To trust or not to trust...that is the question

To trust...

Recently I was given the opportunity to share about trust at a Kenya planning retreat. I wanted to share my thoughts on my blog also in hopes someone who struggles with the issue of trust like myself may find it encouraging. 

Let me just say I like to talk more than I like to type but here goes trying to put my words on this keyboard.... :)

Trust...
What does it truly mean to trust?
What is trust?
How do we trust? How do we truly trust our God?

Trust="To believe that someone or something is reliable, good, honest, effective; To have confidence in; To believe something is true or correct; To hope or expect that something is true or will happen."

So, if trust has to with belief then how do we believe:

Things that I think affect the way we believe:

-Perception-the way we see things, our perspective from where we are in our own journey of faith, our view...I never get on a plane when I'm not reminded of our great God and His perspective on our lives and this world we live in! The thought that He sees it all, knows it all yet takes time and wants to know and be with me blows me away...so think about that for a few moments the next time you hit those friendly skies, let Him come close and listen for His voice to speak tenderly to you along the way...

-Experiences-past experiences alter our perspective, perception and view...Whether good or bad they play a huge part in choosing to trust

-Knowledge- of God's Word, the Bible; Of who He is, our creator, the great craftman He is and His character

-Foundation- Is it secure and solid or shifting like the sand on the seashore, that washes away with every wave?

-The fear vs faith factor- we will find ourselves on one side or the other

So in order to illustrate what I feel God showing me about trust I will use a chair... picture a chair, possibly a chair you may be sitting in now...or will sit in...you just sat down didn't you? You didn't question it's ability to hold you or to remain stable and secure...you just sat down. Possibly because you've sat down in it before, it has held you in the past, you may have bought the chair and thought it to be of good craftsmanship and fully capable to do what it was made to do....hold you...

Now, picture a chair that looks somewhat like a small hammock with a wooden bar at the top, a big silver ring and cloth tied to it and to top it all off, I'm standing here holding it with my own two hands... Will you come sit in it??? Come on, sit down, I got it, I got this.....Ok probably not and for several reasons...One being, you probably doubt I can hold you up; two, you may not have ever seen a chair like it before; three, you have no idea who made the chair nor their experience or worthiness of craftsmanship.

So when it comes to trusting our good God, I just want to encourage each of us, myself especially, to think of several things so that we can make the choice to trust...He has held me in the past, He's a strong enough God, His Word is true and His promises will be fulfilled, I know the Creator is good at what He does, and there is a solid foundation on which He stands.

Now, back to the hammock chair... if it were bolted to a sturdy wooden plank and you new it was crafted with precision and made to hold you...wouldn't you give it a try? wouldn't you even think, man this is pretty cool and have a little fun sitting in it? Something new, something different and something even a bit exciting...

God is able to hold us! He is anchored and not gonna let us down. He is made to hold everything, every weight we carry around weighing us down and wearing us out. We just have to choose to sit down, sit in His lap and choose to trust in Him. In His Word, God says that to each He has given a level of faith. We take that level of faith, choose to believe His promises, Get in His Word to know Him more so that we know who our Creator is and we begin to believe it...As we begin to believe, we are able to make the choice to trust. 

I keep saying we make the choice to trust, because from my experience there are many times when trust is not a feeling or a thing that just comes natural to me. I have come to think the number one thing the enemy of our souls is out to accomplish is to destroy our ability or desire to trust-others, ourselves and our God...I hate to say he is good at it too. That's why it's so important that we make the choice and not rely on our feelings, past hurts or bad experiences we've suffered in this life and know that we serve a God who is good! Real good! This world is bad and we go through bad stuff, stuff I'll never understand, but our God is good. His sovereignty can be trusted. Romans 8:28 says, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purposes for them." He can and will hold us, tight!

Proverbs 3:5&6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart (mind,will and emotions); do not depend on your own understanding (past experiences in this world, perceptions, knowledge). Seek his will (not my own) in all you do (the light stuff and the heavy stuff), and he will direct your paths (he will even go before us, behind us and stay right beside us along that path)".

Choose to trust Him like never before. Know that He is strong enough, He is loving enough, He is worthy enough to take us along this path we call life...

Going with Jesus wherever he leads,

Lenee

In the Desert He Becomes 'My Husband' instead of 'My Master'

"But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her out into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. 
"In that coming day," says the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband' instead of 'my master.'  Hosea 2:14-16 NLT

It just got real for me all over again...

I just have to be real when I pour myself over these words that follow. I'll become vulnerable in hopes that His Words will be light to someone else's darkness. The Light always, always takes over the darkness.

You see, I sit here with tears streaming down my face because for over a week now, the words you just read from Hosea have been turning in my mind and spirit and have felt they would be what I would blog about next. I now know why the enemy has distracted me and tried to put this off yet another day. As I sat down to begin typing the verses, not fully knowing how to convey this passage I glanced to see when God first showed me these words in Hosea. I'm a bit overwhelmed right now because one of the dates, the earliest,  I had noted by this passage was the day my divorce became final almost ten years ago. And yes, after ten years I need to be reminded of these words. My God has been amazingly faithful over the past ten years and my story didn't begin there, nor does it end there... in the desert...

As I ran this morning, I began to ask myself and ponder yet again, 'what is it about the desert?...what is it that makes the change from 'master' to 'husband'?... why do we ever need the desert experiences of life? ... what's so life changing? what makes the difference?...'

As I asked those questions, I decided I could best try to figure it out by looking at the desert...what makes a desert a desert?  What did my desert look like?

Dry, dusty, windy, hot, scorching hot, uncomfortable, barren, lonely, not much food, even less water, prickly things, painful things....

But not alone, there was someone with me...I still don't understand this part, but the word says, 'He leads us out into the desert', so that must mean He's there with me too.

I believe sometimes, or should I say for me, it was then that I was able to give Him my attention. Yes, there were still times in my desert that I went looking for companionship, food, and rest in places my God never intended... It's called "the flesh" and yet I still am sitting here covered in it today, but today I realized this flesh also has a second covering over it called "grace" and that's why I am able to sit here and say how faithful my good God is because I am in Christ Jesus and what he has done for me.

When we are lead to the desert places, it somehow gets our attention. I don't know if it's because we finally get thirsty for God or because we finally are able to remove all the distractions. But what I do know is in the desert we do get thirsty, we do get hot and tired, we do get hungry and there's one person who's there no matter what and that's our God and His Word. For that, I am forever grateful.

But what else is it about the desert that changes us? I love the next thing the one who leads us into the desert does... He speaks tenderly to us there. He begins to say, 'I got you, we got this. I really am enough, just trust me. I have brought enough food and I have enough water to sustain you through this desert. Just trust me, I am your Source.' He speaks tenderly because everything else in the world is shouting to get our attention and get us sidetracked and distracted. He speaks tenderly as if in an intimate voice of unconditional love. He speaks tenderly because that's his heart for his beloved. He loves us so much that he tenderly whispers instead of barking out orders demanding things of us.

He then returns our vineyards. That's good to me... See as he lead us out into the desert we sometimes have to leave a lot of stuff behind... stuff... relationships, our old identity, jobs, material things...our vineyards, the things we thought brought us sustanance and provision...Vineyards back then were a source of life, provision and blessings. When we arrive in our deserts we may think all that has been taken away, but I love that God's word says he RETURNS our vineyards! He gives back and I believe since it is from Him it's even better than before. The vineyards he returns are our source of life, provision and blessing greater than anything we could've previously experienced. Is the desert sometimes still painful? Yes. Is it sometimes hard work? Yes. Anyone who owns a vineyard will tell you it's hardwork, oh but it's so worth it!! It's so worth the pruning, the picking, the crushing and the time spent in the lonely barrel fermenting. It's so worth allowing God to produce the New Wine in us.

Then there's a transformation that takes place. The Valley of Trouble is transformed into a gateway of hope. A door of hope in the middle of a desert!!! That's so good to me. So when I find myself in a "valley of trouble" I now begin to look for the door of hope!! He promises it is there somewhere. The transformation process makes something totally different out of what there was before. Begin looking for the door of hope instead of wandering aimlessly in those valleys of trouble we find ourselves in sometimes.

Then, eventhough we may still be in the desert, we finally give ourselves to him, our LORD. We give ourselves to him once again like we did in the beginning, when we were young, maybe when our marriage first begun, when we knew we had been rescued from Egypt. Sometimes in the desert we have to still remind ourselves of what God has done already. Remind ourselves of the times he came through and provided time and time again, remind ourselves of his promises and how he will not leave us nor forsake us. Remind ourselves of the love and passion we had for our God when we first came into relationship with him. If you don't have that relationship, you can, right now, just say 'I want it, God, I want you, I want you and me. I'm tired of this desert and trying to fend for myself and find food and water on my own. I want what you have. I want my vineyards returned, the ones you have for me, I want to see and walk through my door of hope.'  Oh, my friend, he will meet you there. You will feel his loving arms around you and hear him speaking tenderly to you there. He loves you and me more than we can ever imagine.

That's when it happens, we throw ourselves on our God in such a way that we feel his loving embrace, we let go of what we've been so desperately holding onto and we allow him to give us new vineyards, new passion and new hope. We see him and hear him speaking tenderly like never before, and that's when we know it, that's when we realize his love is greater than anything. We choose to trust him. We choose to believe in Him...We choose Jesus and realize he has chosen us to be his very own. We realize we are in relationship based on love, pure love and not demands and laws. We realize Jesus fulfilled the law and has given us love, so much love... and that's when it happens, that's we call him 'my husband' instead of 'my master'.

Be blessed today in the grace of our Savior, our Redeemer who lives, I call him my Husband.