How Do You Trust?

How Do You Trust?

A friend recently asked me about a post I wrote a
while back. Here is the portion her question was
referring to:

"Handing over our worries, cares and treasures
to Him is the way to receive His gifts. Do you
trust Him, do you love Him? Do you really? Do
you know that what He has to give far outweighs
what you are holding in your flesh? It is through
Him alone that we receive what we need. He is
our Source. In Isaiah 58 the Lord declares,
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways My ways.” Letting (fill in your
own blank) go and giving it away to God shows
that we love Him, that we depend on Him, that
we trust Him. “Trust in the LORD forever, for
the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.”
Isaiah 26:4

Her question is this: How do you do that...
how do you let it all go? Trust with such passion?

I loved her question. I love hearing great insight
and scripture for living; but I am the type of person
that needs the real life application that goes with
the lesson or encouragement. I welcomed her question
and went before the Lord in prayer to guide my response.
I pray that God's truth, mercy and love touches you in a
personal way as you read the following.

First of all, I cannot do it on my own, not in my own
flesh. This comes from the power of the Holy Spirit.
My part is to surrender to Him. Then I ask Him to fill
me. The surrender part comes because of my trust in God;
and trust comes from looking back in my life and seeing
all the times He has proved to be who He claims to be.
I also look in the Bible. The more I study, the more I
see His character and that His nature is perfect and ALWAYS
loving to His children. His love for us is so incomprehensible.
There is an element of faith that comes into play too. There
comes points in all that we do where we put forth a portion
of faith: getting on a plane, getting into a car, even sitting
on a chair. You have faith in all of that. That the pilot can
really fly the plane, that other drivers will obey the traffic
rules, that the four legs are sturdy enough to hold you...
know what I mean. We practice faith all the time, but for
some reason we hold back more with God. They say that if you
believe Gen 1:1 the rest of the Bible should be easy to believe.

I trust with such a passion because I choose to
believe that God is true to who He claims to be.
That doesn't mean that I don't fail in that though.
There are times when I need to fall on my face at
His feet, ask for forgiveness for my lack of faith
and then ask Him to help me. When you fall back on
truth, and who He is....He is the creator of all,
He knows the end from the beginning, so He knows
what is the best route for me, I need to trust
that and call on Him for direction, wisdom, giftings,
whatever it is He has for me. I don't want to miss
any of it.

Now in all this, satan is going to attack you.
But if you know that you are in a battle up front,
grab your armor (Eph 6) and suit up for the fight
(which by the way has already been won!). Then you
will be more equipped and not fall into the traps.
If you do fall, pray and let God lift you back up.
Fight the enemy with truth. Just as Jesus did when
satan tempted him in the desert. He fought back with
the truth of God's word.

I love these conversations because it reminds me
that we are here to encourage one another in the
Lord and it keeps our focus on Him. We praise you
and love you Lord!

Living with Truth and choosing JOY,
Habakkuk 3:18-19
Zsanae Miller

Light in the midst of the storm

About a year ago, I was driving to our church
and it started pouring rain. I mean POURING,
or you could say DUMPING rain on our car. I
was with my boys and I was at a stop light with
both hands gripping the steering wheel, wanting
to get to our destination safe and sound. It
was the kind of rain where you can't see out
your window even with the windshield wipers on
full speed.

We prayed that we would be safe and as we
turned down the street where our church was located,
the brightest light was shining through the
darkest clouds. It was so BRIGHT I couldn't
look straight at it. It was a ray of sun through
a small area of clouds that had parted.

Immediately I thought about how many times in
our lives when we go through struggles, and when
everything around us seems like it's crumbling,
we are able to see God like never before. Those
are the times when many people meet God for the first
time or learn how trustworthy our Heavenly Father
truly is. Many times it's in the dark times that
we become fearful and discouraged and we look to
God and see the light that only He can bring into
our lives. We are reminded that Light will overcome
the darkness and we have reason to hope. We are
reminded to keep our eyes focused UP, on the Living
God because when we look around us, the answers are
not there.

We pulled into the parking lot and just over the church
was half of a rainbow. I was able to talk to Jake,
my 8-yr-old son, about how God will always keep His
promises and the rainbow is a reminder of that truth.

I am so thankful for the Word of God that sets my
foundation on the truth of who God is and what He
is like. Jesus Christ is the light that was sent
into the world to overcome the darkness. No matter
what storms we go through in life, if we look to
God and cling to His truth, we will see His Light!

John 1:9: "The true light that gives light to every
man was coming into the world."

John 8:12: "When Jesus spoke again to the people,
he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life."

Living by faith,
Leah Amico
(also posted on www.leah20.blogspot.com)