Trust Issues

Today has been the third day of the month all day--the day I typically read Proverbs 3 and am reminded of Proverbs 3:5-10, which says: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In al your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones. Honor the LORD with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; So your barns will be flled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine." There is much more to this proverb than just those five verses, but they are a good place to start. Lots of promises in those few verses. I hear people say they have "trust" issues. Most people probably have trust issues because practically everybody has probably been let down by somebody they trusted. It's only natural. But this proverb is very clear about the exhortation to trust in the LORD (all caps). I am not professing to be great at anything, but I do know that the LORD can be trusted, because if you ever start believing and are born again by his Spirit, he will prove himself to be trustworthy. Think about it, why would you be more confident in yourself than you would be with the Creator of the Universe? If you think of it that way, it makes a lot of sense to trust God. Otherwise, you are on your own, literally. Sometimes you can feel on your own, but if you have decided to follow Jesus, you can trust him. Once you have believed that Jesus is who he said he was and once you have come to the realization that you need his forgiveness, and are willing to turn to him and no longer try to be your own God, then he begins to really show you how trustworthy he is. I hope you are not bothered by the fact I am not capitalizing "he" and "him" all the time. It is kind of a journalistic thing. It becomes awkward and stilted, even distracting, after a while, and you will notice that in published books and articles that capitalization is not there all the time. The New King James, for example, capitalizes these pronouns consistently, while the King James Version does not, so I hope this is not a stumbling block to anyone. But if it is, please forgive me. One of the most important themes in the Bible is faith, that the "just shall live by faith." We don't always know what God is doing or why, but we learn to trust because he has a plan, and he is love and you probably just need to get into the word and find lots of passages that encourage you on this sometimes perilous path. We have been very blessed in this country in the past, and there is a firm foundation of faith here, but this is not the case all over the world, and if we are not careful, things can decline rapidly here, and have done so over the past several years. My prayer is that we will draw closer to God again as a nation, in short order, because the enemy of our soul is not slowing down in his offensive strategies. So, you are in good hands if you are in Christ, there are many assurances of this in Scripture, so be at peace in the presence of the Prince of Peace. There is no better way.