TRUST THE LORD – EARNED OR ASSUMED?
Trust is a precious commodity. Because without it we are questioned in what we do and in our motives. Lack of trust is corrosive to relationship. Trust takes a long time to build up and is easily broken. Broken trust requires forgiveness and a willingness to give someone the benefit of the doubt to move on. To continue to think well of them.
Without trust, we can assume the worst of people.
And this may be based on past experience.
Or it may be based on our own prejudices and presumptions and judgements of the other.
Broken trust leads to a questioning of integrity.
So, it needs to based on reality not presumption.
How hard must it be to be a politician these days, given the widespread cynicism about “all of them”?
So here is a question.
Do you trust the Lord? And if so why? If not, why not?
There is much in scripture about trusting the Lord.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5)
Solomon is saying that God’s ways and God’s mind are so superior to ours that we ought to trust in him, because our ways and our minds might be faulty or have a narrow perspective. He is all knowing and eternal. We can’t compete with that!
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Psalm 37:5-6)
We can commit our decisions and our plans to him. For is our plans are his they will bear fruit. And he will make things right in eternity.
And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. (Psalm 9:10)
We sing that there is power in his name, so if we know his name(s) then we can trust in him. And he has never forsaken those who do trust in him.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. (Psalm 28:7)
God provides strength and protection and is worthy of thanks and praise.
In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:6)
Perhaps the key word here is “will” – there is an assurance here that God follows through and guides with wisdom when we acknowledge him.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
The angels promise here is that God is ever present and that presence provides reasons for courage and strength (again). No need to be down cast. God is on your side!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)
Peter said “always have a reason for the hope that you have”. Paul puts a name to it – the power of the Holy Spirit in us is our source of hope. It is by listening to and following the guidance of the counsellor, the Holy Spirit, that we can both know that God is trustworthy and that he brings hope.
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10)
But this of course is the clincher. “Know that I am God”. If you find it hard to trust God, you don’t know him. Not the real God. The one we find in scripture. The one we see the deeds of in creation. The one who touches us and fires us up by his very Spirit placed within us as believers. The one who died on the cross to save us. Who did the will of the Father and would not give the cup back, even though he might have been tempted to do so.
We can trust God, because he is God.
If we make assumptions about him or doubt his motivations or even don’t like his decisions or his actions then we don’t truly know him. We don’t have all the information. And that is why it’s called faith.
He is God.
He is faithful and the very reason for our being.
And he never lets us down. Even when we don’t understand him.
We can trust in him.
He is God.
Every blessing
Doug
SPIRITUAL HANGOVERS AND GOD’S NEW THING