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Trust - Part I
Trust such a small word, but yet so powerful. If trust is placed in the right person, place or thing it can literally affect the course of the rest of your life.
In order to bring clarity to the subject, here is the Webster dictionary definitions of the word.
Trust- 1) Firm reliance on the integrity or ability of a person or thing. 2) One in which confidence is placed. 3) To expect from a person or thing with assurance. 4)To prove to be trustworthy.
Introduction
It's amazing how in our everyday life we place our trust in someone or something not really giving much thought to it. For the sake of illustration, let's journey through a typical day. We awake to start the day and almost immediately trust begins in motion in some of the simplest ways.
Automatic Trust
We arise from our beds and reach for the light switch and without any doubt we expect the light to shine. We make our daily visit to that favorite room and reach to turn on the facet and again without thought or any doubt we expect water to flow from the faucet. In fact, if we reach for the cold water faucet, we expect it to be cold if the hot we expect it to be hot. We sit on the bed, sofa or chair and with confidence we just plop down with no fear or doubt in the bed. sofa or chair ability to withstand our weight. We get into our cars when we turn the ignition and expect the car to start and not only start we have full confidence that it will get us to our destination.
What has caused us to place such firm reliance in the integrity or the ability of these items to perform in the way that they were designed? The answer is simply trust. Our firm trust in these inanimate objects stems from the fact that we have routinely put our trust in these things and day after day they have performed for us without fail. They have proven to be reliable and trustworthy; therefore because we have no reason to doubt we trust in them.
The Children of Israel
In the Old Testament trust was primarily displayed in the events that surrounded the Children of Israel Exodus from Egypt. Over and over again God had proved himself to be trustworthy. Yet time and time again Israel doubted God. Their OT trust or faith was based upon real events in which God proved that he could be trusted. He worked on their behalf from choosing a deliverer all the way through their Exodus. He caused miraculous events like the 10 plagues to come upon the earth, which included, turning water into blood. to causing frog to leap from the water to plague the earth, to causing hail with fire to fall from the sky. He then led them out and when their backs were against the Red Sea and they faced Pharaoh and his army God opened the Sea and let them walk through as on dry ground. In the wilderness he fed them with manna after they complained of being brought into the wilderness to die and even provided them water from a rock. How many times have we as Christians have criticized the Children of Israel and made such statements as: "I don't know what was wrong with them, if that were me back in those days and I had seen the miracles that God perform especially opening up the Red Sea, I would have never doubted Him". Okay let's all say it together, Right.
We have done the same as the Children of Israel at times. There has been occasions in our lives where we were faced and dealth with situations in our lives that seemed hopeless. We went through T&T (test and trials) then God would bring us out. We experienced what the scriptures states that the thoughts that he think toward us was of good and not evil to give us an expected end. Jeremiah 29:11. Over and over again, we experience God watching over his Word to perform it regarding us; yet when our next test or trial came around we forget all about how God showed up everytime and that the end of our story we had a testimony that God came through for us and worked on our behalf again. We forget how He brought us out in such a miraculous way. The way he brought deliverance was in a way that man had no intervention and couldn't take credit for how we were delivered in that situation. The Lord himself worked it out. We came out with a testimony of how we trusted and believed that God was going to do it, and he did. We stated that we would let nothing make us doubt Him ever again. Mr. T & T (more test & trials) comes along and we face another issue and there goes our remembrance of what trusting in God will do. We start questioning the Lord all over again. Haven't He proven not just in that situation, that He is trustworthy.
Come back for Part II. Blessings
Written by Pastor Betty Evans
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