To Trust or Not To Trust?

photo credit: Oberazzi via photopin cc

If we are honest with ourselves, trusting God is probably one of the most difficult things for us human beings to do consistently. It is so easy to trust God when things are totally out of our control, when all human resources have been exhausted. Only then is when we cry out to the Lord, “Help me!” Most of the time we only do this to make sure we have someone to blame, other than ourselves, when things don't go as we plan. Interestingly enough, as humans, we have been doing this since the very beginning. When Adam and Eve sinned and the Lord exposed their sin, the words of Adam were: “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” (Genesis 3: 12, ESV) The default response of men after sin is to blame someone else for his mistakes. But all of that happened because they decided to put their trust on themselves and their desires, rather than on God and His commands.

I have come to realize that after thousands of years, I am not different from Adam and Eve. I still choose to trust myself and what I want over God and His will for my life! Even after God made His calling to ministry clear as water in my life, it took me over a year to get started in my training. I really wish I could tell you I had some legitimate reason to delay such an important matter, but I can’t tell you that because I didn't have one. I was just terrified by the idea of trusting God with such an important decision. I was willing to rely on Him “totally” (as long as it did not get too uncomfortable) with some areas of my life, but never with the “big stuff” such as my career, or my relationships, or any other significant aspect of my existence. Basically I trusted the Lord of Lords and King of Kings only with the things that would have little to no impact on how I ultimately wanted to do things. I never got my Savior involved in areas where I knew His will was different than my desire. I think it is with this understanding of the human nature that Solomon writes: “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 straight your paths” (Proverbs 3: 5, 6, ESV). 

There is a very simple rule I was taught in geometry class that goes something like this: “The shortest distance between two points is the straight line that connects them”. God’s promise for those who trust in Him with all of their heart and involve Him in every area of their life, not as a spectator but as an authority, is to make their path straight. The promise is not to make it easy or comfortable, but straight! He doesn't want you to wander around wasting your time in this world, trying to figure out what His will for your life is! He wants to take your there! But we first must trust Him with all. The Bible says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29: 11, ESV) God’s words to Jeremiah are true for the life of everyone of us today. We cannot even begin to wrap our head around the things that God has prepared for us when we trust Him with all we have. 

In this process of learning how to trust God with everything, the Lord has done so many things in my life that as I look back, I myself have a hard time believing how far He has brought me. If you would have told me 8 years ago that in 2014 I was going to be living in the United States, making $8.00 an hour, driving a car, speaking another language, and about to finish a bachelor’s degree, I probably would have laughed you off. That was too good of a plan for me to think of and execute, but this was God’s plan not mine. Our plans as humans are limited by our ability to accomplish them. God’s plans for us are not limited by anything, only our trust in Him. The crazy thing is that even though I know this, I keep on holding back. God loves us like a father loves his newborn. Despite of how many times a baby throws up and dirties himself, a good father never runs away from the mess, he goes and cleans it up with love. God is never going to run away from the mess in our life. He is waiting for you to let go and trust Him to lead you in that straight path. Regardless of how many wrong turns you and I have taken, He is ready to take us home, right here, right now. His plan is bigger than your mistakes, and His love greater than your short-comings.