podcast: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/316e89e8/how-to-trust-god-even-now
Howdy,
They were walking away from the screen as the credits scrolled on The Greatest Showman . . . ‘but why was he the greatest ever?’ six-year-old Bennett asked his mama. ‘Because he was so great to watch!’ Amy tried to explain. ‘But that’s not what makes him the greatest,’ Bennett said last night. ‘Trusting God is the Importantest!’
A few minutes later, I was holding four-year-old Alyssa with her favorite blanket, rocking and laughing on the floor next to Lincoln (two years old), who was perfecting his Lego tower before heading to bed. ‘Our God is an awesome God,’ Alyssa and I were singing, ‘he reigns from heaven above . . . with wisdom, power and…’ we heard Lincoln trying to chime in ‘with wisdom, power and luhhh’… rocking his head back and forth.
They are being raised to know and trust the God who loves them—how thankful I am!
I wish I could impress upon the hearts of all of us what Bennett so readily said, Trusting God is the importantest.
Earlier in the day (on our weekly corporate conference call prayer meeting), two brothers recounted a business meeting the day before in which a colleague looked at them, wondering how they were so calm, in the face of all of the worldwide upheaval and the havoc it is wreaking in their business. Only one reason: they know and have found that trusting God is the importantest. And that’s what they do—pray and put it in God’s hands. To hear the calm assurance in their voices is remarkable . . . only God.
Notice this candid picture (above) snapped of us at the banks of the Neuse River (in North Carolina) a couple days ago. Bennett and Alyssa had gotten off their scooters
and were crossing rocks to get to the river’s edge; all that mattered to Lincoln is that he get down there too. He trusted me completely as I held onto him, while he adjusted his footing to walk across the odd-shaped rocks to reach the waters’ edge so that he could put his hands in the water. Trust. He had no doubt that I had him.
I was so very young when I memorized Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 in the King James Version: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Scripture takes on different meaning, different relevance and significance for us during changing seasons of our lives. Have you noticed? Consider these different versions of the same verses.
As a young college student, the New American Standard spoke this to my heart: 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 your paths straight.
And a decade later from the New International Version: 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.
And most recently, the New Living Translation shines just a little more light: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.
6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
In my humble opinion, this last translation makes it so clear:
We are to trust God with all of who we are
Not depending on what we think we know.
In everything we do, we should try to ascertain and do his will;
he will not play guessing games/
God will show us the direction to go,
and the decisions we need to make.
Just a few short weeks ago, these verses would have meant something to us to be sure . . . but now? Realizing how completely out of control each of us really is, the sooner we look to God, to his will, his wisdom, his timing and his direction, the more at peace we will be.
We do not put our days, decisions or futures into the hands of anyone other than the great and loving God of eternity – he who was not caught sleeping when Covid-19 broke out, but is a trustworthy Savior . . . he who works all things together for good to those who love him, (Romans 8.28); that’s you, that’s me.
The writer of Hebrews said this about the words of God: they are living and active . . . (Hebrews 4.12). And so, as companies have to reorganize things to ‘keep the doors open’, when we look to God in faith, he will give wisdom;
as people worry where a new job will be had, it is he who opens the right doors; as college students return home from thousands of miles away, it is God who gives the endurance to persevere.
Proverbs 3.5-6 have taken on such new and vital meaning.
Yeah, when little Bennett was just walking away from the movie in his super hero pajamas, stating his opinion that the showman was not the greatest, but trusting God was the importantest. . . it truly stopped me in my tracks. ‘That’s it; it is so true.’
No matter what you’re facing, trusting God is the importantest.
Look to him. Regularly.
Throughout your day, pray to God – as the only thing certain in our world right now is change. Amen.
Christine
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