Do I REALLY Trust Him?

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “ Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”  (NIV)

Trust in the Lord. He wants us to trust Him.  I want my sons to trust me!  When the people you love trust you, it creates a special bond and reminds us of what matters in life. When I find that my sons do trust me, I want to bless them, protect them, shield them, and shower them with whatever I am can to show them how much I love them. I am a mere mortal—flawed and cracked— Imagine how much more God wants to do the same for those sons and daughters on this earth that trust Him!  Are you not trusting Him just yet? If not, you’re not feasting on the best He wants to set before you. You could be doing better in all matters of your life if you chose to place your total confidence in the might of His arm. Do you recall the story in Exodus of God calling Moses to speak to Pharaoh about letting the Israelites be freed from slavery? He gave Moses incredible powers: to turn a staff into a snake, or to make his arm leprous one moment and healed the next.   Anyway, God told Moses to go and demand that Pharaoh let the Israelites go free to worship Him, but Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?  Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else..  Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses…” Exodus 4:1014, NIV It delights God when we determine to trust Him, but it ticks Him off when we don’t believe  Him!  He’s given us the tools to bring about miracles and usher in justice, freedom, and a new way of living, and here we are, some of us right now, hearing the call of God, but asking Him to find someone else! Why? Because, just like Moses, we don’t trust God, or, unlike Moses, we’re just too lazy! We live in a nation right now being led by men and women that appear to be afraid of Putin, Xi,  the “Little Rocket Man” in North Korea, and dictators in the Middle East and Cuba.   God bless those that dare to do the right thing, not the politically expedient thing.  God help the USA if we don’t stand up to bullies like the Pharaohs and dictators of our time.  Are we listening to God, or the experts on TV and in the newspapers?

Trust in God, my friends, and trust totally if you want peace and the full extent of His blessing.  Totally means simply this: Abandon it to God. Solomon says, “with all your heart”, because the wisest man that ever lived knew that people often say one thing with their mouths but believe something else in their hearts. We sing songs about desiring God and trusting God—was it from your lungs… or your heart… when you sing? Do we mean it from the depths of our souls?

Can we testify that we have totally trusted Him and then look back and admit that He has also never abandoned us?   Right now, this Sunday, do you trust Him, and have you given to Him your burdens, your fears, some new, scary venture you’re about to start, a new relationship that causes your heart to flutter?  Do you trust God to direct you to that right job, the perfect spouse, the right vocation, the desperately needed answer for something you are struggling with even this very second? The challenge to trusting God is to stop trusting ourselves.  The older we get, either the wiser we get about how just how limited and ignorant we are, or the more arrogant we get about assuming that “we’ve been there and done that” in all of life’s situations.  The Spirit of God said it clearly to Solomon:  “lean not on your own understanding”, or, to paraphrase, “trust God but do not trust yourself!”  But so often we get it backwards.   A smart man, who knew the treachery of a human heart, once said this: “I trust no one. Not even myself”. Josef Stalin. Don’t trust your own sagacity or man’s wisdom, just in the Lord. Look to Him for the answers to what is causing your heart to ache right now.  Don’t assume that you can handle all that the world can throw at you—you cannot—but He is more than able, and He wants to bless you. There are some things that a man does better and better with practice and experience, such as using a tractor, or throwing a football, or learning a new language.  But with the challenges of living in a hostile world, where the rules of right and wrong,  up and down, and even male and female, are changing right before us,  I realize that there are too many variables for me to get things right in my life the first time around. What worked in a bad relationship, or when I was in a pickle ten years ago, does not necessarily work the second time around—and I can’t afford to make too many more mistakes at this season of my life! So I am humbly asking Him to help me look beyond my own education, knowledge, and experience and for Him to lead me to the right path, choice, and outcome. The world is too big, other people are too powerful, and frankly, the world seems more dangerous to me, right now, than ever in my life.

         So trust Him; don’t trust your own experience when things get crazy in your life, but also “Submit to Him”.  What does that mean?  Accept His ways and methods for working things out. He does not do things as a man does, but like the One and Only Sovereign Creator does. His ways are different and far more mysterious than ours. He is not a man, and we are unaccustomed to the way He goes about getting things done—but He gets them done. Submit to Him means that, like Jesus at Gethsemane, you’re willing to surrender to His will in regard to the matter at hand.  I have to give up my tendency to give advice to God as to how to run the universe! Give Him the space and time He requires—give it up and leave it with Him.  It’s okay to tell God you’re mad, or sad, or worried, or unsure—but it’s not okay to dictate to Him how you want Him to remedy the situation!  Be grateful that God did not answer the prayers of your enemies when they pronounced nasty requests upon your life to God! I have rarely seen God intervene in my life and set things straight, just like I thought He would. Now His path is straight, but it’s rarely, if ever,  the path I envisioned.  But when it’s over, His path is quite straighter,  more beautiful, and peace-filled.  Somehow, when He intervenes in my life, He not only blesses me, but also others I never thought about.

But here’s the most important thing to hear: “ He will make your paths straight”……if you do those preceding things.  What a promise from our Maker and the Lover of our souls: He will work things out for us!!!!”   Friends, COUNT ME IN!    If God, the Creator, God Almighty, Mighty Savior, is offering to work things out in my life, I will gladly take the back seat and let Him drive! I am now the passenger!  Drive on, Lord! I no longer need MapQuest, Google, or Siri!  Is God driving? Then I can relax and truly enjoy the view. But that’s the gospel. God wants to be in control and let us enjoy the ride, so to speak. But do we trust Him to navigate?  Do we trust Him to drive, or do we have the impertinence to think that we are better drivers?

But there’s also a place and time that God will not move for us, drive for us, direct us, or dictate. And that’s in terms of how we express love to others.  He is not asking us to inquire or get permission before we show compassion to a lost soul, or to check with Him first, before we proceed to feed the poor or care for widows.  There’s no need for a prayer meeting when you have the opportunity to help the oppressed, injured, hungry, or weak. Paul and Peter did not seek the will of God or leadership of the Holy Spirit when they came across folks that were lame,  blind, or even dead!  They responded in the character of Jesus Christ by helping those in need—and so should we.  When the need is obvious, and you have both the resources and the physical presence, you don’t need to know their religion, or political party, or even their “gender-at-birth”; you’re obligated, as a servant of Jesus Christ, to help!

Anytime there’s a chance to help someone, and you dither about it, chances are you’ll never help them, and you’ll blame it on God for not “leading you” to act.  That’s garbage, of course, and we are held accountable for not visiting, clothing, feeding, and caring for the poorest, smallest, and seemingly most undeserving of those around us. I challenge you, this week, to go about your everyday routine of school or work and taking care of others—in a hostile world—but this week, look to Him, put your trust in Him, be sober and reticent about your own limitations, but watch Him surprise you with how much better things turn out, and let Him show you that He is far more than you ever expected Him to be.

The next time you’re faced with something that seems impossible to solve, or irreparable, or hopeless… the next time you think you are too small and the problem is too big, remember what God told Moses: Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

This same God is more than able to conquer any giant that gets in your way.

But remember, God answers the prayers of a child, not a wise man.