Some Thoughts On Trusting God

Yesterday morning I was in a hurry to get out of the house, so I decided to take my conversation with God to the shower. (Btw, never do this…I failed to consider the extent to which my note taking capabilities would be compromised, lol). So we’re talking and I’m wondering out loud why it seems like He is super quiet on this one thing I really want to know about. He knows my struggle with suspense and “not knowing.” As a matter of fact, I can’t even classify it as a struggle because I always respond incorrectly and lose that battle, lol. I’m the type of person who will get all caught up in a great book and ruin it by reading ahead to see what kind of conclusion I should anticipate (then I’ll pick back up with the comfort of my newfound knowledge). I don’t like hanging in the balance…yet here I find myself again at this constant and familiar crossroad with God where I don’t know and He does. So He asks me…What do you think I’m “telling” you?
A. Affirmative…He’s saying “yes” and making my day
B. Negative…He’s saying “no” and putting me out of this misery aka “the wait”
C. Trust Me
No lie…I wanted “A”…ALL DAY. And I can’t be certain, but I’m reasonably sure I heard Him laugh at my obvious lean toward the wrong answer. LOL. The thing is, it’s critical that I choose the right answer because it is ultimately where my hope settles and shapes my attitude and mindset in the meantime. If my hope is built on what I want Him to say “yes” to, it will inevitably fail. So to help me out, He dropped me a few lifelines in the form of rhetorical questions:
Have I not handled you with the ultimate care?
Have I not preserved you (even and especially at times when you didn’t want it or didn’t care)?
Have I not consistently delivered on my promises?
Humbly, all I had was, “Yes.” I’m seldom eager to resign myself to the “whatever” of God’s will, finding it difficult to settle my hope on the fact that whatever He has in mind is good. But I was created to reflect His glory and highlight His goodness. Considering the hefty price He paid for my redemption, to wash my sins away and free me, He’d never let the light of His glory dim or go out on my life. Accordingly, He’s been beyond faithful. He has loved me fiercely and endured with me persistently. Going before me…always looking out. And I deserve none of it. He is absolutely amazing. How could I not pick “C?”
Where there is a sincere desire for God’s Will to be done, there will always be occasion to trust Him. Essentially, when God asks us to trust Him, He’s urging us to remember. To program our hearts and minds for constant recall of what He’s done and, most important, who He is. Earlier this week, I was reading about King Hezekiah’s concern when the king of Assyria sent messengers with a letter promising to capture and destroy Judah and mocking God. Isaiah 37:14-17 (AMP) says:

“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. [II Kings 19:14-19.] And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, Who [in symbol] are enthroned above the cherubim [of the ark in the temple], You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to mock, reproach, insult, and defy the living God.”
‭‭What struck me here was the setup of His prayer. Before any concerns were specified or requests were made, he presented some “knowns” about God. He set the stage by magnifying the Lord and put His problems in perspective by commanding them to be viewed in light of who He (God) is. He recognized that God was not a spectator of these circumstances, but the Presider over them. He remembered Who God was…Then, He requested action. Like the king, we must set a similar stage in our hearts and minds at all times. Any idea of God that does not begin at high and lofty is severely inadequate. As A.W. Tozer urged in Knowlege of the Holy, “We must think rightly about God.” It is critical that we “see” God accurately and that the truth of who He is be the filter through which every thought flows.
It has taken me a really long time to understand that trusting God is not merely a hoop to be jumped through or a hurdle to be cleared. Rather, it is a necessity that He requires…not for His benefit, but for ours. Implicit in our trusting is our knowledge of Him and belief in who He is. He knows that life is best navigated when, on a base level, we are fully aware that we are loved by Him and that He is good. It is impossible to lose with confident expectation in Him and wholehearted reliance on His character. Take His love as fact…Remember who He is…never forget what He’s done. Win.