“It’s easy to trust the Lord.”
Have you ever heard someone say that? Have you ever heard a song state this?
I downloaded a song recently by a popular worship group and one of the lyrics says, “it’s easy to trust You.” I’ve listened to this song many times and I thought, “hm, not sure I agree with this”. But tonight, I wanted to really sit with my thoughts.
No, it is not “easy” for me to trust the Lord. It’s not easy for me to trust anyone in general. Does that mean there is something wrong with me? Because it is not “easy” for me to trust the Lord, does that mean I’m faulty?
No.
This is one (of many, many) reason to know what the Bible says and how it applies to our lives.
No where in the bible does it say that it is “easy” to trust the Lord. In fact, God commands us to trust Him repeatedly, it’s almost like He knows us (imagine that) and knows that we will need reminding and consistent encouragement, He knows what He is asking will be difficult for us.
Now, I’ve been doing a lot of work on the image of who God is in my mind, how I see Him, how He sees me, and what that means. In the past, this type of thing would have led to comparison, “why is it “easy” for them to trust God? What’s wrong with me that I can’t? Am I too damaged from my past and past hurts? Etc.”
This song and this lyric is not necessarily bad. But what I want to point our attention to is that we need to know the Word of God and what He says about us. If we are getting our teaching and theology primarily from songs and one-hour teachings on Sundays, we are missing out on a lot. One could be led to think that it “has to be” easy to trust the Lord and that if it isn’t, they’re “doing it wrong”. But that’s not the case.
We must come to the Lord, lay our pride, hopes, dreams, expectations, futures, and whatever else at His feet and choose to trust Him. He is available, in that way, it’s easy, He is there. But the act of laying it all down, dying to ourselves, that’s not necessarily easy.
I found this quote awhile back, “I trust the next chapter because I know the Author.”
Here we see yet another reason to get in the Word. If we do not know the Lord, if we do not spend time with Him in prayer, meditating on His Word, reading His Word, in worship, in His presence, talking with Him, we will not learn who He is and that He is Trustworthy. How will we lay it all at His feet if we don’t know Him? How is one hour on the weekend and a few songs here and there enough to sustain a relationship? It’s not.
I want to look at Proverbs 3:5-6 in regards to trust.
5 Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart,
- Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord. To do this, we must know who He is. How can we do this? We must get in the Word, we must spend time with Him, we must know what He says about us, what He did for us, what He continues to do for us, His character.
- With all our heart. We must consistently lay it all at His feet, every day, every moment. This is a choice we make. He already chose us. Will we continue to choose Him and walk towards Him?
Do not rely on your own insight or understanding
- 2 Corinthians 4:18
- Psalm 119:34
- Ephesians 5:17
- What we see, what we face in the natural is not eternal. Where is our focus, what is the end goal? God sees it all. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what our next step will be and where it will take us. He knows. He sees. He is for us. We can trust that. Will we choose to lay it at His feet?
6 In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him,
- In all our ways. In every moment know and acknowledge Him. Are we constantly listening for the Holy Spirit? Are we letting Him guide our day? Are we listening when He tells us to share the Gospel with someone or maybe when He tells us not to watch or listen to something? Are we listening when He tells us He loves us and how He sees us?
And He will make your paths straight and smooth (removing obstacles that block your way)
- When we choose to trust Him, when we choose to lay it all at His feet and follow Him. He will make our math straight. It still won’t be easy and we might face some hard things. But He will be with us.
I just want to reiterate one more time that God put in the Bible many times to trust Him. In Joshua 1 He tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous” twice. He even says, “Have I not told you, be strong and courageous!” God knows that we need to be reminded. But He is trustworthy, friends.
What’s the point of writing this? Get alone with Jesus and know Him. Know His character. Include Him in every part of your day. He wants more, He wants to know you more. Choose to follow Him, choose to give it all, choose to trust Him.
He is trustworthy.
That might look like choosing at each moment to trust Him. Choosing at each decision, each path, each fork in the road, maybe this will be a lot of work for you like it has been for me. But His truth, His character, His trustworthiness, does not and will not change.