Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
I used biblegateway.com to search the NIVUK Bible for the word “Trust” which included “Trustworthy” and it came back with 170 occurrences. Most of these referred to God or Jesus. By definition God is trustworthy/faithful (Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Corinthians 1:9, Deuteronomy 32:4 ….) otherwise He would not be God, and he could not make our paths straight.
So what do we do when we believe God has not followed through on a promise? To answer this, may I use an example from my own life? Just under two years ago I married for the second time, I was convinced this was “of God”. A number of my wise and trusted christian friends advised against it. One of whom strongly advised me not to marry at this time, to the point, late one night, he “laid down a fleece”. The very next day we thought God answered in favour of marriage. So now I was totally convinced my upcoming marriage was “of God”. So I married a wonderful woman. But after 7 months the marriage failed, and last week I received a petition for divorce from my wife.
So can we say God did not keep his promise? By no means! God is trustworthy “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). So, somehow, in all of this God is working for my wife’s and my good. In time to come I will look back and see just how God worked things for my good, and praise God for how much He loves me. In the meantime I must “Trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding”.
In other words have faith in my loving Father. In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul tells us of opposition to his ministry and treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. and being hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. For Paul knew/had faith God had sent him, and God’s word can never fail not even in the face of the gates of hell. So Paul concludes with:-
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Corinthians 4:16-19
To conclude, “We trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not on our own understanding; in all our ways submit to him, and he will make our paths straight”. For He has sent us, even if we make a mistake, or don’t listen. We are looking to the future, looking to eternity. God is infallible and never makes a mistake, and works all things for our good. We know that one day we will see how wonderful He is.