Journey into Lightl

As we face challenges in our daily lives, we discover we already rely on many things other than God. We have to learn to distrust these idols.

Our biggest challenge to trusting God is depending on ourselves too much. We are given a project so we set out to tackle it with our own “wits and wisdom.” “What’s wrong with that? That’s the way I was raised and it has worked well for me for thirty years”, you may say.

But it doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s obvious it’s not working, such as when we get divorced. Other times it’s not so obvious, such as when we are bored with life. Yet, trusting the truth that “apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, NAS) leads us to find a way to include God’s help in our marriage or strategy for living.

When we pass through the Red Sea of problems all around us, it’s hard to look to Jesus to hold back the water. We want to focus on problem-solving and forget to rely on his promise that “as your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:25, ESV). When we forget, we don’t trust the truth we know.

So, how do we develop the habit of relying on the truth we know?

James 1:22 exhorts us to be a doer of the word, not just a hearer only. We can develop the habit of asking God how to put into practice the truth we have just learned and not to indulge in laziness that stops at just hearing. Peter put into practice Jesus’s word to come to him, even if it meant walking on water. And as long as Peter trusted the truth, he did a miracle. He walked on water. But when he looked to his doubts and abilities, he sank. We need to remember it is Jesus who gives us the strength to live the truth we know.

Another way to trust the truth is to welcome and take advantage of our challenges. Difficult times can force us to reach out for God’s help. “Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance” (James 1:2-3, NAS). Instead of complaining about our difficulties, we can rely on God to use our trials to grow us spiritually.

Also we need to deal with our hearts. This is where much of our resistance is to trusting the truth because we depend on lies instead that keep us imprisoned in walls of fear and feelings of inadequacy. Examples would be “I need to accomplish things to be important; I need to be regarded as a good homemaker by others in order to be an adequate person; or there is something wrong with me because my life has so many troubles.” These are all lies! The truth is we are already precious, honored and loved by God (Isaiah 43:4) – and  that is never going to change. We need to exam our hearts with God’s help to discern if we are clinging to lies rather than the truth we know.

May God gives us the courage and wisdom to trust in the truth we know. May we not be content with just knowing truth. May we entered into the messy world of application and experience Jesus beside us giving us the power to live the truth we know.

Ask God to show you a truth you know you are not relying on. What did he say?

Ask God to show you what lies you embrace rather than the above truth that hinders you from trusting in God. For each lie, identify what the truth is and ask him to help you to depend on it to live it out.