Keep Trusting
Trust.
This is a word that honestly, until this last year and half of my life, I’m not sure I truly understood. I trust my husband. I trust my Pastors. I trust my friends and family. But God?
The word “trust” is in the Bible over 190 times. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY TIMES. I’m not quite sure I’ve ever repeated myself 190 times. Well.. let’s be real. I am a mom after all. But there we were, with a diagnosis that no natural remedy could “cure”, statistics stating that our future looked pretty hopeless, and a glaring question arising in our hearts: “Will you trust Me?”
It was a couple of months beforehand that the Lord spoke to my heart and said, “This is going to be a James chapter 1 season of life for you.” Have you read James chapter one? Let me give you the verses He was referring to:
“My fellow believers, when it seems as though you are facing nothing but difficulties, see it as an invaluable opportunity to experience the greatest joy that you can! For you know that when your faith is tested it stirs up in you the power of endurance. And then as your endurance grows even stronger, it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.”
James 1:2-4 (TPT)
I won’t lie and say that I was immediately enlightened to this being my answer, but eventually, I saw it.
Let’s talk about verse 2. Why would James, by the leading of the Spirit, tell us to be joyful when we are going through hardship? It seemed almost cruel to me that in the face of what seemed like life or death, the Lord was telling me to be joyful. (Don’t act like you would receive that immediately, either.) But verse 3 is the why. When our faith is tested, and I dare to say ONLY when our faith is tested, are we truly able to grow in trust. The “power of endurance” can be equated to a deeper trust in Who God is. A deeper understanding that no matter what we face, God is at work if we will continue to trust Him.
It was a few months later that the Lord made the final connection for me. Why can we count it all joy when we are facing hardship and what seems to be hard place after hard place? We can count it all joy because of Romans 8:28 which states:
“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.”
God is our PARTNER when we are facing a hardship. God is working. Our disconnect is that sometimes we want and expect God to work in a way that we see and understand and we call that faith. But true faith is complete trust. Trust that every detail of our lives are being woven together to fit into a plan. A PLAN OF GOOD. And true trust or the God-kind of faith doesn’t have to know the “how” and “why”, it is just 100% assured that good will be the end result. Our only job is to not stray from that Truth!
This is the way God put it to me: “If it’s not good, I’m not done yet. So keep standing.”
My favorite is verse 4 in James. Imagine a life on earth with nothing missing and nothing lacking. A faith and trust so strong in the Lord that no matter what would come against us, we are immovable. THIS IS THE END RESULT THAT THE LORD DESIRES FOR EVERY HARDSHIP WE FACE: A deeper trust in Him that eventually, we are walking so close with Him that nothing is able to shake us. What a life!
So this is my challenge today to you: Are you trusting or are you hoping for your own desired result? The ONLY guarantee we have is what the Word promises us. We can’t come up with our own plans and then ask the Lord to work them out. We do our best to walk out HIS plan, and when we face hardship, because we will, we keep trusting and taking step after step.
And then, when it’s good, we turn to God and say, “Alright God. I trust you even more now. What can we conquer together now?”
“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6 (AMPC)
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