Don't Understand? Trust Him!

 Psalms 34:1-3 ESV

 

“I will bless the Lord at all times;

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

    let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

    and let us exalt his name together!”

 

We are to bless and not curse God. We are not to be happy with him only when things are going well for us and then turn around and complain against him when troubles or heartaches or sickness come into our lives. We must learn to accept his sovereignty over our lives in good times and in bad, and still praise him no matter the circumstances we are facing. For the Lord is good, and he is greatly to be praised!

 

Psalms 34:4-7 ESV

 

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me

    and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

    and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps

    around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

 

When we are faced with trials and the difficulties of life, our human nature may automatically kick into fear gear, but we must fight against it. Especially in today’s world when we are being bombarded with messages which are intended to instill fear within us, we must guard against letting those messages get to us. We must put on the armor of God with which to fight off the devil’s schemes against us so that we don’t cave to fear.

 

So, when the temptation to fear arises, we must seek the Lord, and if we are honest in our desires towards the Lord and away from giving in to fear, he will answer us, and he will deliver us from our fears. But we have to yield our lives to his control. We have to let go and let God. We have to cooperate with him in his workings in our hearts and in our minds and do what his word teaches us to do, and then the peace will come, and the fear will flee.

 

When we give in to fear, and we let it overtake us, it cripples us emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It keeps us from moving forward and from doing what the Lord has called us to do. It keeps us from trusting in the Lord, and in his will for our lives, and in his sovereignty, and it leads us to doubt God and who he is, and his power over our circumstances. And it can cause all kinds of physical problems for us, too, though not all sickness is from that.

 

But when we turn to the Lord when we are feeling fear, and we choose to reject the fear and to put on faith, instead, then we are free to be who God wants us to be and to do what he has called us to do. And so our faces will be radiant, for they will reveal our trust and confidence in the Lord and in his power to overcome and to be victorious over the temptation to fear even while Satan is fighting hard against us.

 

We get fearful many times when we listen to the wrong voices, when we listen to Satan’s fearmongering messages, and when we listen to humans who are trying to instill fear in our hearts. Now, let me say this, though. I am not talking here of humans who are speaking the truth of the gospel and who are warning against disobedience and of the consequences if we choose to disobey God. We need to heed those messages. They are from God.

 

But there are many humans out there who are trying to get us afraid of so many things, for they are trying to get us to doubt God and his sovereignty and his power to save, and they are trying to get us to put our trust in them and in their human solutions, instead, as though God is not enough, or as though God is not powerful enough to save and to give us all that we need to keep going and to endure and to remain faithful to him.

 

So, we need to be those who walk in the fear of the Lord and not in the fear of man. We need to make our life decisions based on the wisdom of God and not on the counsel of humans who may be counseling us in ways which are opposed to God or which say to God, “You aren’t doing it for me!” And to fear God is to revere, honor, respect, and obey him with our lives, to do what he says to do, and to cease doing what he says not to do.

 

Psalms 34:8-10 ESV

 

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

    for those who fear him have no lack!

The young lions suffer want and hunger;

    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.”

 

The Lord is good! We, in our flesh, may not always see it that way when people we love die or desert us or do evil against us. Many people struggle with trusting God when they don’t understand how he allows evil to exist and why he allows evil people to do evil things to us and to those we love. But he is God. So, we can either trust in his sovereignty, believing he knows what is best, and be at peace, or we can doubt him and live in fear.

 

God is not going to change who he is just because we don’t understand all of his ways. So, if you have to figure everything out and have answers for everything that God does and for why he does them before you will ever trust him, then you will never trust him with your life. And if you are going to continually go back and forth like a teeter-totter every time something doesn’t go your way, then you will never put your faith totally in God.

 

We have to accept God for who he is, for who he says he is, and for what he stands for, and that includes his sovereignty over our lives, and we have to trust him even when we don’t understand or we will never be in a true relationship with him, and we will never be at peace within. And our lives will always be in turmoil, for we will be tossed back and forth like the waves of the ocean every time another difficulty comes into our lives.

 

God is good, all the time, even if we don’t understand what he is doing or why he allows certain things to take place, for he is working in people’s lives in ways we cannot see and that we may not even ever imagine. For bad things have to happen to us sometimes for us to look up, and for us to turn away from living for the flesh to living for God and for his righteousness. So, trust him fully with your life, and you will be at peace.

 

Listen to Our Hearts

 

Songwriters: Geoff Moore / Steven Chapman

 

How do you explain, how do you describe

A love that goes from east to west

And runs as deep as it is wide?

You know all our hopes,

Lord, you know all our fears.

And words cannot express the love we feel,

But we long for You to hear.

 

So listen to our hearts.

Hear our spirit sing

A song of praise that flows

From those you have redeemed.

We will use the words we know

To tell you what an awesome God You are.

But words are not enough

To tell you of our love,

So listen to our hearts.

 

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