Trust in the Lord

Whenever I see lack of faith in mine or someone else's life, my first reaction is to think, "Hey, we're Christians here. We trust the Lord with eternity, why can't we seem to trust him for our everyday life?"

There is no clear answer. Perhaps it is because we desire autonomy in our life. Perhaps it is because we can see our everyday life more easily than we can eternity. Perhaps it is because we know we can't do anything for eternity, but think that we do have something to add to our own life. 

Of course, none of these excuses hold any water. We must fight against the urge to handle everything ourselves. Our flesh cannot please the Lord. It requires us to go a step beyond. Hebrews 11:6 tells us simply, 

"But without faith, it is impossible to please him because he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." 

If we can see so much of our everyday life, we should see that the Lord has wrought great miracles throughout it. He just doesn't save us and leave us to our own devices. No, he spends time creating a relationship and providing our every need. It may not always be what we want, it may not always be pleasant, but the Lord promises to preserve us unto his heavenly kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:18 says,

"The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

I think we all honestly know deep down that the Lord's plans for our life will always be better than our own. I Corinthians 1:25 states,

"The foolishness of God is wiser than man; and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

For instance, this last fall, my God made a move in my life I never would have considered good.  I had a very solid plan to attend Grove City College starting last year. Due to extraneous circumstances, I was unable to do that. At first, I was sad. And I was sad for a while. I grew over it soon enough and grew content to stay at home (for the most part). Then the Lord did things in my life here in Cincinnati that I doubt would ever have happened at Grove City. His plan regardless of how hopeless it initially looked to me was probably the best thing that's ever happened to me.

(Note: I would still recommend Grove City to anyone. The preceding paragraph should not be interpreted as bashing the college. It is a great school, but it wasn't the best option for me.)

So you see, this is why we should be so ready to live our life by Proverbs 3:5-6,

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."  

We are Hungry!

As I read through Numbers in my daily devotions, I came across a sad trend. The Israelites  seem to be cursed with forgetfulness. Every time a new trial comes up, they completely forget what miracles God did in their past trials and go complain to Moses about bringing them out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. (Never mind for a second that Moses didn't lead them out of Egypt at all. That credit goes to the Lord, yet somehow it's much easier to target God's servant than it is to target God, isn't it?)

Nowhere is this more obvious than in Chapters 20 and 21. In chapter 20, the Israelites are distraught over not having any water to drink. The Lord tells Moses to strike a rock with his rod, and water will come out. So he did, and so it came to pass, that the Israelites were given water to quench their thirst.

You would think then that they would be content for a while, but you know they weren't. In the very next chapter, they again are without food and water, and instead of just asking the Lord to provide as he had done before, they again complain to Moses that he brought them out to kill them off in the wilderness. This time the Lord responds with punishment of fiery serpents which brought with them a deadly disease. This causes the Israelites once again to remember that their Lord is the all-powerful God.

But for how long? We know that these same Israelites as they wander for forty years will once again complain to Moses about want of water. How is it that they keep forgetting God's past miracles?

Is it possible that we ourselves keep forgetting God's majesty in our own lives? I believe too often we have our own version of short-term memory loss that limits us to see the miracles God has provided both in the Bible and our everyday life. When one forgets such things, he will find himself much more easily caught in sin and distrust in the Lord, just as the Israelites did here. That is the main reason why I think it is so important that we start our day off reminding ourselves of the Lord's majesty and power. We can do this by reading our Bible and praying to our Lord as soon as we awake in the morning. That is how we can avoid the plague of forgetfulness that affected the Israelites in this situation.