Trust: September 3, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3, 2013.

TRUST

DEFINITION:  

The reliance on the integrity, strength, ability and surety of a person; having a confident expectation; to place ones confidence in.

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:

How many people do you really trust enough to confide in them real personal concerns? When you put your trust in a person they often, for one reason or another, fail you in your time of need. It is a sad fact of life, but many people whom we put our confidence in will betray our trust at the first opportunity if there is something they can gain from it.

Putting your trust in people today is most of the time an unreliable action. People in general are undependable. But putting your trust in God is always reliable. God will never betray us.

We often refer to the children of Israel in these devotionals and we are going to do this again today. 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 and God, because of this, lengthened their time wandering in the dessert. He delayed their entrance into the Promised Land until He was sure that they would keep their trust in Him.

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 gather the food daily taking only the amount they needed. On the sixth day He would provide double what they picked on the other days so they could observe the Sabbath as a day of rest. God said to Moses that the reason He gave such specific details about how the manna was gathered was to test their obedience and their trust in God. Trusting God requires obedience to Him. What a wonderful illustration for us to read about so we can learn that God wants us to trust Him and if we obey Him, He will provide for us all that we need in the time we need it.

Have you ever noticed the complete trust that young children have in their parents? 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 with complete trust 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 we will daily need Him to stand beside us 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. It seemed impossible that God's promise of a son could ever be fulfilled. The Lord, however, said to Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Genesis 18:14.  Abraham trusted God to honor His promise of an heir and God in His perfect timing fulfilled His promise to Abraham with the birth of his son Isaac. 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 even 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." Unfortunately doing what “we feel like” has consequences, yet even in our disobedience, 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, He will direct your paths.

We taught our children to trust the Lord daily and to do it with 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 not only by their words but by their actions and deeds. Mutual trustworthiness is a key to a strong family.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse today is found in I Thessalonians 5:17.

Pray without ceasing.

PRAYER:

Help me as an individual to put my complete trust in God. Enable 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 to put their trust completely in the hands of their Lord and Savior, the one and only true God.