Forward Trust
God’s not going to do your life for you. What comes to mind when you read those words? For me, there are times when my response is that I wish He would. It’s easy to wonder what life would be like if you would have made a left instead of a right or said yes instead of no. Just because God isn’t the one deciding everything for us does not mean that He is not involved with us.
Proverbs 3 says this, “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.” This sounds great, doesn’t it? But, what does it truly mean to trust in the Lord? And how do we do that while maintaining movement?
Here’s an issue that I’ve run into this past season of my life. I’ve hid behind “I’m not sure if this is where the Lord wants me to go,” as an excuse for inaction. At first glance, that statement seems to be a righteous, trusting one. And it may have even started out that way. What I’ve noticed is that lack of movement in the form of making decisions is a lot like a muscle. If you stop going to the gym for an extended amount of time, your muscles begin to atrophy – you get weaker. In the same way, our decision-making abilities atrophy if we’re not using them with a moderate amount of frequency.
Lets go back to Proverbs — the second half says “in all your ways acknowledge Him…” To me, this verse is implying that the individual is already on the move. As they continues on their journey, they are to acknowledge and seek after the Lord for guidance and direction and fight against the temptation to journey according to their own wisdom alone. One of the names used to describe Jesus is Emmanuel — meaning God with us. He is with you wherever you are on your journey.
Trusting in the Lord with all our hearts begins by recognizing that God’s wisdom and His ways are greater than our own (Isaiah 55:8-9). If this is true, we would be foolish to neglect consulting the Lord as we go about our daily lives. It’d be like a teacher offering you an open book as you take your test and then refusing to use it (this is a loose parallel, I’m not saying you’ll have all the answers by praying and never make a mistake again). If you had any wisdom of your own, you’d utilize the open book to glean wisdom from as you take your test to be in the best position to succeed.
Recognizing God as the greater wisdom is step one. What this recognition is not meant to do is lead you to inaction and complacency. Step two is just as important. We must continue to move and make decisions. Trusting the Lord is a learned trait that we mature into over time as we practice hearing and deciding over and over again. The practice here is one of hearing the voice of the Lord. What do His promptings sound like? What’s going on in my spirit as I feel as though His word is being confirmed? These are things we only become accustomed to by practice – by continuing to seek after.
God has invited us into the greatest love story of all time. It’s the reality of a God who is chasing after His created beings. His desire is for us to know Him, experience His love, and then share that knowledge and love until the whole world hears. There’s much more to be said here, but for now what’s important is for us to understand that we have a job to do. To spread the Gospel.
What I’m not saying is that trusting the Lord means we’ll all be missionaries in a third-world country — maybe for some of you — what I am saying is that we only have a limited amount of time on this earth and let’s not waste it.
Jesus tells us in Luke 16:10, “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” This is where our practice in moving based on what we’ve prayerfully considered is imperative. If you feel as though God’s called you somewhere, go do it. Start with the small things first. He will lead you to the larger ones when you’re ready.
Friends, what I want to communicate to you, as well as to myself, is that trusting the Lord is always a forward choice. God can’t turn a parked car. He just might have your life’s steering wheel already turned, but the car needs to be moving in order for the turn to be executed. This week I want to urge us all to practice praying, doing, and then prayerfully reassessing. God’s called us, as believers, to action. Don’t be overwhelmed, start with the little things. Acknowledge Him this morning with a simple prayer for guidance, step out and do as you feel led, then continue the practice. Let’s habituate together the discipline of forward trust.
