Too often, we as Christians get caught up in planning, building, and controlling our own lives rather than trusting where God leads us. It starts small, like putting aside a conviction, because you think you’ve got everything handled. Eventually, though, that can snowball into actively pushing away God’s promptings in every area of life, which leaves you anxious, confused, overwhelmed, and lost.
If you’ve ever been in that situation, you’re definitely not alone. Believing we know better than God has been a common theme since the beginning of humanity. In fact, it’s what caused the fall. In Genesis 2:16-17, God told Adam and Eve they were free to eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, any that they wanted, except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
All Adam and Eve had to do was follow that single command. And it’s not like it was a hard one. They could eat fruit from any other tree in that garden. There was plenty for them. In Genesis 3, however, things go way downhill. We see that the serpent in the garden, some form of the devil, spoke to Eve telling her she didn’t have to trust what God said. And she was convinced. Since then, humans have followed the pattern of hearing what God says, believing they know better, and then finding themselves lost in the dumps after pursuing their own way. Genesis is proof that we as humans do not know what’s best.
But God, ever merciful and abundant in grace, has not left us to figure it out on our own.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” That is such an amazing statement!
When we trust in God with all our hearts and acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will lead us exactly where we need to go.
Proverbs 3:5-6 sounds great, and of course we probably all desire to follow it. Sometimes, though, trusting God is easier said than done. But why? Don’t we all want to have our paths made straight by God? Well, I think most of us choose not to trust God because we have a fear that, if we give it all over to Him, God is somehow going to mess it up. Maybe we think He doesn’t understand the situation, or that He won’t move fast enough for us. Though those are common thoughts, they are not reasonable!
God always understands the situation.
So many times we forget that God knows every in and out of our lives. Psalm 139:2-3 says, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” God is not missing anything, or forgetting to take anything into account. He knows it all. He knows it much better than we ever will.
God will not mess up the timing.
When we really want something, it’s easy to disregard the journey and focus only on the destination. If we only focus on the destination, though, we will miss the growth that God wants to put us through. Good things can happen in the waiting just as much as in the receiving!
Plus, even if we do get what we want faster, we either won’t be ready for it, or it won’t actually be the right thing. Having to wait does not mean that God is slow, it means He is working things out so you can get His best for you.
Does God really want to give me the best, though?
Another big reason we often don’t give our trust to God is that we think He won’t give us what we want. We’re afraid to give him control, because what if He takes the things that make us happy? If we give it all to Him, will He give us something worse in return? Again, this is an extremely common thought. But it is so false!
Before we go any further, however, we must know that God is not a genie. He is not waiting on our every wish, ready to grant all of our desires. God is too good for that. If we got everything we thought we ever wanted, things would go downhill fast. Remember Eve? What she thought she wanted actually led to her destruction.
And just like Eve, we are shortsighted. What we think is good for us in the moment does not always lead to where we think it will. But, it’s different with God. In Matthew 6:19-20 Jesus tells us, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” The best treasure we can have, the most we could ever get, is summed up in our eternity in heaven, face-to-face with our Savior. And 2 Peter 3:9 says God desires that for everyone! So, God does not want to give you what may gratify you for a moment and then leave you empty.
God wants to give you His best: eternal joy, eternal goodness, and eternal life.
Now that we know the good that God has, which is better than anything we can even imagine, we can rejoice in His promise to give it to us. In Romans 8:28 it says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” How comforting is that? We can trust, for sure, that if we have accepted Jesus and love Him with all our heart, God is working. He is working so that everything we’re in, everything we do, and everything that is done to us can lead to the ultimate good of eternity with Him.
So, when we take everything into consideration we can see that God is not going to mess up the timing, God always understands everything in our lives, and God wants the ultimate good for us. I know it can be so hard to choose to trust in the moment when you think you can work everything out for yourself. But I can say, from experience, that God’s way is always better. Lean not on your own understanding. Lean on God, and He will make your path straight.
He is for you, He loves you, and you can trust Him; with all of your heart.
Abby
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