In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him

by David Roberts

Proverbs 3:6 is a well known and often quoted Scripture verse. “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” The goal is to have the great Creator and Operator of the universe actually take the time and interest to direct our paths. That sounds like an offer too good to be true, yet it is Scripture; it is God’s Word, and He is no liar since the father of lies can find nothing in Him. Who wouldn’t want his or her paths directed by the One Who knows the future now before it happens to us? In my personal desire to let Father direct my paths, I began to look more closely at the conditions of this great promise. This mini-study is the result of that search.

The condition that we must meet in order to have God direct our paths is to acknowledge Him in all our ways. I started to apply this language to my everyday life even in small “ways.” Something would happen—especially something I hadn’t expected to happen, and I would then recognize an opportunity to “acknowledge” the Lord. I would just say, “Lord, I acknowledge You in. . .” (whatever incident had just taken place).

An example occurred yesterday morning. I had walked out of our apartment, locked the door and descended two steps toward my assigned work for the day, when suddenly I remembered I had forgotten my work keys hanging on the wall inside the door. Any number of times this has happened before, and usually I would get angry over the inconvenience of having to unlock the door and retrieve my key ring. Today, however, I said, “Lord, I acknowledge You in this minor problem. I could have gotten down the fifteen steps before I thought of it—or even worse all the way to the office building (the steps never counted), but You stopped me on step two!” This example, though fresh in my memory, is, in the greater scheme of things, inconsequential. But over the months I have practiced this habit, the Lord has reminded me that when we are faithful in small things, He can trust us in bigger things.

I am beginning to acknowledge Him in more and more of my ways. I acknowledge Him in giving me this part-time job this late in my life. I acknowledge Him in my 34 years of marriage to a wonderful Christian woman. I acknowledge Him in the lives of our children, their marriages, and their children being brought up in the knowledge of the Lord. 

“Ways” in Hebrew is a trodden road or figuratively, a course of life or plan of action. Daily I consider: Where is the Lord leading me now? What plans does He have for me? What customs do I have that I can acknowledge Him in? And what practices do I have that He needs to extract from my personality? I am discovering that the very action of acknowledging Him in some “way” is a good route to let Him root out what doesn’t please Him, and to be encouraged in what does please Him. “Lord, I acknowledge You in helping me to express this to others. And I acknowledge You in having my wife, Karen, publish this blog, which has been dedicated to You from the beginning.”

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