Do You Trust In Him?

Blondin was a 19th century acrobat, famous for his tightrope act 160 feet above Niagra Falls on a rope which was over a thousand feet long.
In 1860 a Royal party from Britain saw Blondin cross the tightrope on stilts, and again blindfolded. After that he stopped halfway and cooked and ate an omelette. Next he wheeled a wheelbarrow from one side to the other, and returned with a sack of potatoes in it.

Then Blondin approached the Royal party. He asked the Duke of Newcastle, "do you believe I could take a man across the tightrope in this wheelbarrow?"

"Yes, I do" , said the Duke.

"Hop in, then" , replied Blondin.

Well, the Duke declined Blondin's challenge. He might have believed Blondin could do it, but he wasn't about to trust him with his life.

My point is, when it comes to God, this kind of belief is not much good to him. God is looking for followers who will trust him with their lives. Do you? Simply believing in God is no good to us. We are to have faith, and trust is the practical outworking of faith. We can understand trust, though, can't we? After all we find ourselves having to trust people everyday. We exercise trust all the time, quite unthinkingly. We know what it means.

Trust is the practical outworking of faith: it is when we trust God that we show that our faith in Him is real. We are to trust him with our whole hearts and put our whole lives in his hands. The Christian, who has put his or her faith in God has to get into that wheelbarrow when God challenges us. We are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts.

How can we make sure that we are trusting in God with all our hearts? One problem is that we all think we know better than God. We think we know better than God, but the reality is that, like Adam and Eve in the beginning, our wisdom and understanding is weak, crooked and unreliable. We believe we know better how to run our lives than God; we try to lean on our own understanding. But, if we persist in leaning on our own understanding rather than trusting in God with all our hearts then our lives will also end in ruin.

What is the alternative to leaning on our own understanding? It is to lean instead on God's truth. Lean not on your own understanding. Lean instead on the wisdom of God's word. As we daily read and understand his word we will be learning to think His thoughts after Him. And that will help us as we seek to trust in him with all our hearts.

Running right through the lives of many, many people in churches today is a dividing wall between what they see as their Christian lives and what they see as their non-Christian lives. This is the so-called sacred–secular divide.

The sacred–secular divide is the assumption that God cares about what I do on Sunday morning in church but not on Monday morning in the office. It is the assumption that God cares about whom I give my money to but not how I earn that money in the first place. It is the assumption that God cares which church I go to but not which house I live in. It is the assumption that God cares about my Bible reading but not about my television viewing. It is the assumption that God cares about my sin but not about my toothache.

We all make these kind of assumptions all of the time: our lives are divided up into the secular and the sacred; with that familiar dividing wall between both. Often this suits us, doesn't it? There are parts of our lives we just don't want God interfering in, aren't there? But God passionately wants to break down that wall and to be God of our whole lives: for us to trust in him with all our hearts. We can get a indication of how well we are acknowledging God in all our ways by looking at what we pray for, what we are thankful for and what we worry about.

Thanking God is another way of acknowledging him in all our ways. So we make a point as a family of saying grace before all our meals, not just as a ritual, and not just thinking him for our food, but for all our blessings that day whatever they might be. It helps us to acknowledge God in all our ways.

The final element of learning to trust in God with all our hearts is being prepared to go wherever he is taking us. It may not seem like the path of least resistance at the time, but looking back we will always see that it was the straight path after all. Sometimes there will seem to be insurmountable obstacles in our way, and we will begin to doubt that this is the straight path that God is leading us on.

But this is all part of learning to trust in the Lord with all our hearts. Removing the obstacles is his job! He will make your paths straight. Trust in him with all your heart, be prepared to go where God is taking you to; and be prepared to trust in him to make the path straight.

Let me leave you with these final thoughts. Trust in the Lord with all your heart: in other words, get into the wheelbarrow! Lean not on your own understanding: in other words, don't get out and try to push yourself. In all your ways acknowledge him: in other words make sure you are fully in, and not about to fall out. He will make your paths straight: in other words, be prepared to go where God wants to take you; and trust him to make the way clear.

Remember...trust in the Lord with all your heart. He is completely trustworthy!

Scripture: Deuteronomy 1:30-33; 2 Samuel 7:28; Psalm 9:10; Psalm 13:5; Psalm 20:7; Psalm 25:1-3; John 14:1; Romans 9:33; 1 Corinthians 13:6-7; Revelation 21:5

Prayer: O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things. Amen
-a very special thanks to Ben Edgington

Have a blessed day,

Amanda