Trusting with No "If"

Proverbs 3:5-6
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

I often find myself saying, “I will trust the Lord, if....” But it’s in that small two-letter word “if” that completely falsifies the first part of the statement, because if there is an “if” then I’m not really trusting. It is in the “if” that I am leaning on my own understanding and not acknowledging Him. We are to trust in the Lord no matter what. No matter the circumstances, no matter what is going on in our lives. There is no “if” because there is only room for complete and total trust in the Lord. Often times, if I’m completely honest with myself the “if” is completed by “if things go the way I want them to go, or “if the circumstances are what I want them to be, or “if the end result is what I want it to be.” Trust is so hard because we have to once again realize that we are not in control, and we have to relinquish that control that we "think" is ours, over to the Lord. Yet how wonderful it is that the God in whom we are placing our trust in is not only unchanging, but also loves us beyond what we can think or imagine, and his plan is always best. God is God, and I am not. He is God and He knows what is best. He is God, and I will trust in Him.

Too Often Like Cain

The story of Cain and Able is found in Genesis 4. Cain and Abel of course were the first two sons of Adam and Eve.
Genesis 4:2-16

"Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" "I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?" The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden."

There are several things that I find interesting in this passage. First of all, what went wrong? There are many speculations, but just from the text itself it states that Cain, "brought some of the fruits," but yet we see that Abel, "brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock." Abel's was the best of the best, in which we know he gave to the Lord by faith in Hebrews 11:4. Second, Cain did not do what was right to please the Lord, yet the thought of being outside of God's presence was unbearable. That seems kind of contradictory. We can't have it both ways. I know too often in my own life I am not obedient yet I also don't want to face the consequences. Too often I'm just like Cain, wanting to cover up my sin instead of seeking forgiveness and repentence. However, I shall continue to strive to be more like Abel who was obedient from the start and was honored in the hall of faith where it is written, "By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead." For our goal should be to live by faith so that we will be found to be righteous and blameless before Christ Jesus.

Bigger Plans

Isa 55:9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

In Acts 1, the events before Jesus' ascension is once again recorded by Luke. During a recent discussion on this passage, I realized how often we as humans, and most of all myself are just like the disciples were. The disciples have now been with Jesus for somewhere around three years, alongside him in all of his teaching and ministry. And Jesus has now been crucified and has risen again, and in verse 4-5 it reads, " And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to WAIT for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And yet the disciples then respond not with a "yes, sir," but instead with "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" Now, if it were me, I would probably have to count to ten, take a deep breath, and be like, OK, now what have I told you over and over and over again for the past three years?? I'M NOT GOING TO BE THE KING YOU HAVE EXPECTED, but Jesus instead so graciously responded by saying, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."
The disciples, in their finite minds, still did not understand that God's plan was so much bigger than theirs!! All they had to do was WAIT! Just like the disciples I find myself wanting to rush things, or reasking Jesus over and over again about something in my own plan. When all he is saying is to just WAIT, TRUST him, and his plans are so much bigger!! God's ways are so beyond ours and yet so often we think "we" know best!! I am so foolish!!