LORD, I WILL TRUST IN YOU

Have you ever played the game where a group or even on person stands right behind you and you have to fall straight back into their arms. The focus of this game is to build trust.

It is very difficult to do. It doesn’t matter that you know that the people behind you are going to catch you during the fall. It’s that idea of the brief millisecond of free-fall that is terrifying.

Most people who play this game I suspect have a lack of trust in the people or person behind them!!

Today we are going to look at a couple of verses from the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, looking at this whole idea of trust.

Where do we really place our trust?

Let’s delve a little deeper by firstly asking ourselves a few questions:

DIG DEEPER

Think about the wide variety of decisions that we are often faced with in our day-to-day lives. And in those decisions that we make how often do we lose sight of God? How often are we fearful when faced with a problem or a difficult decision?

* Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you didn’t know what to do or say?

* Is it easy or hard for you to trust God in these situations ?

* What are some things that you just don’t understand about God or following Jesus?

* Have you ever had a hard time deciding between what you want to do and what God wants you to do?

These are tough questions aren’t they?

But what does the Bible have to say to us about these things?

Let’s take a look:

BIBLE READING

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart;

And do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NASB

Let’s take a closer look as these verses:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart” – A good picture of trust is to lean your full weight onto someone/something isn't it? (Like in the trust game).

* We know that we can fully depend on God don’t we? He won’t let us fall.

* We have to trust that God will help us even when it seems scary.

* Always remember that God cares about us more than we can possibly imagine and always has our best interests at heart. So we can be confident in trusting him.

“Do not lean on your own understanding” - The opposite of trusting in God is depending on ourselves and on our own intellects and knowledge.

* But we can’t always see the path before us. This is why we are instructed not to depend on our own understanding.

* This can be scary and sometimes and it’s probably not going to make much sense.

* But we have to accept that. And we have to realise that we can’t always understand everything, especially when it comes to following Jesus.

But we can learn to trust God, even when we don’t understand his plans or his ways.

“In all your ways acknowledge him” - This verse teaches us to place ourselves under God’s authority in all we do. This takes discipline.

* We need to submit to the authority of Christ in the way that we live our lives. Do we always do this? It’s a challenging question isn’t it.

But if we do this, God’s word promises that he will show us which path to take.

“And he will make your path straight” - He can make our path clear, that is, remove the obstacles from our path and bring us to where we need to go!

* God leads and guides the steps of those who trust in, acknowledge and submit to him.

What an amazing couple of verses!!

AND FINALLY

This week let’s remember these two verses in Proverbs. And let’s take the opportunity to lay any fears we have before God -  fears about our current situation maybe or about the future. Let His peace and reassurance wash over you.

Then, go forward with confidence in your life. Hold on to the fact that if the God of the universe is in control - (yes that same God who calls you his child) - and that nothing is too big for him, then you know you can trust him!.