Trust: January 19, 2010

January 19: TODAYS WORD FOR TUESDAY JANUARY 19, 2010

TRUST

DEFINITION:

The reliance on the integrity of a person, having a confident expectation.

SCRIPTURE:

“Trust in the Lord and do good.” Psalm 37:3

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

As you know the children of Israel wandered around the desert for forty years. Much of this long trek was because they often forgot to put their trust in God. In Exodus 16:2-3 we read of one of those times that the children of Israel lost their confidence in Moses and thus in God and it reads that the whole congregation --- all of the children of Israel --- complained to Moses in the wilderness. They said, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full.” They went on to complain by saying that, “you (Moses) have brought us into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

The scripture then goes on to tell us that God said to Moses that He would rain down bread from heaven and they should pick the food daily and on the sixth day He would provide double what they picked on the other days. And God said He would do this to test them to see if they would walk in God’s law or not. What a wonderful example for us to read about so we can learn that God wants us to trust Him and if we walk in His law, He will provide for us all that we need.

Have you ever noticed the nearly complete trust of young children? When our children were young we took home movies of the children taking their first steps. When we watched those movies several years later we saw how hesitant they were to take that first step. They did not trust that next step that they needed to take. They were not sure if they would fall or keep standing. They would take a step or two, hesitate and then sit down. But they never quit, they would get right up and try again.

In the process of learning to walk our children would eagerly grasp our outstretched hand trusting that we would support them and keep them safe from falling. As they became confident enough to walk without falling, they outgrew their need to hold our hand.

This reminds us that God is holding out His hand to help us take every step. But the difference is that we will never outgrow our need to trust God and ask Him to stand nearby and hold our hand through the turbulences of life.

One of our great examples of trust comes from the Old Testament. Abraham’s name meant “Father of Nations,” yet he and his wife Sarah were still childless in their nineties. Yet Abraham still trusted God to honor His promise of an heir and God in His perfect timing honored His promise to Abraham. In Genesis 18:14 Abraham said, “Is anything too hard for God?” As God stood by Abraham and rewarded his trust, so will God reward us if we put our full trust in Him.

We must learn as families to trust God daily and not to rely on self. This is a difficult concept to teach our children especially as they get older because they want to do everything their own way. Children, youth and adults receive continual peer pressure to just do what you want to do not taking into consideration whether it is right or wrong. We are sure you have heard people say, “If it feels good just do it.” Unfortunately doing something because “we feel like it’” comes without much of a thought process. We see evidence of this over and over again in the world we live in today and the resulting disasters that come from these actions. God allows us to go ahead and do whatever we” feel like” and then because of His great love for us He is always available holding out His hand saying “Trust Me, let me help you and guide you.”

Have you really given any thought as to what or who you have your trust in today? Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us who we should trust in --- the Lord, and how we should trust --- with all your heart, and who we should not trust --- lean not on your own understanding, and then the result is – He will direct your paths.

We taught our children to trust the Lord daily and to do it will all their hearts and mind. We can trust God because He is trustworthy. It is a thrill for us today to watch our children teach their children – our grandchildren the same. Along with trusting God, parents must be trustworthy in all that they do. Parents must prove themselves trustworthy to their children and then teach their children to be trustworthy. Mutual trustworthiness is a key to a strong family

LEARNING:

Our memory verse today is found in Proverbs 22:6.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

PRAYER:

Help me as an individual put my complete trust in God. Help me to learn not to run ahead or lag behind doing what God wants from me. Allow me to lead my family by my actions and words and to put their trust completely in the hands of our Lord.