Undoubtedly like you, I can get so excited by a thought as I meditate on Scripture. Some verse comes alive, some thought just burns inside, and I worship my Savior anew.

I was thinking along these lines yesterday, as I thought about Proverbs 3:5-6:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

I became very excited that right here in the middle of Proverbs, which is so often used as a works-based rulebook for living, is a statement of grace.

Do you see it? This critical proverb states that God will make your paths straight if you entirely trust in Him.

How do I do that? How can I possibly trust in the Lord with all my heart? The answer that Scripture clearly presents for me is that I can’t… on my own. There’s no way I can totally trust in God. Romans 3:11, among others, states that I don’t even seek Him, much less trust Him.

So God must give me this all-consuming trust in Him. It’s a gift of grace, this trust.
This trust could be identified with another word: faith.

Another way to say this Proverb would be, “Have faith in God and don’t trust your own works; point to Him, He’ll take care of your life.”

I was thinking about this wondrous idea of faith as God’s gift, and ran across a wonderful passage written by Martin Luther in his commentary on Romans.

Luther writes, “Faith is not what some people think it is… ‘Faith is not enough,’ they say, ‘you must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.’ They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, ‘I believe.’

That description is not faith at all, he argues. Instead, “faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives us new birth from God… it changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers.” This true faith brings the Holy Spirit. This true faith can’t help doing good works all the time, without even stopping to think about it. And again, this faith is God’s work in us, not our own work at all.

Faith is not something you can make for yourself. Faith, to Luther, is “a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.”

He goes on to say that this faith is grounded in grace: “Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures.”

It is because of this fantastic gift, this gift of faith, we willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, and love and worship God. These latter things are all works, of course… but they are flowing out of and inextricably bound to the gift of faith, our utter whole-hearted trust of the Lord which He has, by His marvelous grace, given us.

So, yes, there is grace even in Proverbs. By grace, given faith – so that in faith I acknowledge Him, and my Lord directs my steps.

To Christ be the glory forever and ever and ever! He has done such wonders for us.

[for the interested, the quotes of Martin Luther come from “An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans,” from Vermischte Deutche Scriften (1854), trans. Robert Smith, pp. 124-125]