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Do You Trust Him “…The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour…” 2 Samuel 22:2b-3a. David knew his God and he trusted God. God knew David; He knew David trusted Him in all things. How about you? Do you trust God and does God know you trust Him? Everyday God finds a new way to ask us “Do you trust Me?” Trusting in God means we’ve laid aside our feeble attempts at trying to run our own lives and have now turned all aspects of our lives over to Him. His abilities are far greater than we can imagine. God is fully capable of directing our paths but we, holding onto various portions of our own lives, might never realize the opportunities that God’s directions would provide simply because we are lacking sufficient trust in Him. With God it’s all or nothing. We fully trust God or we don’t. God knows if your trust is deficient, He knows you better than you know yourself. Everyone remembers the story of how David faced down the giant Goliath, but there is a part of that story that many never pick up on. First, before we get into that very interesting yet little known fact, let’s get a little bit of background into this amazing feat of courage displayed by this youngster, David. “David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine…” 1 Samuel 17:37. Was David’s remarks based on his own courage or did he fully trust in the One and only living God? It was David’s trust in God which gave him the courage to face this giant. Now let’s discover the depth of David’s trust in God. “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.” 1 Samuel 17:40. Did David, even though fully trusting God to deliver him out of the hand of this Philistine, actually think he would need five stones to defeat Goliath? David slew the giant but used only one stone. So why did David, trusting fully in his God, need four extra stones? Not part of this story is that little tidbit of fact I mentioned earlier. Goliath had four brothers (1 Chronicles 20:4-8.) David was ready for them all. Was David depending on his own courage, his own abilities? Not in any way. David completely and totally trusted in God that day? David trusted God to not only deliver him out of the hand of Goliath but also if need be out of the hands of Goliath’s four brothers, hence the four extra stones. David knew God, he had a personal relationship with God, and David was victorious only because he trusted in His God to be there at that battle with him. We all go through battles; sometimes it seems they’re a daily occurrence. When we are fighting against supernatural foes we must always trust in our God to defeat those foes. No matter how much we’d like to fight our own battles, mere humans are no match for malevolent supernatural beings. After all, we can’t even see them, but God can and does. When we trust God to fight those battles for us, His and our enemy’s stand no chance. If our trust in God is lacking, our ability to stand the test of those battles will also be lacking. This life we’ve been given is as fleeting as a vapor of smoke, but as short as it can be there is a reason we were created and it isn’t to procure a wealth of treasures here on earth before we die. We’ve been given life so we and our Creator God can build a super relationship together, but we must place our trust and faith in Him for that relationship to fully develop. Trust is the basis for the relationship, and God knows this truth better than we do. Not one day will pass in our life that God will neglect to ask us the question “Do you trust Me?” In the human mind it just isn’t natural to place our full trust in someone we can’t even see. But the born again believer knows that this trust is built on faith, and is essential to our faith. As our faith in our Creator God grows so does our trust in Him. That’s what God wants from us. He’s asking each of us who have placed our faith, trust, and hope for our salvation in His only begotten Son and Him alone, “Now, do you really trust me?” You and I must decide for ourselves if we truly trust God. If we are inclined to place our trust in our own abilities, in our own strengths, in picking ourselves up by own bootstraps, God knows those inclinations. But He wants us to trust in Him and His abilities and He’s showing us all the time how we can fully trust Him. We must see God’s works in our lives as His works not our own. There is a lot more to trusting God as we live out our lives here on earth than we can even imagine. God is our Creator and as such He wants recognition for that aspect. “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1. If you don’t believe God is the Creator of all things in this universe then it’s apparent that you do not trust Him because you don’t believe His word. Think about it. Is there any part of God’s word that you dismiss as myth or fable or even legend? God’s Word is truth, but if we can’t get our minds around His word as fully true then we’ll never fully trust Him to tell us the truth. We trust God that there will always be air to breath, or do we? First we must have faith that God will always supply our needs, and air, water, and food are all essential to those needs. Take one of those three elements away from us and we die. Does God supply our needs or do we supply our own needs. Do we believe air, water, and our food supply are just magically tossed before us? Do we trust in ourselves to supply food for our families, or is our trust in God as our needs are met every single day? Is it merely our self-effort that gives us our hope that tomorrow there will be food on the table, water to drink, air to breathe? My family and I lived ten years on the coast of Oregon and many times we would take a trip to the south coast town of Brookings to shop at our favorite department store. On every trip we crossed a bridge, the “Thomas Creek Bridge” which is promoted as the tallest bridge in Oregon. The bridge was built at a height of 345 feet, and it spans a vast ravine. Each time we crossed that bridge my thoughts went to the engineer who designed and built it. Each time I had to place my life and that of my family in the hands of someone I didn’t know, someone who might have been drunk or on drugs when he designed that bridge. Who was this guy? I know he’s an engineer but I also know he’s just a man – a fallible man and with problems of his own which could have affected his judgments and his math. So, do those who cross that bridge everyday or once a week trust man that it will remain in place, or should those folks be trusting God that that bridge is safe? You see how God works? Every day He finds a new way to ask the question “Do you trust Me?” I can add to that question these words, “Or do you trust man?” Do you trust the Creator or the creation, the Potter or the clay, who do you trust? Every aspect of our lives has God fully involved. Those who don’t acknowledge God or believe He even exists aren’t going to admit they trust Him. But whether they trust Him or not, He’s fully involved in supplying their needs just as He does with those who love Him and trust Him. No one on planet earth can survive without God. Those who are perishing wouldn’t agree with me as they, for the most part, believe we evolved from pond scum therefore there is no God and we are all responsible for our own existence. In their minds, everything we see, everything we can touch, smell, and enjoy with all our senses came from nothing. It all just happened one day billions of years ago. There’s an old song I used to listen to when I was younger but I never really paid attention to the words. These words were a part of that song “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing” those words mean so much more to me now than they ever did when I was a young man. Trusting in God means we don’t believe every theory man throws at us. Man will always attempt to usurp the authority and omnipotence of God. But God, everyday finds a new way to ask the same question “Do you trust Me?” When you give of yourself or your resources God is involved. He asks you to trust Him and He will return your efforts or your resources to you many times over. How can He do that? He’s God. An old pastor I used to listen to on the radio once said “You can’t out give God” no matter what God places on your heart to do for others when you follow through with God’s will it means you trust Him. God will bless your faithfulness. Don’t think so? Try Him. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10. What’s God saying? You got it. “Do you trust Me?” In other words, if you trust God enough to bless others with a portion of what He’s blessed you with He promises to pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Being a good steward with God’s property simply means you trust God. “Do you trust Me?” These are God’s words spoken to believers in Christ. But God is asking a similar question of all those who reject Him, “Won’t you trust Me?” He’s not giving up on even one soul. When God gains their trust He gains another child. When we say “Yes Lord, I trust You” we admit we are a child of God. We must trust God that His Word is true and that He did enter His creation and become a man, the man Jesus the Christ. That He did die on a cross to save His creation. Only a perfect God could have accomplished this for His rebellious creation, and all He asks of each rebellious child is “Do you trust Me?” “I trust You, God” is easy to say, but do you really trust Him? To trust in God fully we must turn our lives over to Him, completely. That means whether or not we are financially secure, whether we are in good health or not, whether we are being persecuted and mistreated for our faith. In all things we must trust God. We might, as Christians, be living in a very comfortable environment where we’ve become very content in our surroundings and nothing seems to be able to penetrate our perfect peace. Nevertheless He still asks “Do you trust Me?” Why? Because tomorrow a tornado or flood might wipe away everything we hold dear. So the question I’ve posed throughout this commentary is God’s question to each of you and it really takes some thought. Don’t say “Yes God I trust You” if you still hold to some form of unbelief or you hold onto certain aspects of your life that God really wouldn’t want any part of (sin). We can only answer that question truthfully if we study it and allow it permeate our souls. Do I trust You, God? I hope the answer is yes, but remember God knows the truth no matter how you answer that question. God bless you all, Ron Graham
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Yes! Jesus is Coming!
