Trust... What does it really mean?

Trust: : to place confidence : depend : rely on

We say that we trust in God. But do we really? Do we 'place our confidence in' Him? Do we 'depend' on Him to supply our every need? Do we 'rely on' Him to direct our lives?

What does it look like like to be completely trusting in God?

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof." Matthew 6:34 KJV

"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." Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV

"Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37:5 KJV

"Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah." Psalm 62:8 KJV

"And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee." Psalm 9:10 KJV

"They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever." Psalm 125:1 KJV

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation." Isaiah 12:2 KJV

"What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me." Psalms 56:3-4 KJV

"It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." Psalm 118:8 KJV

Why should we trust and not worry?

" Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? 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? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Matthew 6:25-33 KJV

"Heaviness in the heart of man maketh it stoop: but a good word maketh it glad." Proverbs 12:25 KJV

"Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 KJV

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." 1 Peter 5:6-7 KJV

"Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass." Psalm 37:7 KJV

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:" Isaiah 26:3-4 KJV

I am not trying to preach a sermon here just thinking on some of the things that the Lord has put on my heart lately. There are many places in God's Word where it says that we should trust him and why. Now the real question is, why don't we trust in Him? We get caught up in our own human selfishness thinking that we can handle things ourselves and start trying to run our own lives. We turn to other people for answers when we need them hoping that we will get some sort of instant gratification of an immediate verbal answer. Trusting God and asking Him about our troubles takes too much time and energy, besides He is not going to speak down from heaven and tell me His answer. In the mean time we waste our time and energy trying to figure things out on our own and getting nowhere. Then we finally realize that we should have just gone to God in the first place, and we do go to Him.

Finally we realize just how silly we were to try and think that we could in someway handle things, figure them out ourselves, or get an easy answer from someone else. God is the only One who holds the answers and can supply them. In the end we should come to this realization, God is the One who has and holds the plans of and for my life, there is nothing that I can do to make my life go the direction that I want except to trust in Him and pray about where my life is going, if I want to do something, I need to ask God. It is like the father-child picture, remember that we are children of God and that He is the Father, remember how when you were little you had to ask your father's permission to do stuff? Well now you are older and you have to ask your Heavenly Father's permission to do stuff. If you trust in God and make your requests known to Him, He will give you peace and set you on the path that He wants you to travel.

Trust. Fully. OR (F.R.O.G. Fully Rely On God)

Over the last couple weeks I have been slowly but surely learning a really hard lesson to learn. The lesson that I have learned is to completely and fully trust God with everything. I was trying over and over and over again to surrender everything, my life, my plans, things that were going on in my life, people who had entered into my life, etc. I kept turning all of these things over to God. Then I would start to think about one of them, then worry about it and eventually take it back again.
God started to challenge my plans by asking me what my motives were, and asking me to consider other options as well. For the longest time I knew what I was going to do, I had a 'tentative' two-year plan, unless God had other ideas. However, I was not very open to the other ideas because in my own selfish organized control freak way I wanted some semblance of order and control. By and by God asked me to start thinking about other options for my life's path and the directions that I may go. As I started to consider other things the plans that I had seemed to start to fade and then I had no conviction, passion, or really ideas about anything. I realized that God had taken away my plans that I was holding on to too tightly. Then I was uncomfortable, I was like, "Hey God this is not cool, I don't like this." He responded, "Don't worry I can handle this." I said, "Are You sure?" He said, "Yes, now trust me." I begrudgingly agreed.
Throughout a few days at different times God worked on me, softening me for placing me in the very spot that He wanted me. I did not even realize what He was doing all I knew was that it hurt, I was crying and asking why. I felt very small, humbled, vulnerable, and challenged. I did not enjoy feeling that way.
I just kept praying, and asked a few people to pray for me. I did not know what God was doing but I did not like it. After a while I realized that I didn't care as much about some of the very things that I had been stressing about. And then I came to the point where I totally surrendered everything to Him. I had been going about it all wrong and life was not good until I fully surrendered. Now if asked what I am doing I say, "I don't know, but God does. I am really excited about it though, cause whatever it is, it is gonna be great!"
Last night a friend asked if I was going to an event this summer my answer was, "I want to, but I really can't say at this point. God is in control of my plans not me. But I will ask Him about it." I just want to say that not worrying about what comes after today feels really good. And learning complete surrender is hard, but good. :)

Plans? Or not!

Life. Such a small word, with such a huge meaning. What do we really know about life anyway? God is the giver and taker of life. He is the One Who makes life and makes it what it is.

Plan. Another small word with a huge meaning. Woody Allen once said, "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."

I am a human with a life and a plan. Or so I thought. I sought to make plans for my life so that I would have a rough idea what I am going to do with it. Also, having a plan for your life gives you a sense of being in some degree of control.

Guess what? Now, I can say that I have no plans for my life. People keep asking me what I am going to do after I graduate. Lately my answer has been, "I don't know, I had plans, but God is now showing me that He might have other ideas."

From here my challenge is to be open to those plans and ideas that God has for me. Trusting God is one of the hardest things to do. But according to a friend's very wise and simple words, "That is why it is called faith." Okay, maybe I changed it a little bit but the essence of the meaning is there.