When we’re hurting, often our heads are cloudy and our hearts are so heavy we can’t bear the weight of our next decision.

We often feel stressed and fearful and disappointed. And, we don’t always feel capable of the small things we need to do — much less the big things that our soul really needs, like trusting God and praying. I know, I have been there.

When I was facing all the unknowns that go with a lumpectomy, the simplest tasks felt complicated; the most ordinary decisions seemed to take extraordinary effort.

The passage I clung to when I was in the midst of my breast cancer scare was Proverbs 3:5-6. It became a sort of spiritual to-do list that I could just follow so I didn’t have to constantly try to think and process — it told me what to do when I didn’t know what to do.

If you’re hurting or you know someone who is, let me give you the three things from Proverbs that helped me.

1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

All your heart? Not just some of your heart. All of it. To trust God with all of your heart means you hold nothing back. You don’t just trust Him with the good stuff, you trust Him with all your stuff.

We often hold back part of our hearts out of fear and a desire to self-protect, but this is God we’re talking about. HE is totally worthy of your trust because HE is totally trustworthy.

When I lay on that hospital bed waiting for my procedure to begin, that was all I prayed, “Lord, I trust You. With all I’ve got, I trust You.” Simple words, I know, but not always easy to pray — and mean.

But, when we’re hurting, what do we have to lose?! I lay there with nothing but the potential of a very bad outcome, trusting God in that moment was the least risky, and most wise thing I could do.  So I did. With my whole heart, I trusted Him and I trusted Him with the surgeon, the doctors, the outcome, the future.

If you’re hurting and you really don’t know what to do, trust Him with all you’ve got. When you do, you’ll find He really is all you need.

2. Lean not on your own understanding.

When we’re  leaning on our own understanding, we’re relying on ourselves, our wisdom, our plan.

Think about it, what happens when you lean on something? You rest your weight on it, expect that it will steady you and hold you up. Girl, our understanding isn’t always strong enough to lean on —to rest our whole weight upon, expecting it will hold us up. We don’t see the whole picture so we can’t understand the whole plan.

It’s our tendency to try to figure it all out, rely on our own plan.

But, when you lean on you,  you just multiply the weight you are carrying.

Its okay if you don’t understand. You don’t have to understand every thing to trust God with everything.

I didn’t understand the why and the timing of my cancer scare. The lump was discovered just as I finished filming my Missing Pieces video Bible study. The subtitle of that book is, “real hope when life doesn’t make sense!” Bingo! It made no sense to me but it didn’t have to. There is a great relief we experience when we release our need to understand and just trust God anyway.

If you’re hurting, don’t lean on your own understanding, lean on God instead.

3. In all your ways acknowledge Him.

When you’re hurting, you may not know what to do, but there will still be lots of things you need to do! So, in whatever you do, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. To acknowledge means to know and to recognize.

When you trust God with all your heart, you are acknowledging – knowing and recognizing – Him as fully trustworthy. When you lean on Him rather than your own understanding, you are acknowledging — knowing and recognizing – that His ways may not be your ways.

When you acknowledge God, you are affirming what you know to be true about Him and you are then able to see that truth in your situation.

For me, acknowledging Him in all my ways helped me to understand that no matter the outcome of my surgery, even if “it” wasn’t okay, I knew I would be okay.

If you’re hurting, acknowledge Him, know and recognize that He is with you, caring for you, supporting you and making sure that “you” will be okay.

The result?

And He will direct your paths.

My friend, you don’t have to know what to do. You can trust Him, lean more on His wisdom than your own, and acknowledge Him. And you will be blown away as He does direct you and your path, as He makes the path straight for you.

In my situation, the surgeon was able to get the scary cells and all the compromised tissue out and my margins were clear. Of course, that is the best outcome I could have hoped for. But, my healing journey didn’t occur with the outcome, it happened all along the way — as He directed my path.

He put me on a path of trusting Him no matter what. He guided me down a path of dependence on Him rather than dependence on me. He cleared the way before me to acknowledge Him, and know Him and see Him in my hurt.

The best comfort and healing doesn’t come from a great outcome, it comes from a relationship with God along the way.

So, if you’re hurting and truly do not know what to do, I promise you, God is right now clearing a way for you to walk in. He’s directing your path so trust Him and take the next step.