TRUST.

Trust in The Lord with all Your Heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. 

Trust in The Lord with all Your Heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight. 

Trust in the Lord with all Your Heart and …. I said this verse about 30 times at my UTK pop up a few weeks ago. I’m sure you know it too. By heart even. 

Why can it be so hard to do though?

Maybe it’s because we are missing the whole point. Maybe it’s more than something we do. It’s who we are called to be. 

So often in the Bible, we are commanded to not be afraid. To not be dismayed. To not fear. To trust God. 

Joshua 1:9 even says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.””

Have I not commanded you?

I just want to know how God said this to Joshua. What was the tone of His voice? I don’t think He said it as a suggestion. He said it as a command. But knowing His heart, I am convinced He said it in love. For Joshua’s good.

If you read Joshua 1, you’ll see that He had already told Joshua to be strong and courageous 3 times. 

But no, this wasn’t a grudgingly, "ugh seriously? I have to tell Joshua again?” But rather with a tone of voice straight from His heart of love that says, “I’ll tell him as many times as it takes until he knows I am his Courage + his Strength.” 

Something else that catches my eye is how The Lord commands Joshua to be strong and courageous. Not do strength and courage.

Perhaps Faith. Courage, and Trust isn't merely something we do. It's who we become the deeper we know Jesus. Perhaps Trust comes from abiding in Jesus and getting to know Him.

An example of this great faith is found in Matthew 14, where Jesus walks on water, and Peter calls out to Him, “Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” 

The night was dark. The waves were crashing over the boat. Thunder was rumbling on the seas. And a light came walking to him.

Peter wasn’t speaking out of a half hearted faith. It took such faith to even speak in this moment! To ask Jesus if he could walk to Him. On water.

Out of the comfort of the boat, Peter was telling Jesus he could only take the next step of Faith if Jesus was The One calling him to.

This is knowing where you are placing your Trust. This is knowing Who you are trusting.

In order to step out in Faith, we have to know the One we are Trusting.

Maybe the area of our lives that we find hardest to trust God in, is the area we need to invite Him into so we can know Him deeper there. Perhaps that place is the very place God wants to be invited into. The very place He wants you to know Him in. The very place He wants to be with you in.

Perhaps our scariest places are opportunities to know God deeper. The deeper the waters, the deeper the depths of God we discover. The deeper the waters, the taller the faith. The deeper the waters, the deeper we know He who walks on them.

This is what it means to Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Trust needs to know where it’s placed. Perhaps it becomes hard to trust God because our trust is misplaced, and half hearted.

Trust in this moment for Peter couldn’t be misplaced and it couldn’t be half hearted. He was about to walk on water! However it became that way when his trust lost its placing. He looked around him, his heart became divided + his trust fell into the sea. So he did too.

Even when we find ourselves in this moment, because we all do, we must take heart! For Peter knew it was also trusting Jesus to call out to Him for help. In every time of need.

Trusting God does not demand perfection, but desires devotion to He who is perfect.

God knows we are human. He created us! He knows we fall short. He rescued us! He knows we all want to fully trust Him, but He also knows we are imperfect and cannot be perfectly faithful as He is.

However, He desires we trust Him with all of our heart because He is faithful, even when we are not. We can trust Him even when it feels hard to simply because He will never change or go back on His word. It would be out of character for God to be untrustworthy.

Our ability to trust God has never been dependent upon us but upon Whom we are trusting!

This is why most every verse that says to not fear, has the reasoning that He is God, and He is with us. He never says “trust Me because you can do it!” He says, “Trust me because I am God and I am worthy to be Trusted.”

Trust in God isn’t something we have to strive for. It’s something we step into.

We see this as Peter steps out onto the sea. And he only does so after Jesus tells him, “Take courage! It is I.”

When God calls us to something, He wants to show us Himself in it. It’s always about growing deeper in our relationship with Him!

Following Jesus isn’t about doing to get. It’s about being with Him. It’s not about being perfect in our calling. It’s about knowing He who is perfect.

All He wants is to be with you. And maybe the step He is calling you to take, is less about where you are going and more about Who walks with you. And the privilege it is for us to walk with Him.

This is why Trust is more than just something we have to do. It’s something we get to do. It’s a privilege. A blessing. An honor. The greatest of all.

To trust God is our worship. Our praise. We get to declare that God is greater than what comes our way and what surrounds us. We get to have someone to Trust. Not only just that! We get to have God to trust.

A good God. Who is always sovereign. Always faithful. Always true. Always present, near, constant. The One True God who is so deeply in love with you!

He is The One who accompanies each call, with “Take Courage! It is I.”

He didn’t call Peter to create courage. Or find courage. Or even have courage. He commanded him to take the courage He was already giving to him.

Perhaps, already available to you, God has the perfect amount of courage that is tailor made to fit your every need. Each time He calls you to something, He already has the courage to give you.

He is just hoping you take it.

Trusting God is not another task on our todo list. It’s a unique opportunity to worship Him. To know Him. To walk with Him. To be with Him.

Perhaps Trust is less about us and what we can do, and more about who God is and His desire for us to watch Him do what only He can do.

Perhaps the moment in which the enemy tries to divide our heart in fear, anxiety, and worry, God wants to unite our heart in Trust in God.

Perhaps where we feel our foot begins to slip, and we start to fall - is the exact place God is teaching our hearts to not lean on our own understanding, but to lean on Him.

Perhaps acknowledging Him in all our ways is His way of showing us He wants to be that involved in our lives. He cares that much about us.

Perhaps as we continue to trust Him, we will continue to see Him making our every path straight. And even more so, we will be able to lock eyes with the One who does.

By His grace, I am starting to see that trusting God is not about me, but all about Him.

I love this quote from Enduring Word’s commentary on Psalm 16. Trapp states, “This was a most powerful plea, for to trust God is the highest honour we can do him, it is to set the crown upon his head.”

To set the crown upon His head. I can’t stop thinking about it that way. 

Where in your life do you need to set the crown back upon His head? 

Our God we get to trust in, is The King of Kings. And He is worthy to be trusted because of who He is.

Don’t miss another opportunity to put His crown upon His head. It’s your worship. It’s your praise. It’s a privilege. It’s our highest honor.

To crown the God of all Creation with our Trust. Humbles me. And I think that’s the whole point.