A Journey of Trust

What is life to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have accepted Him as their personal Lord and Savior.  A Journey of Trust.  Take a moment and think about it.  He leads us from one situation to the next with one thing in mind...teaching us total dependence on Him.  Through the valley to the mountaintop and back down through the valley.  But while we are in the valley we fear no evil because the Lord, who is our Shepherd, is with us.  I just had to stop for a moment and praise Him.  Through everything God is with me and I should be using all of my trials and tribulations as  building blocks to grow my faith in God.  And not only do we have our own experiences to learn from from but we are also surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on telling us we can make it.  Through every test and every trial we will come out okay.  It's not like when my daughters ask me if they can have company over or if I will take them shopping.  Most of the time I say "maybe".  Now my little inquisitive child then asks me "Momma what does maybe mean?"  My response is simple. "It means that it depends on your behavior and on how I'm feeling."  I'm so glad God isn't that way.  The chance of us coming out of our situation in a better place is guaranteed!  The probability that I am going to receive the blessing meant for me is absolute.  Hallelujah! 

During the journey of trust you must come to know God's voice.  You must learn to recognize when he is telling you to move or stand still.  When he is telling you to stay or go.  In your period of drought you must come to know Him to be 'water in dry places' and 'bread in a starving land'.  By now you have come to know that I love to look at the children of Israel.  They remind me so much of myself. I can't be judgmental of the things they did because I have done a lot of the same things.  God delivered them from captivity into a wilderness where they had no water. Really Lord?  We have no water and then when they do find it the water is undrinkable.  So they begin to complain.  I remember the first time I heard this story.  I was a little upset myself.  It appeared that God had led them from one bad place to another bad place. Sound familiar.  Maybe you have never been without water afraid that you were going to die of thirst.  But you have had an experience where you were in a bad situation and God delivered you.  The next thing you know you find yourself in a situation that seems worse than your previous situation.   Of course this is not your story so let me try to bring it closer to home.  Okay Lord so you maintained me when I lost my job.  You helped me to provide for my family but now I have something else going on that is trying to its best to steal my joy and you are taking too long.  Let the complaining begin.  Finally you find a job but it is not nearly the same amount of money so how are you going to support your family?  Let's see what happened with the Israelites.  The Lord hears the cries of His people and He delivers them.  They hadn't yet learned what it meant to totally depend on God for everything.  Although when he turns the bitter water sweet they learn to trust Him a little bit more.  Only if the person who lost their job realized that while He was maintaining them, He was also teaching them how to live on less. 

I love to use my divine imagination.  Just for a moment imagine if when the Israelites realized there was no more water they all began to pray in one accord and praise God and thank Him for the water they knew that they were about to receive.  I like to imagine God sitting in heaven thinking 'Well alright, my children are finally getting it'. And while they were praising Him the water became drinkable.  We all know that didn't happen.  We also know that even with their complaints and doubt, God still provided what they needed. And He will do the same thing for you.  And if you don't get it the first time just live just a little while longer.  There are many more lessons to come.  How much better that time will be when you put all your trust in the Lord.  'Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy path.  Proverbs 3:5-6

Most Gracious Heavenly Father,

I come to You today just to say thank you for all the things you have done for me.  The ways you have made for me and the doors You have opened for me.  I confess that I have not always had the best reaction to the trials I have had to face but I am so grateful that  You continue to give me opportunity after opportunity to learn to put all my trust in You.  Thank You for my journey.  In Jesus' Wonderful Name I pray Amen.