Weather report from heaven: Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “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.”- Proverbs 3:5-6
Insight: Sometimes our faith pulls us so far out of our comfort zones that all we have left is to truly decide if we are going to trust Jesus or trust ourselves. I believe trust is the main antidote for anxiousness or anxiety in a Christian’s life and doubt is a direct cause of it. Many people love the idea of Jesus as Savior, a great insurance policy in the sky. They mention they “believe” and they get all the guarantees of eternal life and the Heavenly benefits. But when it comes to making Jesus Lord of their life, well this is when it gets a little dicey. In all honesty, it does for all of us at various times. We all want to feel like we have some control in our life, to make our own decisions and choose our own path. It is what gives us the identity that we can cultivate and put on display to a watching world. But a guarantee in our faith walk, is as we mature in our relationship with Christ, at some point He will ask us to go with him into an unknown place, with an unknown future, where we must literally decide if we are willing to die to ourselves and our understanding, and truly trust in Him above all else. Is He Lord of our life, or are we? This can be very scary, but it is also where the most growth occurs in our faith as Christians. It is where all pretenses must fall by the wayside, and we must simply say yes to Him, even if we don’t understand His plan, or where He is leading us.
This is the trust test we must all face at some point; Do you trust me above all things? That is the question we will all be forced to answer. It is a yes or no question, there is no middle ground or negotiations allowed. Abraham faced this test in Genesis 12 when he was asked to set out for a land he didn’t know but upon which God had promised an oath to bless him with and to make him “into a great nation.” Abraham believed God and it was credited to him by God as righteousness. God also told Abraham that he would become a father with Sarah even though they were both well past child bearing years. In fact, Abraham and Sarah were close to wearing adult diapers at their age, so they would be forced to look very foolish in many eyes if they were looking to buy baby clothes for a promised child. The Lord told them they were to name the child Isaac and God said “I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”- Genesis 17:19 This all must have seemed like a dream to Abraham and I’m sure people thought he was nuts. He probably lost many good friends during these times when Abraham was asked to put all his trust in God, even though none of it could be seen. It was a matter of 100% trust. It was his 2 Corinthians 5:7 moment come to life: “For we live by faith, not by sight.”
Has God been asking you to lay down your plans and trust Him completely? Do you really believe He is good and totally in control, or do you doubt based on how things appear through your lens of understanding? If I’m being honest, recently I have been forced to grapple with these questions head on. I have been brought into deep waters, way out of my comfort zone, and been asked to release my plans over to Him. It has been hard to fully surrender. It is a day by day process for me right now. But when I doubt, there is one thing I know for sure: My anxiety levels increase dramatically. In fact, at its core, I believe anxiety for Christians begins when we begin to doubt any of the promises of God, It is an all or nothing proposition. If we truly trust Him, and trust that He has our best interests in mind at all time, which He does even when we can’t see them, than we should never have anxiety. However, in our human nature, that is simply not the case, We all have moments that test us to the core and anxiety is then a natural byproduct when doubt creeps in. Trust Him and anxiety flees. Doubt Him, and anxiety escalates. It is a fact of the Christian life.
Prayer: Father God, help us learn to trust you more and more each day, dying to ourselves and our plan, and learning to surrender all things to You. We are not in control, You are! We praise You in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen!
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