Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (5 page)

• “I don’t know what to do, but God does.”
  
• “I don’t understand what’s going on in my life, but God will make a way for me.”
  
• “I don’t know how I can pay my bills this month, but God will provide.”
  
• “This trial I have doesn’t feel good; I don’t like it, but I believe God works all things out for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose”
  (see Rom. 8:28).
  
• “I don’t like the situation I’m going through, but what Satan means for my harm, God intends for my good”
  (see Gen. 50:20).
  

These statements and the attitudes they represent demonstrate faith. Having faith means always trusting in God’s love and looking beyond where you are to see the end result. Having faith means always being hopeful and refusing to accept defeat. People who live by faith can enjoy every day of their lives.

G
od wants to help us with the things that seem big to us and with the things that seem less significant. He wants to help us when we feel desperate and when we don’t. I figured out years ago that everything in life is over my head; it’s all too much for me to handle alone. I used to run to God only when I thought I was desperate, but then one day I finally realized I was desperate all the time; I just didn’t know it.

The same is true for you. You are desperate for God all the time, whether you realize it or not. In John 15:5 Jesus says, “Whoever
abides
in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing
” (
ESV
, emphasis added). As we abide in Him through faith, we can do everything, but apart from Him, we can do nothing that will have any real lasting value.

Our desperate need for God and His desire for us to abide in Him do not mean we have to sit around being “super spiritual” all the time. We do not need to feel obligated to read our Bibles or confine ourselves to a prayer closet for hours each day. It should be part of our lives, but we don’t need to feel as if we are being “spiritual” when we do it and “unspiritual” when we do other things. When we really love God and He is first in our lives, everything we do becomes spiritual in a way because we are doing it with Him, in Him, through Him, by Him, for Him, and to His glory.

Let me encourage you to invite God into every area of your life through faith. Jesus died so we could enjoy our lives—every part of them.

O
ften when we think of trusting God, we think of trusting Him
for
things we need or want—financial provision, physical healing, the restoration of a relationship, or a promotion at work. A true relationship of trust in God extends beyond trusting Him
for
something and includes trusting Him
through
a situation. We need to learn to not simply look to Him for the results we desire; we need to learn to trust Him through the process of attaining them.

There was a time in my life when I focused intensely on trusting God
for
things, saying,
“I want this, God,” “I want that, God,”
and
“I need such-and-such, God.”
In the midst of my requests, He began to show me that getting all those
things
was not what was most important. Those things would come later, but back then He needed to teach me first how to trust Him while I was going
through
situations. He wanted me to learn that He may not always rescue us when we want out of circumstances, but He is always with us as we walk through them. Because He is with us, we can go through trials in our lives with stable, positive attitudes, trusting God completely, even against seemingly impossible odds.

Remember, your attitude in every situation is yours to command. No one can force you to have a bad attitude or a good one; it is entirely up to you. Maintain an attitude of faith, praise, thanksgiving, and positive expectation, and you will definitely come out of your situation victoriously at just the right time.

O
ne of the great mysteries and facts about our walk with God is that we rarely understand everything He is doing in our lives. If we always understood, we would have no need to trust Him. As believers we often find ourselves in places of not knowing, and we catch ourselves questioning God:
“What does my future hold?” “Will I ever get married?” “What will my children be when they grow up?” “Will I have the provision I need in my old age?”

We have to learn to trust God when we do not understand what is happening in our lives, and we need to become comfortable with unanswered questions. You and I may never have every answer we want when we want it, so we need to relax and get comfortable knowing and trusting God, the One Who does know. Without trust, it is impossible to enjoy today and be ready to face tomorrow with expectancy.

Job, who had many reasons to question God as he faced a staggering series of crises and losses, did not understand what was going on in his life, but he made the decision to trust God anyway. I believe that was the only way he could find peace in the midst of his terrible circumstances. Similarly, you and I will never have peace in our lives until we learn how to stop trying to figure everything out and how to start trusting God more.

If you are the kind of person who has to have everything figured out in order to settle down, let me encourage you today to accept the
fact you are not likely to receive all the answers you want in this lifetime. Choose to stop demanding explanations and to begin practicing trust. Instead of asking God why, tell Him you trust Him. There have been many times in my life when I wanted with all my heart to know why something was or was not happening, but I knew God wanted my trust, not my questions.

S
hadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship the golden idol that King Nebuchadnezzar constructed and as a result were thrown into the fiery furnace (see Dan. 3). These three young men had no idea what would happen to them, but they were willing to put their lives on the line instead of disobeying God. We need people today who will take a stand for righteousness, for what is right according to God’s Word. If this does not happen, our world will be in serious trouble.

Many times, people fail to stand up for righteousness because they are afraid of what will happen when they do. Will they lose their jobs? Will they lose their friends? Will God abandon them? In situations such as these, when we do not know what the outcome or result of a
situation will be, we need to trust God and press forward to do what we believe is right. Even if we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, God’s Word says we are blessed (see Matt. 5:10). Those three Hebrew boys would’ve never experienced their incredible miracle if they weren’t willing to trust God as they stood in that fire.

The world desperately needs men and women who will trust God even in the midst of the fires of persecution and outside pressure. God can put us in better places than people could ever put us if we trust in Him and if we are people of integrity and excellence. We need people who will put everything on the line and say,
“Even if I lose what I want, I will not compromise and do what I know in my heart to be wrong.”
We need to fear the Lord above all else, and to trust Him at all times, in every situation, every day of our lives.

H
ow do we learn to “rest” in God? I can tell you to wait on the Lord and rest in Him all day long, but that does no good if you do not know
how
to enter His rest. To enter His rest you have to trust Him. I believe the simplest, easiest way to trust Him is to get your mind off your
problems. You may think you could never do that, but you can. You do it by choosing to think about something else.

Sometimes, one of the best things you can do when you have a problem and seem to be unable to get it off your mind is to simply go do something. Call a friend; go to the grocery store; take a walk; change the oil in your car; watch a funny movie; read a book; or tackle a project you have been putting off doing.

Invest your mental energy in something other than your problem. You will find it difficult to trust God if you talk about your problems excessively, because the more you talk about them, the more upset you will be. Turn your thoughts elsewhere. Give your brain a break and you’ll find yourself better able to rest in God.

Growing in the ability to trust God and to walk in faith is a lifetime journey; it does not happen quickly. As we grow spiritually, we have to remind ourselves over and over again to: cast our cares on God; be anxious for nothing; trust Him in every situation. As we are diligent to do these things, we find ourselves resting in the Lord more and more, and that is where we find peace, clarity, wisdom, and the strength to face each day.

A
re you enjoying the life and blessings of God in your everyday life? Or have you made a series of choices resulting in disappointment,
pain, or feeling that everything you do requires great effort and produces little reward? Don’t spend your time and energy mourning all the bad decisions you have made; just start making good ones. There is hope for you!

The way to overcome the results of a series of bad choices is through a series of right choices. The only way to walk out of trouble is to do the opposite of whatever you did to get into trouble—one choice at a time. Maybe the circumstances of your life right now are the direct result of a series of bad choices you have made. You may be in debt because you have made a lot of bad choices with money. You may be lonely because of a series of bad choices in relationships or in the way you treat people. You may be sick because of a series of unhealthy choices: eating junk food, not getting enough rest, or abusing your body through working too much and not having enough balance in your life.

You cannot make a series of bad choices that result in significant problems and then make one good choice and expect all the results of all those bad choices to go away. You did not get into deep trouble through one bad choice; you got into trouble through a series of bad choices. If you really want your life to change for the better, you will need to make one good choice after another, over a period of time, just as consistently as you made the negative choices that produced negative results.

No matter what kind of trouble or difficulty you find yourself in, you can still have a blessed life. You cannot do anything about what is behind you, but you can do a great deal about what lies ahead of you. God is a redeemer, and He will always give you another chance.