Yet, I Will Trust Him

Yet, I will Trust Him

 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” – Romans 8:28-30

Have you ever ridden a Tilt-A-Whirl?  Oh, I have! And I remember it well.  Eyes clenched shut, hands frozen tight and white with a grip like a gorilla, and then when I got off I stood there with the world of bright lights and sounds and chaos turning fast around my head and a big knot in my throat.  That’s what fear and anxiety feel like.  For those that feel this daily, it is an overwhelming feeling of fear.  It’s like living your worst nightmare in the daylight.  How do I know?  I lived it for a while.

Looking back now I thank God for that time, and thank Him even more for the healing that came.  My period of fear was due to a mugging in 1988.  But many things can bring this pressure of undiluted fear into your life, and sometimes there are no reasons at all.  You can be walking along completely happy one day, and then it comes.  It comes like a big black cloud that doesn’t just hang over your head, but it wraps around you and confines you.  You sense that you can’t get out of the darkness.  You feel so weak that you can’t break free.  But oh, there is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain!

More and more we hear about things like depression, panic attacks, suicide, and other things that people do to fight these demons such as drug abuse and alcoholism.  It’s time we understood the working in our lives of God, and that nothing is truly chaos and out of His control.  Yes, our loving God does allow harm to come to us.  We don’t always understand the reason why, but in His eternal vision of our lives, He does have a purpose.

Romans 8:28 tells us that ALL THINGS, nothing excluded, nothing overlooked, nothing by chance, but ALL THINGS work together for the good of (who?) those who love God and are called according to His purpose.  Do you believe that?  That’s the issue.  To believe that demons or satan have suddenly slipped by God and taken control of your life would be to say that they have more power than He.  That’s just not true.  If so, then explain how God was able to cast them out of Heaven in the first place (Isaiah 14:12-21)?  Explain how the created can overcome the creator.  Is God not infinite in wisdom to make all that He created weaker than Himself?

And if God puts the pain and misery in our life, is He not to be loved in return? No one in the entire Bible has endured the pain that Job felt.  He lost his wealth, his property, his children, his health, everything he held dear, and all in one days’ time at the hands of God. 

It was God that brought Job up to satan when he said in Job 1:8 “Have you considered my servant Job?”  Now why would a loving God offer up His outstanding servant Job?  It wasn’t that Job had done anything wrong.  God wanted MORE for Job. In order to take Job higher and bring him closer to God, he had to be tested and tried.  It wasn’t that God did not know how Job would react. God is all knowing, and nothing we do surprises Him. But Job needed to know that he could do without, as long as he had God on his side.  To be brought down to having nothing can make you look up to God in ways you never knew you had strength in you to do.  And Job passed the test!  In Job 13:15, one of the greatest pledges of faith is spoken when Job says:

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.”

Read that again.  “Though He slay me (kill me), yet – I will TRUST Him.” Job knew God.  It was an intimate relationship in which he found not only the testing of God to be painful in unimaginable ways, but the love and grace of God to be sufficient.

“Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him”.  Job was not willing to sin in the painful situation he was in and curse God or turn away from God.  He stood strong, and said he would be able to defend his actions before God.  He would not fail God.  Job had learned that God was Almighty God, and that there was enough love in Him to trust Him.  He stood strong and faced God’s grace.  He didn’t turn from Him to try to find peace in places where it didn’t exist.

God is ALWAYS at the helm.  He ALWAYS has the steering wheel of our lives in His hands.  NOTHING outside His Almighty Will occurs in our lives.  His will is strong enough to break our sinful will when needed.  His will cuts deep enough to test us when needed.  His grace is powerful enough to cradle us when we fail.  His love is strong enough to trust that He means us no harm.  His perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).

When I was facing fear minute by minute, day after day, year after year, one verse I clung to was Isaiah 41:13, which says “For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’”  He doesn’t leave you to face the fear alone.  He is there, holding your hand, comforting you by telling you that he will help you.  Lean on Him.  Pray in every breath you breathe, in every nervous shake, in every moment of darkness when that cloud confines you, and you will overcome and yes, even benefit from having gone through this storm.  All things work together for your benefit when you love Him and are called to His purpose.