Trials - Part 2

To pick up where we left off yesterday, what does trusting God look like? I realize that trust is not mentioned in the passage. To me, trust is an essential element of being able to go through times of testing and be purified by them, rather than having my heart hardened. How can I believe that God will sustain me through these trials unless I trust Him? In my life, trust looks like this. When tempted to worry, I will pray. When I don’t see any possible way that God can work this for my good, I have to get into the Word of God and make my thinking line up with His. Trusting is really nothing more than rolling our burdens onto Him and believing that He cares for us as a loving father cares for his children.

• Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

When I am heavy laden, all I must do is to come to Him and He will give me rest. I come to Him in prayer. I think of David in Psalm 119. He says he will praise the Lord 7 times a day. I watch my 10 year old little girl who came from all kinds of abuse. She wouldn’t even talk to my husband for the first 3 months she lived in our home. She is learning to trust. I watch her snuggle up with her daddy on the couch. I listen to her when she says, “Yes, Daddy.” I learn from this. When everything is stacked against me, to say, “Yes, Daddy” and sit with Him, and wait patiently and peacefully for Him to work it for my good.

I struggled with what was meant by patience producing experience. I could be way off here, so if you have any better ideas, don’t hesitate to chime in. Again, the definition of experience includes, “to know by practice or trial.” To know what?” In my case, it has served to help me know God more intimately. By the practice of trusting Him, waiting for Him patiently, and enduring, I am learning and experiencing the character of God. I have experienced God in these last few months at a level I had not known before. It was not always easy, but the outcome far outweighs the hardship.

This kind of experience naturally leads into hope. To experience God’s faithfulness and trustworthiness in the midst of the fire, produces seas of hope. If God can carry me through the most painful experience of my life, and not only carry me, but produce a more joyful, godly me, then it gives me nothing but confidence in any future event He may bring my way.

I know to the core of my being that God gave me this little boy to produce in me a harvest that would not have been possible any other way. Only the love of God could compel me to love this child that the world repeatedly tells us to give up on. These tribulations in my life have truly shed the love of God abroad in my heart.

As I wrap this up, I would like to share some verses that have been meaningful to me in this process.

• Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:…
• Psalms 42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
• Psalms 61:2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
• Psalms 55:17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.

God is good..all the time! If you are in the fire right now, I encourage you to seek Him with all that is in you. I have had to fall on my face before Him, literally, pleading with Him that I would not give up before I reach the finish line. I want to finish well.