Last week, we discussed the idea of how to hear from God. This week, the subject we are covering is a very similar subject. Because much like hearing from God, trusting God can be difficult because we can’t quite hear him or see him. Even though they both involve action on our part, trust is quite a bit different. There are also a few ways that we can trust in God. One is trusting him through crisis and the other is trusting him for what’s best in our lives. I will try to give an example of each as we go, because it is very important that we address both questions.
The unfortunate truth about being human is that people have failed us. Whether it is family, friends, or mentors, people will do things that hurt us, betray us or alienate us. Because of this, we automatically feel that God can or will fail us. So to start off, I would like to suggest to you that God does not fail us, he allows things to happen to us. As we talked about last week, it is alright to ask God questions, but the moment we start telling God that he failed us, what does that say? Is he in control? Does he care? It opens a can of worms that I personally do not want to open with God… not the person to make accusations against!
To start, I will go ahead and tell a story from my life that stood out as an example. One day I had stopped at school after work in the fall of 2007. I picked up dinner, which was chicken noodle soup and a sourdough bread roll. I was looking forward to having this bowl of soup since I had it previously and really liked it. So I was walking from the parking lot with hands full with books, clothes and my dinner. I shifted the clothes between my hand, and I watched helplessly as my soup fell to the ground! I picked it up, and found that it had not spilled. So I went inside and changed out of my uniform.
As I sat down to eat my dinner after changing out of my uniform, I was telling the person I was with all about my soup since I was so excited for it. It was definitely the high light of my day thus far. As I pulled it out of the bag, I found that the bottom of the cup was punctured and that my soup was now in the bag instead of the bowl! I was so distraught. After looking at my cup with a look of complete horror, the person I was with reminded me that there was soup in the cafeteria, and that it might just be chicken noodle soup. I commented that I really wanted THAT soup and even considered eating it straight from the bag. But I decided it was not healthy, so went into the kitchen to see what types of soup they had.
I looked at the choices, and chicken noodle was not one of them. I saw asparagus soup, which is something I thought was interesting since asparagus was something I liked but rarely if ever had growing up. So I decided to buy a bowl of it, and started eating it immediately. To my surprise, the soup was amazing! I thought, “How did I not know about this?” I ended up buying two bowls I liked it so much. That’s when I realized that if the chicken soup was never taken from me, I might have never known what cream of asparagus soup was like.
So what can we learn from this? I learned about what the cups of soup were doing to me. I have many more serious situations in which I feel that people, jobs, possessions and other “things” have been taken from me and that I felt as if I was really missing out since I did not have those. I felt indignant with God, wondering why he took those away from me. Often times, it hurt a lot. But strangely enough, in the end I begin to learn that those “cups of soup” that I was holding onto was stopping me from being part of a better ministry or church, creating healthier friendships, a more rewarding job or having a better quality life. The fact was, I was not trusting God and thinking that even though he had something, I really did not want to see it because I was afraid that it might not be what I wanted.
If we look at the Bible, we will see that this example is prevalent. The most common story is that of Job, the man who had everything, lost it all, and then gained more. People will nitpick and say what they want about Job, but that man had to have had it hard. I could not begin to understand what he went through. But in all of this, he tried to understand where God was coming from and realized that the Lord has the power to do as he pleases.
So lets take a look at Job’s story. He is the most righteous man on earth and is blessed with abundant living. So instead of living peacefully protected by God, it all came to an end as God allowed Satan to take from him. First it was his livestock, then his children, and then he is covered in boils. His friends accused him of sinning and eventually turned against him, and even his wife asks him to curse God so that he would be put out of his misery! What was his response? “…shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” That is definitely poignant to me. Verse 38 is when everything comes to a head with God and Job. God finally answers him through a barrage of questions that would be improbable for Job to answer. But in the end, Job is rewarded for his faithfulness with twice as much as before. The latter part of his life was much better than the first and he lived a long and prosperous life.
I generally do not like using Job as an example, mainly because so many people claim that they feel like him and it usually does not measure up anywhere near. I think it is safe to see that I am showing this as God’s faithfulness.
The problem with life is that nothing is spelled out clearly, and often times when we look at two things that could look like the will of God and yet one is not and one is. So my encouragement to you is that as you let go of these “things” or as they are removed from your life, that you find peace understanding that you will be taken care of.
The second type of situation that I would like to discuss is something that happens when we are in crisis or conflict. I do not mean physical conflict or fighting, but what I mean is when things go awry and require reconciliation. I have seen this quite a bit in the past few years since I left Cleveland. The best example is from my first year in the Navy. The following example is when I trusted God for finances to do something that I felt that he wanted me to do but I could not afford.
In August 2006 I considered going back to school to start taking prerequisites for the masters of counseling program. So I applied at Regent, and I never followed through because of a financial situation and a work situation that drained me emotionally. So I was not feeling up to going back to school. That’s when Regent gave me a call and asked if I was still interested. I told them that I would get back to them in a day, and I decided to go back. So I trusted God to go back, and I signed up for classes and then I applied for tuition assistance from the Navy. This is where everything got interesting.
I showed up at the education office with application in hand, it just so happened to be that the due date was the day before. So technically I should not have received tuition assistance. The man behind the counter was understanding, and let it slide. He understood that I registered late and it was okay. Until my drive home, I checked my cell phone and found two missed calls. The first was to tell me that I did not get the tuition assistance approved because I never attended a mandatory meeting that was two weeks before. My heart sank, I did not have the money to go back to school because of the said financial situation. So I went to the next voice mail, and it was the same gentleman who told me that I could just go to the tuition assistance meeting the following week. He made an exception for me. So after everything was approved, I found that my tuition for that semester was completely covered and that I would not have to pay one cent for class!
An example that I really like from the Bible is Elijah on Mt. Carmel. When I think of it, most of the Prophets had to trust God so much because if they slipped up one bit, they would be moments away from getting killed. So anyway, when we look at Elijah in 1 Kings 18:16, he is being confronted by Ahab. Needless to say, Ahab does not like Elijah and calls him the troubler of Israel. So what does Elijah do, he rebukes him and challenges him to bring 450 prophets of Baal to demonstrate who the real God is. This is a great example of someone being confident in God. Elijah, who was the only prophet of Yahweh, was going against 450 prophets of Baal and knew that if for some reason God did not show, he would be a dead man.
Instead of being concerned about what could happen, Elijah starts taunting the Baal prophets! The danced, yelled, and cut themselves, and nothing happened. So Elijah inquired if their God deep in thought, busy or possibly traveling. Then he casually calls people to him, and starts stacking the odds against himself. He soaks the wood on the altar with water so that it is practically unburnable. He then asks the Lord to come so that all can see his Glory, and the sacrifice was burned up in a fire and the people were convinced.
So what can we learn from this? If we just sit back and not do anything, that we can never see what God wants for us. I can definitely think of times in which I told God that I was not comfortable doing something or that I was not confident he would pull through, and I felt horrible about it later.
The second idea that really tugged at my soul was the idea that if we do not put ourselves in the situation to trust God, we might never learn to trust God. Personally, I would be a little gun shy about taunting someone because if by chance God does not want me to be doing that action, it could get really embarrassing very quickly. But I found that when I went into a situation with the feeling that God wanted me there, I received the words that I needed.
In closing, I want to encourage you of two things. With God, all things are possible (Mt 19:26). So live fearlessly and trust in God, do not fear failure, because there is always something to learn, even in failure. As for those cups of soup in our lives, we have a God who is a redeemer and a restorer. He took care of Job and gave him everything back and then some, so do not be afraid to trust in him for he can do the same for us.
