Trust

It’s crazy how easy it is to forget one of the most simple and important things about our faith in Christ: our ability to place our trust in Him in all things. Sounds easy enough, but sometimes, I’ll be the first to admit that I easily forget it when I’m placed in uncertainty.

I feel like I’ve told so many people this analogy of how I’m feeling, and I wonder if you’ve felt it before too? At this stage in my life, at times I feel like I’m out in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight and with no sense of direction as to where land actually is. From the outside looking in, it looks pretty peaceful. I mean when we think of the ocean in a general sense, it seems so relaxing. So calming (or maybe you see the storms right away). But to me, I feel like I’m completely lost and at times I panic.

There are so many different things I want to do in my life, aspirations that I would love to do in the near or far future, but I don’t know when I can do it or how to do each one of them because of the means that I currently have. I don’t know how or where to get started or if it’s feasible or if it makes any sense. I feel like there are so many options, so many different ways I can go, but I have no idea which direction to go in to get to land–I don’t know which direction God is calling me towards. I feel like there are so many options but no opportunities yet–I have no glimpse of where the land is… and I can’t even phone a friend. Because of this panic, at times I find myself overwhelmed and just sitting with nothing and everything going on in my mind. And every time the question “So what are you doing now that you’ve graduated?” is asked, I literally takes me to this state of confusion every time it’s asked.

So to my fellow job seekers, “soul-searchers”, trying-to-figure-out-what-you’re-doing-with-you-life companions out there, this is for you. This is what God has been teaching me to do. This is what I’m at and what I’m working on: TRUST.

When God gives you three different reminders of how you can and should trust in Him, I’d say that’s God preparing you or telling you something. It’s crazy how God has used three different settings to really unfold this for me, and remind it to me at this time. I just wanted to share three points with you that I learned in three different ways concerning trusting in God.

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1. God places desires in our heart for a reason, and directs us in our works towards them. 

“Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” – Psalm 37:4

I met with my college pastor’s wife, Jill, this past Friday, and she gave me insight that really stuck in my mind and reminded me of this verse. I shared with her how I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, and as I shared with her my dilema–my post-college-life crisis, she reminded me that these are desires that God has placed on my heart for a reason, and that He’s given me these talents for a reason. She also reminded me that if God placed these desires in my heart and gave me these talents, He will be faithful to really lead me with these desires and provide opportunities for me to grow them and produce fruit in them. She reminded me that I just needed to chose a path and follow God in it, and He will lead me in my way.

Her conversation with me also reminded me of Proverbs 16:9:

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”

We need to take steps and  prayerfully and actively move in one direction in order for us to understand how the Lord is moving us and where He is directing us. I’ve been learning this through 1 Samuel, too. God works through our works and walks in Him! Even if it’s the “wrong path,” He will reveal and redirect you. We need to take steps and trust Him through it.

2. If God has started  a work in your life, He is more than able to complete it.

At church yesterday, our speaker spoke on Philippians 1:1-11, and focused on three main points: 1. Is there evidence in your life that God is working in you? 2. If God has started a work in you, He is able to complete it and 3. Prayer. This was an equally timely reminder in my life to trust in God.

He shared with us a story about how God called this group of people to Brazil and it’s been over a year and they are still struggling with seeing fruit in their ministry in the midst of all the evil in the city. He recently visited and saw how it was discouraging to some of them to be there, because they thought they were supposed to be there. He then related it to Mark 4:35-40:

“That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?””

God really reminded me that if He has gotten me to where I am, and has brought me this far, what makes me think that He will just leave me? Why am I so anxious, when I should trust that just as He has brought me to this point in my life, He will continue to move me and lead me until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6)?

Part of this reason, our pastor reminded us, was that we have a tendency to attribute human’s tendency to leave things unfinished or incomplete to God, which we should never do. God is faithful to complete the work He has started. I need to trust in that Truth, and find comfort and peace in that. I need to remember that God is fully able and capable and that He is faithful.

3. It is better to trust in God than anything else.

As I’ve been going through 1 Samuel, I’ve been learning a lot from his mistakes. In 1 Samuel 27, David fears for his life and looses his trust and faith in God. He decides to take matters in his own hands and joins sides with the Philistines. When reading this, I was like “Why David!? Why!?” But how many times do we do this, too? Maybe in a smaller sense, but when we worry and fret about things, we are in a sense also loosening our trust in God. I’ve realized that this worry and fret may be because we are relying too much on our own power and ability than in His.

This being said, through my devos in the past few days, God has shown me how awful it is to lose trust in Him, but then reminded me of how sweet it is to truly trust in Him. When David realigns his heart with God’s, and turns back to the Lord and trusts in Him, we see a shift in how his life goes. God, who was working in David even when he was lacking in trust, sets up all of His plans for David to be king. He grows David through this time and also blesses him when he trusts in God’s providence.

God’s been reminding me and teaching me through my quiet times with Him how much better it is to trust in God than in our own abilities and to find comfort in our ability to trust in Him.

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I realize that these three points kind of mesh into each other, but I guess that’s the point. Through wise council, church, and personal devotional times with God, He has definitely been pressing this into me. It blows my mind that God is really reinforcing this message of trusting in Him to me at this time–and how much I really do need it as I’m swimming in this ocean.

I need to remember that although there’s a huge ocean with no land to be seen, and storms a brewing, and so many directions I could possibly go, for certain a plan for me–an end destination, ultimately in heaven with God–but even a plan for me on this earth to do His will and glorify His name wherever He leads me. I need to remember that I’m not alone on my swim, but that God is right along with me, and that like my GPS, He will redirect me to where I need to be.

This great reminder and how God is truly reminding me of trusting in Him also reminds me of how the God we serve is a living God, who knows us and works in us, and hears us–which ultimately just reminds me of how much I should trust in Him!! Furthermore, it also reminds me that in order to have this trust in Him, I must seek Him first.

Ahh! God is so good! I hope you are somehow encouraged by this as I was while going through all of this! I’ll leave you with this last scripture that is commonly known, but such a good reminder. It not only gives us comfort in knowing that God has a plan for us and that we can trust Him in it.

“”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.””

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Blessings to you who are in the same “rut” that I’m in–job searching and trying to figure out what you’re doing with your life. I’ve been told that we’ll constantly face times in which we are still “trying to figure things out.” But let us cling to the Lord and really work on our trust in Him–He is living, able, and working in our lives daily! :)

Happy Monday!

Grace & Peace,

Margarette