word ’wants to’, in the phrase ‘wants to be a friend of the world’ speaks to a conscious decision based on definite reflection.
The ‘want-toer’ (if I could say it that way) sat down and thought about the decision to hook-up with the world.
This was a logical and clear decision of the will.[1.]
This choice put’s you in God’s crosshairs as an enemy combatant.
Wow, just hear those words, enemy of God—do those words make your palms sweat?
Our reaction might be really?—Yes absolutely, James is talking to believers here.
He’s addressing people who have said YES to Jesus while their decision-making lives are saying NO.
Wow!—if that doesn’t shake up your spinal cord, what will?
Remember the definition for understanding in Proverbs 3:5, clear and logical thinking?
You don’t have to decide, “I’m going to live like the world,” to lean on a way of thinking that came from the world.
This gets us back to assuming the Scriptures.
We can assume all is well.
But it’s not until Jesus followers, with the help of the Holy Spirit, see themselves in the mirror of the Word that they discover how some of their ways are not God’s ways at all.
Here are some revealing questions to ask.
Is the Lord directing you? If not who is?
Are you relying on your logical thinking or on God?
If a married man relies on another woman for sex, that’s adultery.
If a Jesus follower relies on logic, the internet, or AI in place of God’s Word, guess what that is?
Are you talking to the Lord about your decisions or is clarity of thought your go-to?
These are honest questions that you can bounce off your heart.
So let this thought burn within your heart: Friendship with the world is a deliberate alignment of your values with the world’s system.
Determine to lean on God, not your own understanding.
Search the Scriptures—do not assume the Scriptures.
Before you believe you receive, find the Word you should believe.
Acknowledge Him and He Will Cut Your Path Straight
The picture is now coming into view.
Trust in the Lord with your all.
Do not trust in clear and logical thinking.
Now, for the critical word in Proverbs 3:6, acknowledge.
Proverbs 3:5–6 (NASB 2020) — 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.
We now have the life-changing sequence—trust—do not lean—acknowledge God in ALL your ways.
I capitalized the word ALL.
There it is—the three-letter word that flips your world right-side up.
‘All your ways’ does not mean some of your ways.
ALL means just that—ALL.
Now comes the next plural word, ’ways’ [derek].
So, more than one road or multiple choices.
If you allow Him, God will sort out the choices and give you the single right path you must take.
This is how you live life today—tomorrow—whenever—acknowledge the Lord.
This starts out cumbersome—“My goodness I have to ask the Lord about everything?”
That’s what your parents did with you.
As a two-year old human, switching your diapers side-to-side, you weren’t calling the shots—mom and dad were.
Remember, you are a developing C-H-I-L-D of God.
All your heavenly DAD wants to do is make the call.
Father always knows best.
In all your roads, acknowledge Him.
The Hebrew word translated ’acknowledge’ [yāda] means to accept someone to be what He is claimed.
The verb is imperative—a direct command: “Know Him in all your ways.”
The word ‘acknowledge’ conveys intimate acquaintance with God not general knowledge of His existence.
Who does God claim to be?—all-knowing.
Acknowledging means accepting God’s omniscience to accurately direct.
Who does God claim to be?—all-powerful.
Acknowledging means accepting His omnipotence to get you where you’re supposed to be.
Who does God claim to be?—ever-present.
Acknowledging means trusting the Lord’s omnipresence, He will never leave you.
Is that exciting or what?
What a recipe for fruitfulness!
Let’s get to the phrase ‘make your paths straight.’
Coming to a place of intimately knowing that God is who He claims to be and trusting Him with the roads you take, leads to straight paths.
Again note the word paths is plural.
What’s fabulous about this phrase ‘will make straight’ is the Greek form of it in the Septuagint.
Now, for the listeners who do not understand what the Septuagint is.
It is the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made a few centuries before Jesus’ birth when the Hebrew language fell into decline.
The words ’will make straight’ come from the same Greek verb used in 2 Timothy 2:15, ‘rightly dividing,’ that we studied in a previous podcast.
’Rightly divide’ [orthotomeō] means to ‘cut a straight path to.’
The translators used this word to convey to us that if we will accept who the Lord claims to be, trusting Him to direct us, He will cut a straight fruit-bearing road free of deviation and lost ground.
These paths become crooked when human logic is doing the road construction.
Have you ever been there? I have.
And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.
Have you heard of the Big Dig?
Boston had an enormous traffic problem.
Have you ever driven through a road construction project that seemed like it would never end?
Boston had one that lasted fifteen years!
Imagine trying to get to work everyday, detour here, lane closed there, take this exit over there.
On and on for fifteen years.
Your every waking thought is, ‘How can I get around this?’
That’s Proverbs 3:5–6.
You don’t lean on your own understanding and start cutting your own exit.
You don’t get around God—you go to God.
You acknowledge Him.
When you do, the Lord says, “I’ll take care of the road construction.”
“I will make your paths straight and you will end up where you should be.”
Crooked self-directed paths are time wasters.
The quickest way to victory is the straight path.
The Smooth Way Is The Straight Way
The Word of God has more to say on the ‘straight way.’
Proverbs 11:5 says.
Proverbs 11:5 (NASB 2020) — 5 The righteousness of the blameless will smooth his way, But the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
Did you hear the word smooth?
You guessed it the Septuagint has [orthotomeō]—to ‘cut a straight path to.’
That means the righteousness of the righteous—doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do—cuts a straight path.
The way In Proverbs 11:5 is singular.
Why is it singular here but plural in Proverbs 3:5?
Righteousness is not multiple choice paths.
You shall not steal is a single path.
You shall not lie is the same deal.
The righteous way is always a single lane highway.
The plural paths in Proverbs 3:6 allows us to picture all the different roads we face in life—all of the decisions we must make.
Do I go left, do I go right?—do I take this job, move to this city, pick this Scripture or that one?
You acknowledge God’s wisdom and He shows you what the effective time-saving choice is.
So, when it comes to doing right…
Proverbs 11:3 (NASB 2020) — 3 The integrity of the upright will guide them, But the perversity of the treacherous will destroy them.
Integrity guides us to the singular ‘righteous road.’
The world system has superb difficulty with the Lord’s ‘one-path’ mindset.
God-less people like multiple choices based on felt need.
Situational ethics, have you ever heard of that?
It’s where moral shifts are made based on circumstance.
You won’t find any of these ethics in God’s Kingdom.
There are places where I need direction:
Lord, which road?
And there are situations where asking for direction would be absurd.
Lord, should I tell the truth or lie?
You don’t need the Holy Spirit’s leading when God’s Word has already told you which road is right.
Integrity guides you there.
The right path—the right way—that’s the Lord’s way.
Pursuing Humility In Your Decision Making
Do you enjoy having the sound of echoes splattering against canyon walls?
So, picture yourself in a canyon where you quote Proverbs 3:5—‘Do not lean on your own understanding.’
The reverb from the canyon comes back, ‘Do not be wise in your own eyes.’
In disbelief you try again, and this time the echo from the canyon comes back saying, ‘Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.’
That echo is Proverbs 3:7.
Proverbs 3:7 (NASB 2020) — 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil.
Read all three verses together and note the link.
Being ‘wise in your own eyes’ (Proverbs 3:7) has common ground with not acknowledging the Lord in all your ways (Proverbs 3:6).
Let’s shorten the phrase ‘wise in your own eyes’ to wise-eyes.
Have you ever heard of wise-guys?—well this is wise-eyes.
Wise-eyes are self-trusting eyes.
Wise-eyes are prideful eyes.
Wise-eyes believe they have accumulated enough clear logical thinking to ‘make the call.’
But how can you make the call when there lies the uncertainty of tomorrow?
James 4:14 (NASB 2020) — 14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For you are just a vapor that appears for a little while, and then vanishes away.
God’s Word keeps echoing the warning about wise-eyes.
Proverbs 12:15 (NASB 2020) — 15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a person who listens to advice is wise.
Proverbs twelve introduces the fool to us.
Fool is a wild word in the Hebrew.
Transliterated into English the word is E-W-I-L.
EWIL sure looks close to EVIL.
That doesn’t mean that the word foolish means evil but it certainly raises the eyebrow when you see how it’s spelled.
A fool is the opposite of a wise person.
Across the breadth of Scripture, fools are angry (Proverbs 12:16), quick-tempered (Proverbs 29:11), arrogant, careless (Proverbs 14:16), and easily irritated (Job 5:2).
A wise person trusts in the Lord with all His heart.
Proverbs 10:8 (NASB 2020) — 8 The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will come to ruin.
Wise-eyes make their own call.
Wise-hearts receive God’s call.
The fool on the other hand, well you get the idea.
Proverbs 28:26 (NASB 2020) — 26 One who trusts in his own heart is a fool, But one who walks wisely will flee to safety.
You see, there is a Hades-gulf of a difference between wise-eyes and wise-heart.
This next verse amplifies this.
Proverbs 26:12 (NASB 2020) — 12 Do you see a person wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Did you hear this?
Assuming omniscience, which is what you do when you don’t check in with God, is fool’s territory.
But, it’s worse than that.
There is more hope for a fool, the Scripture says, than a person wise in his own eyes.
Considering the negativity associated with the word ‘fool’ that we just heard…
Why would anyone want to be labeled wise-eyes?
Isaiah 5:21 adds its input to wise-eyes by saying wise-eyes are woeful-eyes.
Isaiah 5:21 (NASB 2020) — 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes And clever in their own sight!
You don’t need additional Scriptures to know that being worse off than a fool and under a woe are super-bad.
These should be enough incentive in these two truths to over-haul your way of operating.
On the flip-side, the way of the wise-heart is the way of humility.
Proverbs 11:2 (NASB 2020) — 2 When pride comes, then comes dishonor; But with the humble there is wisdom.
The humble listen to instruction, seek the safety of counsel, and trust the Lord with all their heart.
Putting the Word of God Into Action
Here’s your challenge this week.
Take one thing that you are believing God for.
Don’t start with what someone else did.
Don’t start with what seems logical to you.
Start with the Lord.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you find Scripture that covers your case.
Search the Scriptures—do not assume the Scriptures.
When you find that Word, put your weight on it.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Don’t lean on your own understanding when your head starts telling you something different.
Acknowledge Him on the road you’re traveling.
Wise-eyes make their own call.
Wise-hearts receive God’s call.
Take the straight road.
Now again, it may be that you don’t realize that you’ve been operating out of your head instead of the Lord’s direction to your heart.
Maybe you’re just realizing your need and you’re making the switch.
That’s what putting the Word of God into action looks like.
You recognize where you’ve been leaning and you shift your weight.
You stop making your own call and start acknowledging Him.
You ask the Holy Spirit for His help.
You search the Scriptures for what God has said.
Then you put your weight on His Word.
Now Father God, thank you for your wisdom in sending the Holy Spirit into the earth to help us to pray. We honor you Jesus’ Name, Amen.
So right, now look to the Holy Spirit down inside you and say these words.
Holy Spirit we look to you right now, to help us know the Scripture we need to stand on and the way that we are to take.
It’s no more complicated than that.
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You’ll find the Companion Study Guide and Teacher’s Guide for this episode on the Episode Resources page at emeryhorvath.com. As well
Use those resources to go back through the Scriptures we covered today and get these truths down in your heart.
And join me next week as we continue looking at the Prayer of Believing that You Receive.
Why You Need Scripture Before You Pray in Faith.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.
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If “Why You Need Scripture Before You Pray in Faith” encouraged you, don’t miss “Why You Are Free Because Healing Is the Children’s Bread”—see what Scripture says about healing and why knowing what God has already said gives you a solid foundation for believing you receive.
Visit the Episode →References
- D. Müller, “Will, Purpose,” in New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, ed. Lothar Coenen, Erich Beyreuther, and Hans Bietenhard (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986), 1016–1017. ↩︎