Think back with me on a time in your life when everything was out of your control. There was nothing you could do to change the thing or things that were happening to you. Maybe that’s the situation you are in right now. How did you respond or how are you responding? What was your initial instinct? Our heavenly Father asks us in these moments to trust only in him. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
Speaking about myself, I am one who is in the middle of that exact type of situation, where things are out of my control. For those of you who have kept up on my last two blogs, I spoke a lot about my current job and how much I was struggling to work there. Well, by a twist of events, late last week I lost that job. The company was struggling financially and they needed to make some cuts, and my position and salary were one of the things to be cut. It was a weird mix of relief (from all I had been struggling with), sadness (because even though the job and management was tough, I met so many wonderful people and made many friends), and fear. My husband is also currently unemployed, which made the situation all the more overwhelming. What were we to do? How were we to make this work? But that is where the trust comes in. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done” (Philippians 4:6). I have faith that the Lord worked all of this out the way it was meant to work out. He put me through a season of spiritual growth through the job, and now he is still working through this situation.
We will be put through many situations in life like this. Ones where the situation is one that we have no say in, but have to believe that whatever is going on is something that God has planned for us to walk through. And we know this because our God is a good God, and is always looking out of our best interests, even when it doesn’t seem like it in the moment. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28). God is fully and completely worthy of our trust and admiration. He is in full control of everything and we need to always believe that.
One of the things my dad encourages me to do when I forget who is in control is say this question and answer phrase three times:
Who is in control? God is in control.
Who is in control? God is in control.
Who is in control? God is in control.
And I encourage you if you are walking through a time of uncertainty that requires trust, that you do this everyday before you go out and face whatever you have going on in you life. It reminds us to leave to God what is God’s to control. Paul David Tripp says this in one of his devotionals from the book, “New Morning Mercies”:
“You are tempted to think because you’re God’s child, your life should be easier, more predictable, and definitely more comfortable. But that’s not what the Bible teaches. Instead, it reveals that struggles are part of God’s plan for you. This means that if you’re God’s child, you must never allow yourself to think that the hard things you are now going through are failures of God’s character, promises, power, or plan. You must not allow yourself to think that God has turned his back on you. You must not let yourself begin to buy into the possibility that God is not as trustworthy as you thought him to be. You must not let yourself do any of these things, because when you begin to doubt God’s goodness, you quit going to him for help”.
Have you thought back to a moment in your life when things were out of your control? Reflect on your actions and thoughts at the time. Our God is truly worth of our trust, because he has proven himself faithful over and over again throughout our lives and throughout history. How can you prepare yourself to trust God more fully when things like this come your way in the future? I encourage you today that if you don’t completely trust the God of the universe to fully care for you, reflect on what is in your heart and ask yourself where your walk is with him.
He wants you to trust him to guide your path, so that he can fulfill in you everything you were created to be and to do. Remember how faithful he has been, and trust that he will be faithful always.
“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence” (Jeremiah 17:7).
“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you” (Psalm 37:5).
“You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you” (Isaiah 26:3).
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