“Trust in the Lord and do good; live
in the land and be safe.”(Psalm 37:3)
How easy is it to
say “I trust in the Lord” but how hard is it to actually do so.
There comes a time in our lives when we look at where we are and we
can’t possibly see how it will work out; we are completely
defeated, lost and confused. In these times we feel trapped with no
hope for an escape. We are in the dark without a flashlight. I
find that often times however, the problem is not the fact that we
are in the dark without a flashlight, it is that we have been given a
flashlight but we have forgotten to turn it on.
I have found myself
recently, in an extremely heavy spirit of confusion, anxiety,
hopelessness and fear. My heart cries out and is desperately trying
to run and hide to a place it can call home. I have come to a place
where all my expectations have been defeated. I can only relate
this feeling to the feeling you get when you spin around a hundred
times then try to run in a straight line. You become so dizzy that
when you try to run, you are confused as to where you are and the
destination seems impossible to reach. But in the midst of all this
confusion I have somehow managed to spot a hand reaching out to me,
waiting to guide me during my time of these ever reoccurring dizzy
spells.
Psalm 37:5 says
“Give yourselves to the Lord; trust in him and he will help you; he
will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun”. It is at
that time when we are so dizzy and we see that hand reaching out to
us that we grab it and trust that it will lead us to where we need to
go. We get so caught up in ourselves and our struggles that we
forget that our lives belong to the Lord and in that, He gives our
lives purpose that a lot of times is beyond our human knowledge.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust the Lord your God with all your heart
and lean not on your own understandings; in all your ways submit to
him and he will straighten your paths”. If we say that we believe
that God is all powerful, it would be hypocritical of us to think
that God’s hand is not at work in every aspect of our lives, even
the hardship. We have to deny ourselves of thinking that we can walk
in a straight line amongst the dizziness of our lives and we must
take God’s hand and trust that He will be our strength and our eyes
to find that path that we are so struggling to find.
In Isaiah 55 the
Lord declares “As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high
are my ways and thoughts above yours”. We have to trust that
there is nothing we can do that will change God’s will. We have to
understand that God’s knowledge is far beyond even the surface of
what our mind’s eye can see. Job says “God has been at work in
the North and South, but still I have not seen him. Yet God knows
every step I take . . . He never changes. No one can oppose him or
stop him from doing what he wants to do”. God’s will is being
fulfilled even when we are unaware of what’s happening. It is our
job simply to be still and know that He is the Lord. We have to
entrust our lives to Him because even when we see no hope, even when
we can’t see any possible solution, chances are that God has
already resolved the problem. Philippians 4: 7 states “God’s
peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts
and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus”. God is our protector.
He will do with us what He intends; He will guide us along and His
Spirit will be with us always so that we are never walking alone in
darkness.
So must we “be
patient and wait for the Lord to act” (Psalm 37:7). God’s will
is being fulfilled but it is on HIS TIME!!! I think that we trust
that the Lord will act but we get so discouraged when He doesn’t
send a lightning bulb immediately after we put our trust in Him.
Everything happens according to God’s will and we have to be
patient because our resolution may not always look as we expect or
come at a time that we anticipate. We can’t have expectations of a
God that is beyond our comprehension; we can’t expect God to work
in our time zone when He Himself is outside of time. If we truly
give ourselves to Him, we have to be willing to follow His plan even
if it doesn’t always look as we had hoped it would and even if it
doesn’t fit into our time frame.
Strangely enough
though, when we look back at where we came from we can see that there
is no other way we could be the person that we are today without
having come that specific way. We can always look back and see that
God was at work and that everything happened at just the exact moment
it was meant to.
The most important
thing to remember when we put or trust in the Lord is that He will
never leave us. Psalm 37:28 says “for the Lord loves what is right
and does not abandon his faithful people”. If we put our trust in
the Lord and follow Him as He tells us to, we should be fully
confident that He will not lead us astray and that He will never give
up on us no matter how many times we stumble. HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US
AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN SEPARATE US FROM HIM. “For I am
certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor
life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the
present nor the future, neither the worlds above or the world
below-there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to
separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus”.
There is nothing that can make God love us more and there is nothing
that can make God love us less. There is nothing that can separate
us from God, not even ourselves. Not even our own flesh, nor our
minds, nor our hearts can separate us from God’s will and in that
we put all our trust because even in the chaos of everything that our
day holds, we are still His beloved children and He will never
abandon us. So then what have we to fear? What have we to worry?
Our lives are out of our control, all we must do is simply trust God
and walk in His protection and guidance.
I feel like it has
been ingrained in my mind ” trust in the Lord, trust in the
Lord, have faith, trust in the Lord . . .” and yet I come into
a time when this message is crucial and I feel like I am Peter when
He is stepping off the boat and feels the strong wind. He began to
sink into the water; I begin to sink in the depths of my own
understanding and knowledge. I always read this passage when I am
feeling hopeless because I always start to sink just as Peter started
to sink but reading on it always happens this way, every time I read
it, the words never change no matter what the circumstance is: “At
once Jesus reached out and grabbed hold of him and said ‘What
little faith you have, why did you doubt?”. Jesus would not have
called Peter out on the water if He knew that Peter was incapable of
the task. God will not let us go anywhere that we can’t get out
of, He won’t allow us to do something that we cannot accomplish no
matter how impossible it may seem; we have to trust that or we will
forever live in fear and confusion. Peter walking on water is a
pretty impossible task but notice how Jesus was there to save him “at
once” when he saw that Peter was sinking and heard Peter’s cry
for a rescuer. I was reading the letter that my mother wrote to me
just before I left for this incredible journey and at one point she
writes:
“There may be times when you feel hopeless or discouraged but
remember to trust in God and keep going. Keep praying and remember:
God is a never-ending source of power and courage. When you are
tired, He will give you strength. When you feel hopeless, He will
remind you of His promises. When you grieve, he will wipe away your
tears. He will be there throughout your journey to protect and care
for you.”
She attached several verses to
encourage me in times such as these. The one that stuck out the most
to me was Psalm 32: 6-8 which says “So all your loyal people should
pray to you in times of need; when a great flood comes rushing in, it
will not reach them. You are my hiding place; you will save me from
trouble. I sing aloud of your salvation, because you protect me.
The Lord says ‘I will teach you the way you should go; I will
instruct you and advise you”. He is always with us and my
challenge for you is to seek Him in all of your times of trouble and
confusion and put all of your trust in Him because He is fighting for
you, He has a solution and He will show you the way. He is with you
always; He will never leave you and nothing will ever separate you
from His love. “May God the source of all hope, fill you with all
joy and peace by means of your faith in Him that your hope will
continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit”. Take heart,
know that He is Lord, trust in Him and have hope that His will be
done. Amen.
