“In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him” – Proverbs 3:6

by Chris Simmons

Solomon learned a great deal about living “life…under the sun.” In the book of Ecclesiastes, we read how he sought for happiness and pleasure in almost everything and took it upon himself to find the secret to a fulfilled and meaningful life. In the end, Solomon discovered that life without God is both meaningless and futile and asked the question “who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?” (Ecclesiastes 2:25). Solomon’s point is that God needs to be at the center of your life in everything that you do and as he wrote the Proverbs, he addressed this in Proverbs 3:6 where we read, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” What does it mean to “acknowledge” God and what is the application to “all our ways”? Finally, what does the promise of making our “paths straight” mean to us?

It’s interesting to note that the Hebrew word for “acknowledge” (yada) actually carries the idea of coming to know someone by observing, reflecting and experiencing – thus, to acknowledge God by getting to know Him, fully and completely through our meditation and study of His revelation to man. In a practical sense, how then do we “acknowledge” God?

First, we acknowledge God by submitting or yielding our will to God’s in everything we do and acknowledge that He knows best. We must come to admit that “a man’s way is not in himself; nor is it in a man to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23) and that death results by pursuing that which “seems right” to us (Proverbs 16:25). James urges us to acknowledge God by having the attitude, “If the Lord wills” (James 4:15) regarding our plans. We need to make our plans in life with the desire that God bless us in those things that are pleasing in His sight, just as He has directed us (Proverbs 16:9). Why study the subject of Bible authority? If we are going to “acknowledge God in all our ways,” we begin by recognizing His authority as it is revealed in His word. All we do is either by human authority or divine authority (Matthew 21:23-27) and there is no acknowledgment of God in human authority. In Proverbs chapter 3, the prior verse (Proverbs 3:5) speaks of the need to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” and how we can’t “lean on our own understanding.” The following verse (Proverbs 3:7) speaks of not being “wise in your own eyes” and the need for genuine humility. There is no acknowledgement of God if we simply acknowledge His name but do not do the things that He says, or do what we want without His authority (Matthew 7:21-23).

Do we not “acknowledge” God when we unceasingly come to Him in prayer (I Thessalonians 5:17) – at all times and in all situations of life? If we come into a room of people, we acknowledge their presence by speaking to them. We need to acknowledge God by not being anxious about life, but through “prayer and supplication… let (our) requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6). We acknowledge God by believing that we can indeed cast all our anxiety on Him because of His unwavering care for us (I Peter 5:8). Acknowledgment of our heavenly Father must also include our thankfulness for all He’s done for us. We’re taught that we should always acknowledge those who extend kindness to us or bless us with gifts. How much more do we need to recognize God for His temporal and eternal spiritual blessings in Christ and express our thanks to Him (Colossians 4:2; 3:15)?

When we realize that all that we have is from God (James 1:17), beyond being thankful, we need to learn to acknowledge God by returning to Him of that which has blessed us. Solomon noted in Proverbs 3:9, “Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce.” When we “honor” God from our blessings cheerfully, ungrudgingly and free of compulsion (II Corinthians 9:7) we do so realizing that we are but stewards of these things and acknowledge Him as the rightful owner, being the Creator of all things. May we ever acknowledge God by giving back to Him!

Finally, we acknowledge God by seeking every opportunity to worship Him and to do so always “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). John says such people “the Father seeks to be His worshippers” (verse 23). As David wrote in Psalms 29:2, we need to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name” as we worship our heavenly Father. To forsake opportunities of worship (Hebrews 10:25) and to fail to seek opportunities to express our reverence (Hebrews 12:28) is to fail to acknowledge our “great and awesome God” (Deuteronomy 7:21; 10:17; Nehemiah 1:5; Daniel 9:4).

To acknowledge God “in all our ways” means there isn’t a part of our life that is omitted. We are to acknowledge God in our homes, our families, and in our marriages. We are to acknowledge God in our work and in all of our social interactions with others. We’re to acknowledge God in our work and worship with the church. We’re to acknowledge God when we’re at home and acknowledge Him when we’re away from home on vacation. We’re to acknowledge God in our good days and in our bad days. We’re to acknowledge God when we’re young (Ecclesiastes 12:1) and when we’re older (Titus 2:2-3) – continuing to acknowledge Him all the days of our life. We’re to acknowledge God by putting on His armor and never taking it off (Ephesians 6:10ff).

The promise if we do “acknowledge God in all our ways” is that God will “make our paths straight.” The Hebrew word for “straight” means “to lead, direct, to lead straight along” (Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon) while Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words adds that it simply means “to be right.” In Matthew chapter 7, the focus of Jesus’ discussion of the narrow and straight way (verses 13-14) is where it leads us to; that is “to life.” The point of the straight paths Solomon is referring to is not that we will have a life free of problems and challenges but the point is the success of where those straight paths lead – to eternal life. If we walk as Christians, always and in every circumstance, acknowledging God then we are promised the “entrance into the eternal kingdom will be abundantly supplied” to us (II Peter 1:11) and we will “be right” with God forever.