I think that one of the biggest plunges that anyone can take
is trusting God. I would bet Proverbs
3:5-6 is one of the most popular verses in the Bible. It’s the first one I ever memorized, back
when I was in my early 20s.
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
Think about one word there that is repeated twice: all. Trust with ALL your heart.
In ALL your ways acknowledge Him. We often will trust God with part of our hearts…and don’t get me wrong, I do it too. But I’m slowly coming to understand how to
trust him with all of my heart. I’m slowly coming to understand that everything
I think I understand on my own is not what I should rely on, but I need to rely
on God. Because when we truly
trust God, we give up all that we are. Now,
most of the time we don’t all do it all at once—it is a process that we go
through as the Holy Spirit not only speaks to our hearts, but as we open our
hearts to listen to the Holy Spirit. Because that verse is so well-known and a favorite of many,
it’s easy to gloss over it. What does it
really mean to trust? Think about how would you define it—maybe
write down a couple of words you associate with trust.
First, let’s think of a situation where trust doesn’t exist.
Imagine if you were living in a tribe of cannibals. If you could possibly be someone’s next meal,
could you really trust your tribe? I heard a speaker one time talk about a missionary who lived
among a tribe of cannibals. In their
culture, they didn’t have a word for
trust. The concept just was not
there. I mean, how could it be, if you
were in danger of being eaten by the people with whom you lived? So this missionary had to come up with a way to explain
trust, and what he came up with was “to lean your whole weight upon”. And in chapter 3 of The Good and Beautiful God, the author writes about trust. He says that “To trust someone is to believe
that he or she has your best interests in mind.” (37).
It is scary to trust—it s scary to give up the control we
want to have over our own lives and seek God’s dream for our lives. It can be easy to trust God--or at least talk about trusting God--when everything is going well. But it’s a lot more necessary to trust God
when everything seems to be falling apart.
Look at the Psalms: it’s not
about trusting god when things are going well, it’s about trusting God in the
face of adversity and enemies exulting and life falling apart.
Discipleship is a risk.
No doubt about it. People might
think you are a bible thumper or a Jesus freak or even that you aren’t a real
Christian or that you have shady theology for daring to say something against
the status quo. Trusting God through discipleship is a lifelong journey. If it was a simple, one-time thing, we’d
never grow or learn.
Some people here today have been through a lot and have
trusted God through those incredibly difficult times and I am sure I can learn
a lot more from you than you can from me.
Others have not faced such things, yet are still committed to trusting
God in other ways. The trusting God with “all” that we talked about earlier is
probably going to be different for everyone here. One person may easily trust God regarding
housing and another doesn’t. That person
who doesn’t may easily trust God regarding health, while another person
doesn’t, but can trust God regarding her parenting.
So I want to end today by asking you to think about what God
might be calling you to do. Maybe
nothing at the moment. But maybe some of
you have been wondering and hearing a still small voice. Talk it over with your discussion group, and
take the plunge to follow him and trust him in all things.
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