Can we trust in things? Can we trust a house will always be there or a stock portfolio will perform the way we want it or that even a person in our life will always be around. These are things we migh think of as "permanent". We might say "oh, they are doing so well..they have a house, a good job, a good retirement. But these are all positions or things that can change in very short order.
Things appear to be certain because we can see them or we can count them but that is not where Christians want to trust.
What if circumstances change?
What if the interest rates go up and the value of a house goes down?
What if the job disappears or the stock market crashes (again)?
We are told in scripture to "trust in the Lord and not to rely on our own insight." However, in reality even those of us who have walked in relationship to our Lord, Jesus Christ, for years can stumble and go back to self trust or trust things mode.
Trust involves faith that God is above our circumstances. If we see our stocks go down, we do not have to believe the end of the world has come. If our heart is too tied to THINGS God may allow adversity so we can learn that He can provide for his own in famine. That is the God we see who provided for his people in the wilderness. They didn't have a Trader Joe's..no God had to provide the daily bread out of the blue.
Can you imagine each day in the desert the entire people of Israel waking up and looking for it to rain down there daily portion? God was teaching them to trust Him for their needs. Sometimes I think that poor people are much richer than people who have tons of things because they live in a trust relationship. Many of them do not know where the next meal comes from.
Psalm 4 admonishes us to "offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord". When the world sees a Christian trust God for something He needs and then God provides "out of the blue" that indicates the Christian is connected to something or someone that is unseen.
There is a saying we can chose to live "under our circumstances". We can whine, complain and be as edgy as anyone without faith, or we can raise up our eyes to God who sees all of our circumstances and exercise trust that God is there, that God will provide, that God is still on the throne and knows what He is doing in us and through the circumstances and that eventually, it will all turn out for the good of those around us, and for the Kingdom of God. Because, dear friends, there is a Kingdom of Heaven and there is a King who is very much alive.
One thing I know.. I do have the choice to look up and live the kingdom life in trust or I can look down at my feet and just walk around in my circumstances. And so can you.
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