Annie
Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6 Isaiah 26:4 Matthew 7:24 Psalm 95:1
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths
Familiar words that slip off our tongue so readily, maybe too readily, but one word jumps out more than the rest, and that word is “trust”.
It’s strange that in our conversations during our normal routine, we don’t often hear the word “trust”, maybe because the concept of trust is intrinsically woven into our every day lives, it is just part of the fabric of our being. When we go to the supermarket and buy our hygienically wrapped, prepackaged groceries, we have no idea that what we have bought is what it says on the packet, until we get home and open the package. When we breathe, we trust that the air is going to keep us alive. When we go to bed at night, we trust that dawn will come and a new day begin. This is automatic, unintentional trust. So, if trusting is so much a part of our lives, why are we told we need to intentionally trust God with all our heart? Clearly we have to make that choice to simply trust God, not our understanding, acknowledge Him in all we do, then He will direct our paths.
Jesus left His throne in glory to come to this earth and live amongst our sin and evil ways. Despite our unrighteousness, He never turns away from us, His instinct is always to reach out to each of us, no matter what our sin and guilt. When Jesus wept over Jerusalem, His heart was breaking, and I wonder if it was because they would not place their trust in Him. He had come to them as the Babe in Bethlehem, fulfilling all the prophesies during His lifetime, but not as they expected the Messiah to do so. Jesus longed for them, and for us, to trust Him with everything inside of us that we will tell no-one else about. Things that we don’t even want to acknowledge in our own thoughts, all the hurt, pain, depression, frustration and all our failings. When we feel we have sinned too much, that we are covered in this world’s grime , that is when He wants us to have the assurance to call out, not to go and hide, but to turn to Him, trusting Him implicitly.
When we have this assurance that He is our all in all, everything that we could ever want or need, then He can direct our paths. If we don’t trust Him, this is not possible. It’s not that God is not able to do it or doesn’t want to do it. God longs to whisper in our ear, telling us this is the way, walk in it. If we do not trust Him, we cannot hear Him.
God loves us with an everlasting, intense and undistracted love, His gaze never wavers from us. What He wants is for us to open our hearts wide, that we sit at His feet , that we weep in His presence. He delights to cuddle us as we climb onto His lap. This is a concept that removes all religiosity from our relationship with our great omniscient, creator God. Our Abba Father is the Daddy God who longs to wrap His arms around us, and hug us so tight as we listen to His heartbeat. All of this begins with us placing our absolute trust in Him.
Scripture tells us that our God is the eternal Rock, our stronghold, our refuge, our Rock of Ages. Jesus spoke of building our house upon a rock, the eternal Rock. When we have the assurance to absolutely trust Him, we are building our house upon this Rock, and the house will not fall because it is built on this trust that He is our Rock.
Scripture also gives us beautiful images of how God sees us; we are living stones, precious jewels, clay in the Potter’s hand. The stones don’t tell the builder how to use them, nor do the jewels tell the craftsman how to fashion them, nor does the clay instruct the potter how to mould it. It is God who shapes us, He moulds us, He makes us into vessels of honour, created to glorify Him. He asks us to trust Him, to love Him and then to wait to hear His whispered voice directing our paths. We listen and obey, following in the footsteps of our precious, loving Saviour, trusting Him implicitly.
Prayer: Abba Father, open the eyes of our hearts so that we will know we can trust You, the only One who keeps us safe with our feet on the path You know is the best one for us to walk. “You show me the Path of Life, in Your Presence is fullness of Joy” In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
Comments