Sometimes I just need to trust
I like to be in control, to know how things are going to work out. I want to plan and think through all of the options. While this is ultimately good, it can be bad if I'm not being obedient and following what God is leading me to do.
"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. —(Matthew 16:24-26 MSG)
If I don't do what God says, I'm telling him I don't trust Him.
During the NewSpring Staff Leadership Conference last year, Jake Beaty said something that has stuck with me:
You won't make it long term if you don't trust God.
You learn to trust God by trusting God.
You never trust God until you have to.
God makes sure that you have to.
Trusting God requires faith that he wants the best for my life, even if I don't understand what's happening right now.
I don't have to have everything figured out. I don't have to have all the answers. I only need to trust that is who he says he is and do what he's calling me to do right now.
"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
—(Matthew 6:34 MSG)
It's easy to miss God working when he doesn't show up how we expect. I've done this so many times in my life, where I completely miss what God is doing because I wasn't open to him working in a way I hadn't seen before. I've realized that sometimes you just have to change your perspective.
It's also easy to forget how God has has come through for us in the past. As I've been reading through the Old Testament, I see so many times where the Israelites so quickly forgot that God had brought them out of slavery to the Egyptians. I mean God sent all of these crazy supernatural signs, he parted a freakin massive body of water where over a million people walked through, and fed that same million people with magic bread that fell from the sky. How crazy is that? Yet, sure enough the Israelites had forgot all that God had provided for them only a few months later.
I see so much of the Israelites in myself. I look back at how faithful God has been throughout my life. He's taken care of me, met my needs, fed me, clothed me, kept me healthy. He's brought me through really difficult times in life where I just wanted to give up. He's given me opportunities even when it looked like there were none. Yet I'm so quick to forget when situations become uncertain. I'm quick to lose trust that Jesus wants the best for me. The reality is that he is there through the most difficult situations I face. He's there when things don't make sense and look hopeless. He's been there in the past, and he'll be here in the future.
I just need to remind myself.
Don't forget the ways God has been faithful in your past, trust him with what's happening right now and don't worry about what may happen in your future.
