Trust

This week I wanted to focus on trust. Can we trust God? I think most people would say...YES! Of course we can trust God. Have you ever really felt like you were in God’s will, you were trusting that He is going to remove the barriers in your way, and yet it truly appears at times, God is not there. Sometimes trusting God feels like you are literally taking a huge risk and praying He is truly who He says He is and shows up!

I prayed over my marriage 23 years ago and was terrified as a 19 year old young bride. We did not have a penny to our name, but I knew God gave me Jeff and our marriage was in God’s plan. In the first year I truly remember times where we did not have any money to pay our bills despite multiple jobs and going to college full time. I would pray and worry that I was going to have to stop nursing school, yet I knew God had called me to be a nurse. No matter how desperate the situation was, God showed up everytime. An extra job would come up. The electric company would send us a credit becasue they had “overcharged” the month before. Money would show up in an envelope at our doorstep and we did not even know where it came from. God was always working everything out even where I could not see it. That is why I think it is hard to see God working and build trust in Him when you have much, because we can be so self-dependent rather than God-dependent.

From the beginning of time Satan’s goal has been for us to not trust God.

In Genesis 3: 1-4, the devil is tempting Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. If you know this story you know that it is the ONLY tree that God did not want Adam and Eve to eat.

The devil is cunning and smart. He uses lies that are not completely untrue to convince us to follow him. Satan has 4 goals and He used these on Eve from the beginning of time. He also used them on Jesus in the desert when he was tempting Him in Matthew 4. Satan wants to convince you that:

1. God does not love you

2. God is not a righteous judge

3. God does not tell the truth, and

4. God holds back blessings from us

God consistently demonstrates that this is not true; however, let’s play devils advocate. (No pun intended. hahaha). Why did God put the tree of knowledge in the garden in the first place? Was he just trying to control Adam and Eve? Was He trying to scare them? Did God just get a kick out of tempting them? None of these things are in God’s character and God is always consistent so that does not make sense.

Let’s take ourselves back to that garden. God literally gave Adam and Eve everything! There were blessings and gifts surrounding them. Infact, there is no way that Adam and Eve had even experienced or could ever experience all the blessings and gifts God gave them in one lifetime. Have you ever really wanted something: a promotion, a material thing, a relationship, you fill in the blank and you spent all of your energy focusing only on that one avenue? However, that thing is not in God’s plan for you either ever, or right now. How are you going to know that? The only way is to know God and listen to Him. How do you do that? Read HIS words in the bible, pray to Him, and meditate on His words. Make plans but then make sure you are in alignment with God. God may not be answering your prayer because God has a differnt direction, gift, or experience He is wanting you to experience. Don’t try to get to a “gift” and be so focused that you do not realize the many “gifts” surrounding you that you have not even unwrapped!

In other words, you have to obey God to understand if you are in alignment with His plans for you. So, let’s get back to this tree. Why the tree? I think God was trying to teach that obedience to God supercedes ALL things.

God loves you. Yes there are 8 billion people in the world and God knows how many hairs are on your personal head. God loves you. God loves you. God loves you! One more time, you may not know this, but God loves you. He is going to allow you to go through hard things and if you stay completely connected and aligned with God, He is going to use EVERYTHING for His good and glory. He is always going to use everything to bring others to Him.

I don’t know who gave that envelope on our front doorstep years ago, but I am so glad they obeyed God and I will never take for granted the importance of obeying Him and trusting Him. Obey does not mean we are giving up anything, obeying God means gaining everything God has to offer beyond our imagination.

Love you guys!