My mother, bless her soul, was a worrier (not a warrior). She worried about everything, particularly everything to do with me, her only child. Even though she believed in God and read the whole Bible, she struggled with her fears of everything that could go wrong.
One day in my early teens, I had yet another bicycle accident on the poorly maintained roads in our town in North Queensland. She patched me up with bandages, and later in her bedroom she cried out to God in her fear of something far worse happening to me. Suddenly, she experienced the direct, clear, and reassuring voice of God saying clearly: “Trust me!” It was, she felt, as though a great storm surrounding her suddenly disappeared and she felt the true peace of God’s loving presence. “Yes Lord,” she said to Him, “I trust You.”
There were many opportunities for her to worry after this revelation of course; my motorbike, my car, my jobs, my marriage, our son – her grandson, and so on, but as she related to me before her passing a few years ago, she never lost that safe place with Him that she could return to anytime she felt worries pressing in on her.
This is a life lesson that has stayed with me: we need to completely trust in God.
“Why?” and “How?” you ask.
There are three reasons why:
- We are blind (in the spiritual).
- We know and understand very little.
- He truly loves us and does everything FOR OUR BENEFIT!
God gave clear instructions to Adam in the Garden of Eden: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:17). Adam must have told this to Eve, as she then relayed this to the serpent, i.e. the Devil, when he tempted her to eat from it (Genesis 3:1). He then refined his temptation to fuel any doubt, especially about God’s motivation, and also to pull on her desires to advance herself and her husband: “You will not die, God knows you will become like Him.” (Genesis 3:4-5) As we know, Adam and Eve gave in to this temptation (Genesis 3:6-7), and the rest is part of redemption history.
What did they actually do wrong? They accepted the lies that God was holding back vital information from them because He was afraid they’d become like Him, and that they knew better than Him what was best for them – rebellion against trust in God.
Despite the grand prize of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we didn’t gain much; we still had, and have, so much to learn about the physical world, about each other, and about God Himself and our final destination – the spiritual plane. Yes, we are ignorant, but like teenagers we think we know everything there is to know about everything. This attitude creates a barrier to trusting God since we continue the lies that He didn’t tell us everything, we had to find it out for ourselves, and now we know everything, we are like God – rebellion against trust in God.
We worship knowledge and say, “Knowledge is power”, but power to do what? Knowledge by itself is useless, except for bragging rights at dinner parties and in online game rooms. The use of knowledge is what produces results; poor or great. You can know everything there is to know about Maserati cars, but unless you drive one, own one, maintain one, it’s all just in your head, and on your tongue – you don’t really know Maseratis, you just know all about them. The same with God and life; we can know lots about them, but unless we interact with them and learn more by working with them, for them, in them, we know nothing really.
So, lets admit our limitations and find how we can gain the wisdom to completely trust Father God.
“God is not human, that he should lie,
not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?”
(Numbers 23:19 NIV)
We are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27), not the other way around: He himself does not and cannot lie (see also Hebrews 6:13-20 and Titus 1:2). We can be certain that all the promises He has made to us, His children, will be and are being fulfilled. He also proved this, and His unending love and mercy towards us in sacrificing His one and only incarnated son, Jesus (John 3:16-17). But wait, there’s more…
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NIV)
We can be totally confident in what Jesus is saying here: Father God will ensure we have what we need, always, there is no doubt. When you feel any doubt, read through Matthew 6:25-34 and be comforted in His love for you and for your eternal future.
The enemy of God deceives people by using exaggerated fear and misusing Scripture, as he did when tempting Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). Trust in God and resist the Devil – he will flee! (James 4:7).
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” (James 1:16-18 NIV)
Finally, be totally reassured that the God who knows everything (Psalm 139:1-2) has also experienced it firsthand through Jesus (Hebrews 4:14-16). He does not give us more than we can handle (1 Corinthians 10:13) provided we work with Him and not try to carry it all by ourselves!
“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)
Bjorn Schmid