Do you trust me?

One of my favorite Disney movies is Aladdin.  Do you remember how all Jasmine wanted to do was to get out of the Palace walls?  Now here comes Aladdin on his magic carpet, with his hand reaching out to Jasmine, asking one simple question, "Do you trust me?"  At that moment, Jasmine had a choice to make, did she trust Aladdin and even though she may not of trusted the Magic Carpet, did she trust Aladdin enough to follow him.  Of course this is Disney, so of course she trusted him and off they went on a wonderful adventure.  Can you imagine what she would have missed, and how the story would have been different, if she didn't trust him?  It is one of my favorite parts and songs of the movie.

Well we don't live in a Disney movie, but God is asking us, "Do you trust me?"  When God tells us to, "Be anxious for nothing", he is telling us to trust him.  God tells us to, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto thy own understanding."

Our own understanding would say, but carpets do not fly, carpets can't hold our weight..., but do we trust him?

I have learned to trust God over the years and to take God at his word.  When he says he will supply all my needs, I trust him.  When he tells me that his plans for me are to give me a hope and a future, I trust him.  When the Bible says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!  Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints!  There is no want to those who fear Him.   The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing. I trust that.

I trust God because of who he is.  When I have moments of doubt, I ask myself, "Why am I not trusting God right now?"  Is God a man that he should lie?  No!!!  If God does not lie, then what causes me not to trust him?  Do I compare him to man?  Do I think that his promises must be for someone else?  Surely, they can't be for me, I've messed up, I've....., fill in the blank.  But his promises don't depend on who I am, his promises depend on who he is.  I've come to realize that for way too long, I had a very small God, and I kept him in a small box.  But now, I let him be who he is, "Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?"

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So I have come to trust him in a way I never thought possible.  I have learned to give my anxious thoughts to him. (One of the things I love most about God, when I find that I can't do what he asks of me, I can ask for his help and he is always willing to help). So when he says be anxious for nothing, I can, because he helps me.  I have learned to pray and let go.  I have learned to give thanks in all things, and I have that peace of God that surpassed all comprehension.

This is what I pray for you, this is what God wants for you.  What ever you are going through right now, take your eyes off the problem, and spend time in God's word meditation on his promises.  I can assure you when you start doing this, everything in your life will change.  That peace of God, is for you.  It is God's promise and gift for just trusting God. 

If you are going through something right now, and you would like prayer, please feel free to share, knowing that I will pray for you, but also know that God already has everything in control and nothing, and I mean nothing is going to happen to you that God has not allowed.  But please don't get that twisted, just because, God has allowed something to happen to you, you can not blame God for what has happened.  Sometimes things happen because of our own sin, sometimes it is because it simply rains on the just and the unjust, but all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

So trust Him, He loves you.  And He is there for you, even during the difficult times.  And that peace of God is not dependent on your circumstances, it is dependent on resting in the assurance of who God is.

DO YOU TRUST HIM?

I can do all things

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
How many times have we heard this quoted, how many times have we quoted this ourselves, to help us through a difficult time or situation?
But have you ever read what comes before?  Have you read this verse in context?

¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ^[a] who strengthens me.

Paul is talking about knowing how to live with little and with much. 
When I started my 90 day transformation, I didn't know what the transformation would look like, I didn't have any preconceived ideas as to where I wanted to go, what I did know is that I wanted God to do a work in me.  I wanted to be transformed inside and out.  

So I asked God to do a work in me.  Isaiah 64:8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.

I truly put my life into the Potter's Hands.  And He has and is doing a work in me.  Is it what I would have chosen, no.  Is it how I would have done things, No.  But does the clay say to the potter, do this or that?  No, the clay simply lets the potter do his work.  The clay trusts the potter.

So is what ways have I been transformed?

1. I do completely trust the work of the Potter.  I have completely surrendered to God.
2. I am thankful for everything.  I live in an attitude of thanksgiving.  When was the last time you took a shower and said thank you?  Thank you for a place to shower, thank you for hot water, thank you for soap, for shampoo?   What about thanking God for a bed to sleep in?  Clean sheets?  Warm blanket?  Your soft pillow?  I have am constantly saying thank you to God for everything.
3. I have learned not to judge people by their situation.  But to love and pray for everyone.  So many times I have heard people say that people that are homeless, chose living like that.  That they can't give them money because the homeless person would just use the money for alcohol or drugs.  But the Bible says:
⁴¹ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ⁴² for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him,^[d] saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  
It is not up to me to figure out what someone will do with what I give them, it is up to me to give.  It is not my money anyway, it all belongs to God, to if God tugs at your heart to give, don't try and analyze, just give.
4. I have also learned that everything I make is because of God.  He has provided me with the opportunities to earn money, and everything belongs to Him, so whether it is a little of a lot, the very first thing I do, is tithe.  This is an act of complete of submission and faith.  But like the widow who gave the two mites," but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood.”  I give first and then trust God to multiply the rest for my needs.  
5.  And finally I have learned not to judge myself by the life of others.  We are all on our own journey, each with it's own set of blessings and challenges.  We have know idea what someone else is facing right now, so when I see someone, whether at Starbucks or on the streets I pray for those that God places in my site.  I don't need to know what they are going through, and I assure you everyone is going through something, God knows and God just wants us to pray.  So sometimes I will will sit in Starbucks and just pray for each person sitting there.  

Do I know where God will lead me next?  No.  But I trust God, I trust his heart, I trust his plans, I trust that he always has my back, and I know without a doubt that:

¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. ²³ Not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. ²⁴ For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
²⁶ Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us^[b] with groanings which cannot be uttered. ²⁷ Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
²⁸ And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

Amen!!!!!

Trust

Trust in The Lord with all you heart and lean not on your own understanding.  Prov. 3:5

Trust in The Lord with all my heart, hmmm do I do this.  Yes on some level, I do trust The Lord but do I fully trust God?  With all my heart?  The word "Trust" indicates a confidence, boldness but I have found myself doubting.  How many times instead of proclaiming something out loud, I hold back, hesitate.  What if it doesn't happen?  What if I say it out loud and then look like a fool?  I mean it has happened, we have all heard the stories of someone declaring that something will happen because they believe that "God" has told them it would happen, then nothing.  Wow, not only do they look foolish, but so do Christians all over.

I think the problem comes with the second part of the verse, "and lean not on your own understanding".   Sometimes, when I pray for things, I find that I also want to provide God with the answer.  You know the kind of prayer, God we pray for healing for so and so, we trust you for that healing and we declare it to be true.

Is that the way God wants us to pray?  I don't think so.  If we trust God, really trust God, then we have to trust him with the outcome, even when that out come looks nothing like what we prayed for.  Even when our Lord, prayed the Lord's Prayer, he said Thy Will Be Done.  That is what we need to trust, God's Will!   Do we trust his will?  Do we trust that God always will do what is best for us?  Even when a loved one is not healed?  Even when the job doesn't come?  Even when the relationship is not restored?  Do we trust Him?  

Jesus had to trust God before his crucifixion, he had to trust God and say "not my will, but thine be done". 

Jesus taught about giving good gifts, good gifts are not always what we want, but what we need.  Did your parents ever give you a gift for your birthday, that was not what you wanted, but was maybe what you needed?   Or did your parents ever not give you wanted because they knew that it was not what was best for you?  Do you remember not understanding why?  Why can't I have a pony?  Why can't I have this or that, and we had to learn to "trust" them?

Every time we trust God when we feel that he did not answer our prayer exactly how we wanted, our faith grows.  And trusting gets a little bit easier.

So next time you pray for something Trust God, trust him boldly, trust Him with confidence.  Not that he will do exactly what we ask, but that our loving Father will do exactly what we need.