"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6How many times have I heard that verse? 50 times? 100? And yet, how often do I obey it? I can tell you, those numbers are much smaller. Trust is something I am striving to apply in my life right now. There are so many things I am hoping for... waiting for... and I am trusting God to bring what needs to be brought and hold back what needs to wait. Leaning on my own understanding is such a temptation for me. My view is only a partial outlook -- but I still attempt to make decisions based only on what I can see. God sees all things. He is wise and all-knowing. But my stubborn heart loves to lean on my limited vision of life instead of His.
Why? Because I trust in me instead of Him.
Trust involves two things: letting go and holding on. And those are not conflicting. Right now in my life, I am having to let go of what I can't control and release the future, my heart, and my desires into God's hands. But I also hold onto Him. Even tighter.
Trusting in myself is never a good idea.
Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8)
My flesh is not my strength, yet I rely on it all too often. I want to be like the tree planted by the waters, a woman who has complete trust in her God. Who releases what I cannot control or understand, and clings securely to God, who is worthy of trust.
"Commit your way to Him, trust also in Him, and He will do it." (Ps. 37:5)
Wow, thank you for that post, Kaysie! Trust is something I struggle with, and it can be hard for me to give God complete control of my life. But that is something I'm trying to improve on this year. It's totally worth it when you finally trust Him, it's just getting to that point of total trust that is hard! Thanks for your well-written post! ;)
ReplyDelete~Arianna~
Arianna, thank you for your encouragement! It think trust is one of the hardest attributes to apply, because it requires giving up our "control" over things. But like you said, it is totally worth it in the end; it is worth every ounce of struggle. :)
ReplyDeleteI read this this morning and trust was something I definitely had to "flesh out" this afternoon as I moved forward in a "God assignment" (see my blog :) ) Thanks for encouraging me once again Kaysie.
ReplyDeleteOh, Kaysie. This brings tears to my eyes. "There are so many things I am hoping for...waiting for..." Yes, yes, yes! This describes me. "...and I am trusting God to bring what needs to be brought and hold back what needs to wait." Yes, this is what I want to do, too...more than any of those things I want, I want to trust Him and feel His hands clasped around mine.
ReplyDeleteStephanie, well that makes two of us! ;) Trusting is hard to apply! Hope your assignment went well.
ReplyDeleteRosanne, thank you for blessing me with your comment! Trusting... and waiting... is quite difficult, especially when our desires are very strong. But letting go and holding onto God is better than anything. He gives us the strength we need. :)
I'm not saying that this should be foremost in our minds...but think back on all of the times God has asked extraordinarily difficult (physically, mentally, and emotionally) things of people, which required a tremendous amount of trust on the part of the individual--Abraham and Noah for example. They were rewarded beyond belief for their complete trust in the Lord and their abandonment of worldly reason. I'm don't anticipate God asking me to build an ark (I know that He won't because of the covenant) or sacrifice my future son, but by trusting that His is the way to go in my day to day life, I know that I will be rewarded beyond belief.
ReplyDeleteAmen kaysie,Lori Amentoo ,The Things God ask of us are mostly for our own protection .That trust is the same when we ask our kids to do something that will benefit them in the future.Its all bound up in love. God dont need us for anything. Yet he pursues us,why ? Because his love is boundless and has no end as David said in the psalms.
ReplyDeleteLets keep trusting him even the things he has ask of us in his Word.
kaysie! you've done it again! you've put exactly what i'm feeling and going through into words that i did not have!
ReplyDeletethank you for being such an encouragement and wonderful reminder!
God bless!
Caroline
Hi Kaysie,
ReplyDeleteYou are such an inspiration to me. I have awarded you... see my blog for details! :)
I hope you are having a wonderful day!
Julia
Lori, great thoughts! God is consistently requiring His people to walk by faith and not by sight -- which demands trust -- to do incredible things for Him. I hope my walk of faith resembles these great heroes in Scripture.
ReplyDeleteEarl, the child/parent metaphor is appropriate here. God knows what is best for us ... thus we should trust Him. :)
Caroline, thank you for your encouragement in my life! I will pray that God will strengthen your trust in Him.
Julia, why thank you! That is really sweet of you! :)
Hello, my name is Brianna and I'm 14 years old. I just today found out my 17 year old brother has cancer, and trust is definantly hard right now. Thank you for this!
ReplyDeleteBrianna, wow... I am so sorry for this hard news! I will say a prayer right now for your brother, you, and everyone involved. Continue to trust in the Lord...
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking the time to write such wonderful posts that are full of truth. It is hard to trust in God all too often. It is easy to trust in what we can see instead of Him. Unfortunately, it often takes a crash to see that we are totally incapable, whereas he is all powerful. Keep up the wonderful posts! I think that God is using you to reach so many people! What a blessing it must be to you. I had stumbled on your site a few times, but had never taken the time to read it. Now I will be keeping a constant watch for any new posts. I think that it will help me to grow spiritually and to change those places in my life that I need to change to grow closer to the Lord.
Thank you so much,
Victoria
Victoria, thank you for all of your encouragement! I hope to see you around again. Thank you for taking the time to comment. :)
ReplyDelete