There are 2 words in the English language that I personally feel like we throw around way too much. Actually, I'm sure there are more than two, but these are the two I think about the most. One is love, and the other is trust.
We say "I love...." about almost everything. And when I hear people talk like that I often think to myself, "do you really? do you really love that thing, or that car, or even that person?" Love is a powerful and strong word. And when I think about God's love, and I compare that to our human love, which most of the time is conditional, I often wonder would people sacrifice for that thing they are saying they love so much? God did, and that to me, is the real meaning of love. That I would be willing to sacrifice in the name of love, just like God sacrificed His son for us. Would you?
Then we have "trust". A phrase we throw around way too much in the U.S. is "In God We Trust". It is a motto, not at true statement of trust anymore. If we really trusted IN God this country would be a completely different place. But people also will tell their friends or loved ones they trust them. But yet they know if it came right down to it, and they really had to put their trust in that person, they would second guess that trust. We say the word trust a lot, then we have a backup plan just in case. When you have a backup plan for those "just in case moments", then you have just proven that you really don't trust.
I made these statements because we have become conditioned people. We throw words like this around so much that we have almost become desensitized of their real meaning. And then when we talk to God, or we come into situations that really require us to love and trust Him, we will say we do, as we will try to do things in our own power or have a backup plan. True trust in God is exactly that, it's 100% trust. We can't kind of trust God. When we do, we give Him enough power to kind of do a work in our lives...and that is not how God works. Our faith and our trust have to be in Him and Him alone. Proverbs 3:5 says "Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart...". Psalms 56:3-4 says " When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid...". 1 John 4:8 says "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear..." Jeremiah 29:11 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." And Psalms 13:5 says "But I have trusted in your steadfast love..." The ongoing theme here is that God is trustworthy. His love is trustworthy. His plans are trustworthy. His abilities are trustworthy. And our hope in Him is trustworthy. I don't care what your circumstances look like, our God is trustworthy. And the very thought of you fully figuring that out, and fully trusting God, frightens the enemy. Our trust in God destroys the enemies power over our life. When we figure out that if it looks bad, God can make it good. If it looks confusing, God can bring peace. If it looks dark, God can shed His light on it. And if it looks hopeless, God can deliver hope....when we figure these things out, we put our foot on the neck of satan and we come out victorious! And the only thing we did to accomplish this was fully put our trust and our love in the One who deserves it.
Don't invest your emotions, your thoughts or your plans in things that can, and probably will, fail you. It is not worth it. Invest in the One who already invested in you. He gave His son not only to offer a way to true forgiveness, but also to show us how His love and trust is unmeasurable. He has done what nobody else would do for you. At a point when He knew there would be times you didn't even deserve it, He sacrificed His love (His Son) to show you love.
Trusting God also requires hearing God, and acting upon what you know He is saying to you. When He calls, be prepared to trust Him enough to step out. If He sees that you trust Him in the small things, He will show you that you can trust Him in the big things. And sometimes those big things call us out of our comfort zone. They are meant to stretch us and grow us....and they are meant to bring us to a deeper level of trust and love with Him. Like I said, His love and trust is unmeasurable, so as He continues to call you into deeper waters, trust that He wouldn't call you there if He didn't already have a plan for you. Honor Him today with your trust and see what He can do with that.
God, thank You for being so trustworthy. Today, I honor You with my trust. I want to boast of my trust in You because I know it is the one thing I can invest in that benefits my future and the future of other. Holy Spirit please continue to help us step out as we are called by God, not in fear, but in trust. In Jesus name, Amen.
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