That Scary 5 Letter Word

Have you ever had one of those times when it just seemed as though God was putting that same scripture verse or topic in front of you over and over again in a matter of days?  Until finally you say, "Alright God, I get the picture."  Let's face it, we know from God's Word, and I am sure from personal experience, that when God repeatedly places a word or verse in front of us, He is trying to get a point across.

This is exactly where I found myself not that long ago.  It all began one Wednesday night during the children's ministry, when the adults sharing God's Word with the children gave them an object lesson.  The teachers had one of the boys come to the front of the sanctuary and stand on the platform.  Then they asked his dad to also come and stand at the foot of the platform.  What they did next was to ask the little boy to run and jump off the platform into his father's arms.  When the little boy came to a screeching halt at the edge of the platform before jumping everyone giggled.  The teachers looked in mock confusion at the small boy and asked why he stopped before he jumped. "Don't you trust your father?" they questioned.

Wow!  What a question.  What if you and I were asked the same question?  "Don't you trust your Father?"  God is our heavenly father.  Do we trust Him?  Really??

The writer of Proverbs, in that oh so familiar verse, writes "trust in the LORD with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding" (Prov. 3:5).  Many of us know the verse, but still in our flesh we struggle with the principle behind it.  The struggle is especially hard during those times when, as Lauren Daigle so beautifully sings it, God doesn't move the mountains we're needing Him to move, He doesn't part the waters we wish we could walk through, and He doesn't give the answers as we cry out to Him.

Yet God so wants you and me to understand the importance of trusting in Him, so much so that He had the various writers in Scripture share of this very thing with the same Hebrew word at least 79X in the Old Testament alone.  Jesus himself taught the people and His disciples that all could trust on the Father, Our Heavenly Father, who values each of us more than the sparrow, that He actually knows the number of hairs on our head (Matt. 10:29-31).

But in our flesh, in these earthly lives we lead, that little 5 letter word, trust, can be one of the scariest words in our vocabulary.  Why?  I believe there are many possible answers to this question, but one of which I am very familiar with is this:

            Trusting God means giving up control of your life,

            handing over the reins, the steering wheel,

    and 

     sitting in the passenger seat.  

How many of us hate sitting in the passenger seat?

When we truly trust God and sit in that passenger seat we are giving Him control of our lives, allowing Him to guide our steps and walking by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7).  Ultimately trusting God and giving Him control means admitting that someone other than ourselves knows what is best for us and holds the answers we cannot find on our own.  Sometimes that can be a tough one to swallow.  But if we will only look to His promises as we trust in Him, it will make it oh so much easier to loosen our grip on the steering wheel of our lives and hand over control to Our Father who loves us.


                                    "But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
                                                   whose confidence is in Him.
                                     They will be like a tree planted by the water
                                              that sends its roots by the stream.
                                              It does not fear when heat comes;
                                                   its leaves are always green.
                                              It has no worries in a year of drought
                                                    and never fails to bear fruit

                                                Jeremiah 17:7-8 (NIV)

Today as you hand over the reins or steering wheel, I pray that you will be blessed with an overwhelming peace and confidence in the one who holds your life in His hands. 

 May you be deeply rooted in Him, who loves you more than you can imagine.

 And may you be refreshed by His living water no matter the heat around you,

bearing fruit all of your days.

The Camel's Back

Ok ladies.  So this might sound like a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway.  Have you ever had one of those days when you feel as if there is one more thing thrown at you, you are just going to break?  That "one more thing" will prove to be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.  Sometimes it's a day, sometimes it's a week, and sometimes it's a season.  Maybe it was yesterday, last week, or last month.  Maybe it's today.  Regardless of when these days, weeks, or seasons come they often tend to make us want to cry, scream, or rip our hair out.  We might not actually follow through with the crying screaming, or ripping our hair out but the feeling is still there.  Those times when we want to lift our eyes up and say "REALLY!", or better yet cast our gaze downward and utter the same thing.

It is on days like this when it is hard to swallow the words of James as he writes, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;" (James 1:2), or the words of Paul in Romans where he writes, "but we glory in tribulations also" (Romans 5:3).  But both James and Paul go on to remind you and I as believers that these temptations and tribulations we are going through, the ones threatening to break the "camel's back”, are developing the patience and perseverance of our faith.  They are not pleasant and do not feel good when we are going through them, but just as Job’s perseverance through the trials and tribulations thrown at him proved his faith, so too will our perseverance be proof our great faith in the Lord.

Take a look at Job 1 and 2.  The LORD had great confidence in Job’s faith, and He has great confidence in your faith as well.

So on those days when you feel as if one more thing thrown at you is going to break “the camel’s back”, just remember:

                                                      The Lord believes in you.

                                                      He has confidence in you,

                                                                 In your faith.

                                                                       and

                                                    In your commitment to Him.

So embrace this day, week, or season of trial knowing of Your Father’s great faith and confidence in you.  And let this not be a time of defeat, but instead a time of victory!