Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (34 page)

Jesus said if we dwell in Him, He will dwell in us. If we live in Him, He will live in us. He said we cannot bear fruit without abiding in Him. But if we
live
—which implies daily abiding—in Him we will bear
abundant fruit
(see John 15:4–5). Whether it is teaching or anything else I do in life, I have learned by experience that I need Him and cannot do anything of real value without Him.

A
lady who works for me says that she doesn’t have a “big” testimony. She just grew up in the church, loving God. She got married, was filled
with the Holy Spirit, and then came to work for us. Through our ministry, she was moved by the testimonies of drug addicts and people who have suffered abuse. One day she asked God,
“Lord, why don’t I have a testimony?”
He said,
“You do have a testimony. Your testimony is that I kept you from all of it.”
God had kept her from the pain that results from being separated from Him.

The keeping power of God is a great testimony! Some people are kept from tragic things. Some people are kept as they go through tragic things. His plan for each one of us is perfect, and we can trust His keeping power!

Psalm 91 teaches that He will give His angels charge over us, and they will protect and defend us. It’s true that some things happen in our lives that we don’t like, but what has God kept us from that we never even knew Satan had planned against us? We need to thank God for His keeping power. We can relax knowing that He is our Keeper.

I don’t know how I’ve done what I’ve done over these past years. I look back at my calendars and see how hard I’ve worked. I read some of my prayer journals and remember some of the things I’ve gone through with people, and the hurt I’ve felt. I think,
How did I ever get through that?
But God held me together. He strengthened me. He kept me. And I can see now that I worried about a lot of things I didn’t have to worry about because they worked out okay anyway. God will do the same thing for you as you trust Him.

God has a plan, and He is working His plan. We can trust that and relax. Psalm 145:14 says, “The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.”

G
enesis 12 records the covenant of peace that God made with Abraham and his heirs. Abraham became extremely rich and powerful because God blessed him. God chose him to be the man through whom He would bless all the nations on the face of the earth.

I find it interesting that in the very next chapter, Genesis 13, strife came between the herdsmen of Lot and Abraham’s cattle (see v. 7). Strife is the exact opposite of peace. God gave Abraham peace, and Satan went immediately to stir up strife. God wanted to bless Abraham, and Satan wanted to steal the blessing.

Sometimes God’s abundance can cause problems that lead to strife. He had blessed Abraham and Lot with so many possessions and cattle that the land could not nourish and support them both. The Bible says that Abraham went to Lot and said, “Let there be no strife, I beg of you, between you and me, or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen.” He told Lot that they were going to have to separate, so Lot should choose the land he wanted, and Abraham would take what was left. Abraham took a humble position to avoid strife, knowing that if he did what was right, God would always bless him. But Lot, who would have had nothing if Abraham hadn’t given it to him, chose the best part: the Jordan Valley. Abraham didn’t say a thing; he just took the land that was left. He knew God would bless him if he stayed in peace.

God took Abraham up on a hill and said, “Now, you look to the north, to the south, to the east, and the west—and everything you see, I’ll give to you” (see vv. 14–15). What a great deal! God honored Abraham’s humility and blessed him abundantly with fruitful land.

I believe that God’s got a good plan for all of us, but prideful attitudes can prevent us from having all that God wants us to have. A bad
attitude is one of the most important things we can work on with God to overcome.

W
orks of the flesh are attempts to accomplish through your own energy things that are God’s job. We become frustrated when we try to achieve by
works
a life that God not only brought into being but designed to be received by
grace
. Grace is the power of God to meet our needs and solve our problems (see James 4:6).

I was living a frustrated, complicated, joyless life many years ago before I began to seriously seek God for answers to my problem of a lack of peace and joy. When I had a problem or a need, I tried to help myself and work things out in my own way, which never produced any good results. The Word of God and my personal experience have taught me that the way to avoid the frustration of fleshly works is to ask God for help. At times, all of us are guilty of trying to handle our circumstances instead of trusting God to take care of them for us. It is not a sign of weakness to admit that we cannot help ourselves—it is the truth. Jesus said, “Apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

You may be frustrated, struggling, and unhappy simply because you are trying to fix something you cannot do anything about. Perhaps you have a situation in your life that you don’t want, and you are trying to get rid of it. Maybe there is something you do want and are trying hard to get, yet nothing you try is working and it is frustrating you. In any case, the only thing you can do is cease from your own works, and trust God. While you are waiting for God to take care of the situation, I encourage you to enjoy the wait.

When you stop and consider all the ways God’s blessed you through His generous grace, instead of being frustrated, you’ll be filled with gratitude.

S
uppose you feel you can’t wait to get married, so you decide to find the perfect mate for yourself, in your own way, instead of waiting on God to work it out for you. It would be a terrible mistake to become so desperate that you settle for someone who is not right for you. It would be much better to wait until God brings you a divine connection. It is always best not to do anything that you don’t have God’s peace in your heart about.

Maybe you are married, and you have been thinking,
I want my spouse to change. I just can’t put up with my partner anymore.
You cannot change your spouse; only God can. But God does not move in your
life when you struggle and try to take matters into your own hands. He moves when you trust Him. So I suggest that you pray, cast your care on the Lord, leave your hands off the situation, trust God, and go ahead and enjoy your life.

It may not be a marital situation you want changed. You may feel that you want your kids to change, or you want more money, or you may want a different job. We all have something going on in our lives we would like to see change for the better. Desiring change is just part of living. You are always going to want something in your life to be different. So if you want an enjoyable life, sooner or later you must learn to quit trying to make things happen yourself.

Numerous times I struggled while trying to change my husband, trying to change my kids, trying to change myself, yet I failed every time. I probably struggled with changing myself more than anything or anyone else. The truth is you can’t really change yourself. You can only tell God that you want to change and that you are willing to change. You can only throw open your life to Him every day by praying and studying His Word, and leave the rest to Him. The effort that we make should be made “in Christ,” leaning on Him, and not in the flesh (our own strength, apart from God).

T
he Word teaches that God’s people dug wells for themselves that couldn’t hold water. I know what it is like to work hard with no results. I spent many years of my life digging empty wells like these, and I can tell you, it really wears you out.

You may be digging an empty well right now. You may be working on something or somebody. You may have your own little project going. You may be following your own plan, trying to make things happen in your own strength and ability. If so, it is not going to work if you have left God out of your plan. Many times we make a plan and then pray for it to work. God wants us to pray first and ask Him for His plan. After we have His plan, then He wants us to trust Him to bring it to pass, as we follow His direction and work in partnership with Him.

Our activity birthed out of the flesh actually prevents God from showing Himself strong in our lives. The Bible describes that kind of activity as “works of the flesh” (see Gal.5:19–21
KJV
). I call them “works that don’t work.” That is not the way to live the higher life that God prepared for us.

D
o you think something should be done about starving children? Should somebody help the 1.1 million people who have no safe drinking water? Should people live on streets and under bridges? Should a family
you have gone to church with for years experience a tragedy and not even get a phone call from anyone to find out why they have not been in church for three months? If a church of another denomination in your city burns down, is it proper to just pray and do nothing practical to help? Do you believe somebody should do something about injustices?

I think you would agree the answer is “No!” So I have one final question: What are
you
going to do? Will you be the “somebody” who does what needs to be done? We’ll always be able to find an excuse as to why we can’t do anything about these problems. But in the end, indifference makes an excuse, but love finds a way.

When I ask what you are going to do, do you feel afraid because you wonder what “doing something” will require? I understand that kind of panicky feeling. After all, if I really decide to forget myself and start aggressively trying to help others, what will happen to me? Who will take care of me if I don’t take care of myself? God said He would, so I think we should find out if He really meant what He said. Why not retire from “self-care” and see if God can do a better job than you have done.

If we take care of His business, which is helping people who are hurting, I believe He will take care of ours.

T
he Bible tells a story about a man who did not follow God because doing so would have been inconvenient. This man, named Felix, asked Paul to come and preach the Gospel to him. But when Paul started talking to him about right living, purity of life, and controlling his passions, Felix became alarmed and frightened. He told Paul to go away and that he would call him at a more convenient time (see Acts 24:24–25).

I find this extremely amusing, not because it is really funny, but because it clearly depicts the way we are. We don’t mind hearing about how much God loves us and about the good plans He has for our lives, but when He begins to chastise us or correct us in any way, we try to tell Him that “now” is just not a good time. I doubt He ever chooses a time we would consider “a good time,” and I think He does that on purpose!