We say we trust God, but do we in full? There are facets of our lives that we trust to God, but there are other areas deemed and marked off-limits to Him. Don’t lie. It’s true. We say we want to but we really don’t, because there is a lack of faith in our lives that affects the level of trust we give to God. In those areas we are feeling blessed, yes, we give it all to God to have and to keep giving. The areas we are weak in are the parts of our lives we want the door to remain shut to God.
Jeremiah 17:7 says, “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” We look at a verse like this and tell ourselves we want to live like this. It is a good concept to trust in the Lord, but words versus practice is different. We read this verse and think how easy it is, but to apply this line of thought to our lives is something quite hard to do. We can tell ourselves we do, but there are parts of our lives that we do not. Each person is different in this and each situation is unique, but there are parts of self that cannot let go and trust God with everything.
It may be our relationships, it may be our occupation, or it can be finances. Regardless, there are strongholds in our lives that make it difficult for us to trust God with handling and leading us. We give lip service to saying we do but, in our heart of hearts, we pause in our trust and give up only a little bit or nothing to God. When we face a hard situation, we want to give it to God, but our trust can be weak and no godly resolution will be found.
Look at finances. How much debt do you have? Are you drowning with just the tip of your nose out of the water of financial ruin? Are you spending more than you have? Are you a paycheck junkie, living paycheck to paycheck? Are you scared to let go of your finances and trust God to lead you away from the burden of debt? Probably. Our pocketbooks are most likely the biggest stronghold to trust in God about.
It is about needs and wants with finances. We live in a society begging us to spend more to have the newest designer clothing or the most current cell phone. We are bombarded with messages in the world to have and have and to get and get, that we deserve to have the best of the best and nothing less. We put our trust in what the world says we need instead of what God says we need.
In Matthew 6:26 Jesus tells us to, “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” Yet, we want more than this. We feed our insatiable appetites with stuff we do not need. When we get more bills than our paycheck can handle, we cry out to God. But what is this cry? Is it to help us manage our money better? No, it is usually to bless us with a better paying job or a raise at work so we can keep consuming. The most important lack is the trust in God to guide us to financial stability.
The strongholds do not only include finances; it can be anything. When it comes down to it, though, trust in God and trusting God is that of an attitude. What is the attitude we hold? It is that of selfishness we have in our hearts. After the fall of Adam and Eve, part of our rebellious natures is that of being selfish. We do not want God involved in certain parts of our lives that we want to hold on to. People love themselves, and trusting in God in all aspects of life means putting aside self for God and His true desires for us to live by. His desire for us is to not live for self but to live for Him.
How does one trust God? How does one let go of self and give it all to God? It is by faith. Faith that God is the Creator of the universe. Faith that God sent His Son to die for us on a cross for our sins. Faith that if we let God lead us in every aspect of our lives each day, we will be okay.
Faith and trust work in tandem. Without faith, there can be no trust, and visa-versa. There needs to be an unrelenting faith that God will be there for us. He will not abandon us. We are told this in Deuteronomy 31:8, “And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” This does not say in only certain situations or only sometimes, but the verse says He will not leave or forsake us. This doesn’t mean life will be easy when we throw our full trust in Him, but He will be with us nonetheless.
Think back to a time when dire straits were consuming every atom in your life – when you tried and failed over and over again by doing it your way, and you finally really and truly cried out to God and put your trust in Him. Did he abandon you? Were you forsaken? When you trusted and handed it over to God, what happened? He showed you a way out. It may not have been an easy way out or they way you wanted to go, but it was there. If you grabbed hold of God and followed Him, things worked out. If you did not, your problems continued to go awry, right?
How easy it is to forget these moments of complete trust. The moments are glorious to us and put us in awe of God, but the trust we had passes as quickly as it came, and we move back to trusting ourselves or others in our daily lives when trials and tribulations arise. It seems as if we practice a circular behavior of no trust, trust, and then back to no trust. We angst and stress because our memories are short on the works God does in our lives when trust was handed to Him in full.
Our problem is we give our trust not only in ourselves, but in the world at large. We trust books other than the Bible for answers. We trust friends and strangers with our issues for problem solving. True trust is in God, and God only. Yes, God can and will work through others to help us, but the trust of man should not be first and foremost. When we trust in God and He uses others to help, He will lead us to assurance of this. If not, the help we receive from the world will be short-term or nil.
Trusting God is the most important aspect of our faith that we can have to live in this fallen world. No matter what trials, no matter what concerns, or what tribulations we face, we need to have trust in God that He will guide us and see us through to the other side of our problems. If we can hand over complete trust to God and give up self, our faith will not only grow but it will be unshakeable.