Trust And Obey
Hi and welcome back. Today we are going to look at the subject of trust and why for some trust just doesn’t come easy.
I had a friend whose name was Richie. I was one of the few people that Richie would allow to get near him. He had a wall around him that was 10 ft high. One day I invited Richie to come to Celebrate Recovery with me. Celebrate Recovery is a 12-step Christ centered program for life’s hurts habits and hang ups. Richie came and listened to several meetings. But he didn’t stay long. It was hard for him to put his Trust in God. Richie had a troubled past. He saw his mother being murdered in a bathtub by his stepfather. After that no family members stepped up to the plate to take Richie in. So he spent most of his childhood in foster care or other institutions. During that time he was sexually abused. As an adult he turned to drugs and eventually went to prison.
So, Richie had some trust issues.
It was hard for him to trust anybody or feel safe around anyone. But Richie was a survivor. He put his trust in his own abilities and didn’t rely on anyone to help him. He had control over everything and he didn’t want to give up that control. As long as he was in control he felt everything would be okay. But everything wasn’t okay. Richie was an accomplished artist and for him that was his escape. It gave him a sense of satisfaction while he was in prison and it was an outlet for all the dark things that haunted him. When Richie was released from prison he had a motorcycle accident and got hooked on painkillers. He started breaking into houses to support his drug habit. Eventually the police caught up with him as he was riding a bicycle. The officer attempted to stop Richie by bumping his bike with his police car. As a result the officer ran over Richie ending his life at age 32. I tell you all this because when we have trust issues, it’s hard to give up control. So many people failed Richie. He had no support system, no one he felt he could rely on, no one to comfort him when the pain was overwhelming. He truly believed that God would fail him as well.
If you take away nothing else today, take away this, God is faithful.
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
If God is faithful then you can rely on Him. You can trust Him.
We are called into fellowship with God’s Son. What does that mean? Fellowship among believers is a community of like-minded individuals. We all have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Since we are the Church or more precisely the body of Christ, we are entered into fellowship with Christ as the head of the church. We can build our trust around the foundation or the cornerstone of that church, which is Jesus Christ.
My friend Richie didn’t trust anyone because they always let him down.
More often than not they just flat out lied to him.
But remember, God is faithful.
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Throughout the Bible God said what He meant and meant what He said.
Abraham believed God when he said that he would be the father of many nations. He trusted God to give him and his wife Sarah a son when they were both beyond child bearing years.
Noah trusted God when he said that he would flood the Earth. Even when there was no evidence to back that up, Noah built the ark. Moses believed God when he said that he would bring His people out of Egypt. He trusted God to part the Red Sea and allow God’s people to cross to the other side. Even though Moses couldn’t understand how God was going to accomplish the impossible he was faithful to believe in the impossible.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, not half-heartedly.
If we lean on our own understanding we lean on what we can see, hear and feel. We put our trust in material things. The things of this world. We need to focus on things of eternal value. If we truly believe that God is faithful then we will surrender our will and let Him direct our paths. Even though it is beyond our comprehension, we can trust the wisdom of almighty God.
Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
The riches of his wisdom are unsurpassed. His knowledge leaves even the most learned scholar at a loss to decipher the mysteries of creation.
Did you ever have that moment when you thought you knew someone, but you really didn’t. You thought they were your friend and they let you down. You believed your parents would be there for you, but their marriage ended in divorce. Maybe your pastor had a secret past that ended up going public. It’s hard to put our trust in people who continually let us down. But remember, our God is faithful.
Malachi 3:6 For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
As we grow confident in our faith through prayer, worship, and meditating on His word. Our trust in our Lord and Savior can begin to grow. But, it’s up to us to take the first step, to come out of our comfort zone and leave ourselves exposed and vulnerable. You can trust God. He will see you through all of your hurts, habits, and hang ups. He will meet you right where you’re at and walk beside you every step of the way. He will never leave you nor forsake you.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
God is faithful. Put your trust in the Savior. Man will always let you down, but we serve a forever faithful God.