I Trust God, But…
What gets in the way of your trust in God?
Verse of the Day
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
Today’s Devotional
Trust.
It’s an easy word to say, and it’s maybe even easy to understand, but it’s much more difficult to put into practice. I love Webster’s definition of trust. Trust is “the assured reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of something or someone”. Do you confidently rely on God’s character? Are you assured of His ability? Do you believe in His strength? Do you believe the things God says and does as absolute truth?
Do your thoughts and actions align with your answers to those questions?
In today’s verse, we are told to trust in God with all of our heart. I can’t just give lip service to my faith. It’s one thing to say, “Yeah, I believe in God.” It’s another thing entirely to trust God with my whole heart. I need to trust Him with every single moment of my life, and every single detail of my life – both good and bad.
But here’s the rub: in order to trust God completely, I can’t listen to my own human brain. If I lean on my own understanding, I will mess up or be led astray. I don’t know about you, but my thought life can be really messy. Therefore, I cannot solve my problems by myself. I need prayer. Then I need to listen for God’s answers. I need people who also love God to help me see what I cannot or to give me an alternate perspective. There’s a saying in recovery circles that applies here: “You can’t fix a sick brain with a sick brain.”
If I want God to direct my path, I must submit to His will for my life. Which means that I need to have an idea what kinds of things align with His will. I need to go into that knowing that it will not look the way I expect it to. I have to choose to trust that God’s way is better than what I thought it should be.
Do you know what I think gets in the way of our trusting God? It’s the word “but”. I trust God with my marriage, but I don’t know if He will fix this. I trust God with my children, but this is scarier than I thought it would be. I trust God with my time, but I have so much to do. I trust God with my money, but the bills are more than my income so how can I tithe? I trust God’s Word, but I am too busy to read it. I trust God to answer my prayers, but when it takes too long I get discouraged.
So what if we stopped before the “but”? What if we intentionally declared our trust as part of our thinking?
I trust God with my marriage.
I trust God with my children.
I trust God with my time.
I trust God with my money.
I trust God’s Word.
I trust God to answer my prayers in His timing.
What if we forced our brains to stop seeing and speaking the “but” in our thoughts or words? In my opinion, the “but” is proof that I don’t trust God with my whole heart. So maybe that’s what I need to pray for, that God will teach me how to trust completely. That’s a scary prayer, BUT….I’m guessing it will be worth it.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
Where do you notice that you don’t trust God with your whole heart?
What are your “buts”?
How can you behave today as if the “but” does not exist?
How can you practice removing the “but” from your thoughts and words?