Trusting God

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:33

As I look back through my life up until now, I am reminded of how faithful and trustworthy God really is. Yet even though, He has never failed me, and never will, I still have a hard time trusting Him with everything.

I believe for me trusting God is both easy and hard at times. I think a lot of people can fall into that category of trusting God with the 'little' things in life and then having a harder time trusting him with the 'big' things in life or the things closer to our hearts. I think this is where we need to remind ourselves that God is God, and His grace is bigger than anything we will ever face, and that He will never fail us.

Growing up I have always felt like I have had to fight for what I want and what I need. Whether its happiness, a desire of my heart, respect, or safety and comfort, I always feel like I have to do something to achieve those instead of just giving it to God and moving on with my daily life.

One thing I must remind myself with is that I need to remember that God knows the desires of my heart. He knows the deepest desires of my heart that no one else knows about. He delights in giving His children what they desire - if it lines up with His will and with His plans. But I must keep in mind, if I am trying to live for God in every aspect of my life, then I'm going to desire what God desires. And God will want to give me what I desire if it is His will, even if it has a few bumps and bruises along the way caused by my selfishness, impatience, and lack of trust.

He delights in seeing His children having joy and peace with their life. And even when everything around me seems to be crumbling, that I can and should have peace that I have a God who cares. And I can look up to Him and give all of my burdens, all of my worries, all of my desires, all of my wishes, all of my dreams, to Him. I'm sure that when God sees His children humbly coming to Him and giving Him all of their burdens and all of their deepest dreams in their heart - I'm sure He delights in that. So delight yourself in the Lord. Make Him your number one priority. Put Him above all else. Seek Him and His Kingdom first, before anything, and live in a way that honors and pleases God.

Another thing I have come to realize in my life right now is that found in God's first commandment to us. "You shall have no other gods before me" - Exodus 20:3. We often think of ‘other gods’ as being gods found in other religions or old-fashioned idols. However, recently I have come to learn that God’s intentions are deeper than preventing us from following another religion.

He wants us to put Him first all of the time. He knows that the only way we can be fulfilled is through His love. Putting God first means loving and trusting God first, above all, and with everything we are and have. God has given us every good thing we are and have. Our focus should never be on the gifts themselves in a way that demotes the gift Giver. This would be idolatry. It is easy to see how idolatry occurs given our deadly propensity for selfishly willful control and self-controlled security. We learn the hard way that we cannot provide ourselves with security and safety. On our own we lack the needed power of unselfish love.

It is easy to think that believing in God and having no idols is enough. But God wants us completely in every part of our day and life. If we are not completely focused on Him, we are in danger of worshiping whatever has taken His place as the focus of our life. If we always find our spare moments filled with thoughts of another person or activity, there is a possibility that we have created an idol for ourselves.

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4