Let’s kick this whole trusting God thing up a few notches. I, along with many of you, say you trust God. I’ve thought I have known what that means for a long time, but really we don’t know much of anything. As the saying goes, ‘the more you learn, the more you realize how much you don’t know’.
God has guided me into a very trusting position over the last year and a half. The drastic things he’s had me do range from job changes, to pursuit of new endeavors, and even new relationships. In all these steps of growing my faith he keeps revealing to me that the places I have a hard time with are the places I’m not trusting in.
Do you ever feel like you know the next step but don’t see how there’s anyway for you to take it? That’s where it needs your trust in God to take that step of faith. That step that believes without seeing. If you believe that Jesus is your savior then that means you believe in the dead physically being raised back to life. That’s easy to believe because it includes a promise for us that we get eternal life, not eternal death. You get something out of it, so why not believe?
Although we are called to live in love and love is NOT self-seeking(1 Cor.13:5), all of the Christian life has something in it for you. We don’t live for Jesus because we get something out of it, we live for Jesus because we love him for loving us first.(1 John 4:19) If you did make the decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour only on the premise of one day entering heaven, God looks at the heart (2 Sam. 16:7). Your motives paired with your actions always matter. So though what you can get out of it is not our motivator, God wants us to know that he always has our best in mind.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Ephesians 1:3
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”
Malachi 3:10
Knowing that God only wants your best is key in trusting him to fulfill his promises. We are commissioned however, to take action in things in order for us to receive what he wants to give. These actions are to always be in love and obedience. So when you are operating in love and obedience, you position yourself to receive because you can’t receive from anyone you don’t trust.
“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.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
You’re not always going to understand how its all going to work out, but the scripture clearly states TRUST, don’t understand. Trusting is also submitting. Bowing to the creator saying that ‘you know better than me God, so I will listen and obey’.
God uses people to minister his teaching, guidance, encouragement, and blessing, so trust God that he gives you the discernment to know which people he is using. That way you can trust him by trusting the people he uses and receive all that he wants to give. Though people may fail, God never does, so we must remember to continually base our trust on his word not the actions of those around us.
Also, just an encouragement for those that have big things on their heart to step out in: there are a lot of people in the church that will try to discourage your drastic steps using ‘wisdom’ as an excuse. Don’t listen to people’s negativity. The enemy also uses people, including Christians, so be sure you discern rightly the voice of the Holy Spirit and always follow him!
The W.O.R.D. 