YOU HAVE TO DECIDE

Never before have I ever felt the need to trust God then I do right now. I have a tendency to take matters into my own hands when I think it’s not going the way I want it to go. Needless to say, it didn’t get any better by doing such a thing…it got worse and boy, did it get worse!

Back in 2012, I made a commitment to God to trust Him with everything. However, this has not been an easy road to travel because every fiber in me wants (and wanted) to make it happen on my own. History has proven more failures than successes when I take things into my own hands. Anything worth happening to me and for me has to be God’s doing and not mine this time.

Trusting God doesn’t mean sitting idle doing nothing and it also doesn’t mean working yourself to death either. As a former burnout patient, I’ve learned that there’s nothing spiritual about burnout. Secondly, just because you work hard doesn’t mean you’re a hard worker. Chewing gum is work but there is no progress just motion and tired jaws. Thirdly, the hardest work is trying to figure out what God is doing. This can be very frustrating at times.

Most of us have a desperate desire to understand, but in so many areas we must acknowledge that we cannot understand. We must approve of God’s ways, even when we can’t comprehend them. Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us why we often don't understand what God is doing: "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.'" God sees the whole picture, while we only see our tiny corner of it. To trust in the Lord with all our heart means we can't place our own right to understand above His right to direct our lives the way He sees fit. When we insist on God always making sense to our finite minds, we are setting ourselves up for spiritual trouble. We only see part of the picture God is painting. If we are to truly trust Him, we have to let go of our pride, our programs, and our plans. Even the best-laid human plans cannot begin to approach the magnificent sagacity (meaning wisdom, knowledge, intelligence) of God’s plan. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:25).

Every person must make a decision whether to live his or her life according to personal preference or according to the unchanging Word of God. We often will not understand how God is causing "all things to work together for good" (Romans 8:28), but when we trust Him with all our hearts, we know that He is and that He will never fail us (Psalm 119:142; Philippians 2:13).

YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IN THE END!