Who do you trust?

Do you trust in people, friends, co-workers, your parents or your spouse?

Do you trust in companies, schools, governments or in churches?

How many of those people or organizations have let you down or betrayed your trust?

Do you see a pattern or a problem?

It’s people.

All those things and organizations are run by or started by people, and people will let you down and betray your trust.

The problem is we as people are flawed. We mess up, we aren’t perfect. In God’s economy, we are all sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God. When sinners set up a government, company, organization or even a church, they are likely to mess up because they are people. Even if it starts out good, somewhere along the way, it is inevitable, it will go wrong. We are people, selfish and greedy people, it’s just who we are.

So, in who or what can we trust?

The motto of the United States is, “In God We Trust.”

And though there are some in this country that would strip that motto off our currency, trusting in God instead of people is still the right thing to do.

But how do we trust in God?

The Bible tells us in many places to trust God and have faith, and it’s good to read those verses, but in the end it’s just words on a page. We have to translate those words into our hearts; we must see that God has been faithful to us in the past in order for us to trust Him in the present.

I find that a good place to start is to remember all the times in your life that God has stepped in and taken care of you or helped you.

Can’t think of any? I’ll bet you can if you try.

If I look back over my life, even before I really came to believe, I can remember many, many times that God has kept me out of trouble. Times I could have really been hurt or hurt others. Times when I was lonely and searching, and He stepped in and helped me find just the right person to fill that need.

There have been times in my life that I have no idea how I got through, but somehow, I did. Times I can’t imagine how I survived on what I was making, but somehow, I did.

I can look back over my life and there have countless times I can see how God stepped in and helped me. And I know if you truly look back over your life, you’ll find the same is true for you as well.

After my wife Cara died God kept assuring me that He had someone out there to partner with me. Every time I would pray using the words “If you bring someone into my life,” I would hear that still small voice saying, “No, WHEN I bring someone into your life.”

And He did bring someone into my life and I’m sure glad He did. Ginny is so much more then I could have ever asked for or imagined in a partner. I always tell people that God makes a great Matchmaker if you let Him.

I remember how He brought Ginny and I together even though we lived in two different states and how quickly it all happened.

I remember how when we were moving back from Iowa to Minnesota, we both turned it over to Him to help us find the right house, at the right price and in the right area and boy, did He. I can’t imagine ending up in a nicer home or in a better part of the area. When I think of all we would have missed if we hadn’t moved here, it blows my mind.

I remember how when faced with a choice in my life, somehow, I managed to or was led to make the right choice. When I think back, I can see how God must have been guiding me and directing my path even though I didn’t know it.

How do you Trust in God? You start by remembering.

If God has watched over you all these years, taken care of you and protected you, even before you really knew Him, He’s not about to stop watching over you now.

I know it’s hard sometimes to trust in God, but that is where Faith comes in; the Bible tells us in Hebrews, “For without faith it is impossible to please Him.”

But when the bills are mounting up or you’ve just lost a job or some other hard thing is going on, it’s hard to trust that God will get you through when you can’t see how it’s going to work out. But that’s the time when you have to force yourself to remember what God has done in the past. If He got you through back then, if you trust Him, He will get you through what’s happening now.

The frustrating thing is, God doesn’t tell us how He’s going to do it. He rarely gives us a road map to life. Most of the time, He will direct us one step at a time. You’ll feel a leading to go here or do that and it may feel odd, but if you follow where He’s leading you, it will make sense in the end.

For example, my wife Ginny, before we met, had a leading from the Lord to do prison ministry. This was NOT something she would ever have had the mind to do on her own. But she knew it was what God had said for her to do. She ended up ministering to inmates at a half-way house in Mason City, there she met Don and through him his wife Carolyn and they became great friends. Through that friendship, when Ginny and I met and were going to marry, she found Melody, a counselor that helped us with my son Matthew. Through her we found just the right church school for him. All this and more happened because Ginny listened and acted when God told her to do prison ministry. Not to mention she led more than one person to Christ.

So, God doesn’t give us a road map, but He does guide us if we pay attention to where He’s leading.

The mistake many people make in dealing with God, is giving up on Him when He doesn’t perform the way we expected Him to. We pray and ask, but when He doesn’t do just what we ask Him to do, we think He’s not there or not listening to us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The truth is that God knows more about us then we know ourselves. He knows what would be good for us and what would get us into trouble. He sees what’s ahead because to Him it has already happened.

There is a print that hangs in our bedroom of Christ calming the waters, it was something that Ginny bought years before we met, and it’s a copy of a large painting in the Church where we were married, that I joined before I met her. It’s taken from a story in Mark 4.

35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 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?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
40 He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Notice, Jesus tells the disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” He doesn’t say, “Let’s try and get to the other side,” or “Let’s go out in the middle and drown.” No, He tells them that they are going to go over to the other side. And He is so confident that they are going to get to the other side He falls asleep in the boat.

Jesus is not worried about what is going to happen in your life, because He knows you are going to get to the other side. He already knows what He is going to do and when, so why should you worry?

Trust in Him, if He’s gotten you through in the past, He will get you through in the present.

I know that it is hard to trust sometimes, I don’t always trust the way I should, but when I remember all that He has done in my life it helps me to trust that He is not about to let me down now.

If you are having trouble trusting in God, believing He will help you, I’ll leave you with a couple of verses, Mark 9:24.

Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

And from 2 Timothy 2:13.

“If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”