Proverbs 20
A man’s steps are of the Lord; How then can a man understand his own way? Proverbs 20:24 NKJV
It is hard to remember sometimes, but the truth is, that God is in control of EVERYTHING. He has a wonderful plan for everyone, and that plan may be drastically different from the plan we have in mind for ourselves. “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?’ For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33-36). Believing in this truth is a crucial part of being able to fully trust God, no matter what is going on in our lives. When life is hard, something unexpected happens, or even tragedy comes our way, we need to rest in the assurance that God is good ALL the time. “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1). Even though we may not understand the “Why?” behind things that happen to us or to others, we need to stand firm in our faith and trust the plans our Heavenly Father has for us. This will bring us supernatural peace in times of trials and will give us the confidence and strength we need to persevere. We are promised that “…in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Undergoing difficult times in life gives us an opportunity to draw closer to God, mature in our character, and test our faith. We must stop asking “When?” and “Why?”, and just trust the One who already knows how everything will turn out. “‘My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,’ says the LORD. ‘And My ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts higher than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9, NLT). I recently had an opportunity to test this in my life, so I can tell you from experience that choosing to trust God is a much better way to handle uncertainty and trials. A situation at work has come up, which will dramatically affect my salary, even though I will be doing the same job with the same hours. My first response to this problem was offense and anger at the injustice of it all. Negativity continued to increase and, needless to say, I had a pretty terrible week. This affected me emotionally, spiritually, and even physically. The moment I decided to trust God, and to give all of my worry over to Him, everything changed. My circumstances did not change, as I still do not know what the outcome will be. But my focus came back to God and I put my hope in Him instead of my circumstances. What a difference! I now have peace about the situation, I am no longer plagued with negativity about it, and I can honestly say that I have joy again for the first time since the situation came up. Praise God! My only regret is that I wasted a week by not turning this all over to God in the first place. I now realize that one of the ways in which we can tell if we are truly trusting God is to look at what we are focusing on. If we worry about our problems and continue to try to devise ways to fix them in our own power, this is actually considered sin. It shows a lack of faith. “…everything that does not come from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). So, instead “…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith…” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Make sure to focus on the promises of God, and trust in His plan for you. He knows exactly what you need in any given situation, so that you can remain joyful, peaceful and thankful through it all.