This post is inspired by the verse below, in Psalms. It is also inspired by Jeremiah 17:7, which can be found at the end of today's blog post.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
- Psalms 20:7
When faced with a problem...where do you place your trust?
Of course, if you are already a strong believer in God...you are going to say "Oh, I trust in God! Always!"
For the long-time Christian, that response is likely automatically programmed for you in your mind. You don't even take the time to ask yourself, "Is that really true? Do I really trust God fully? Do I really trust God first?"
Now, here come the rhetorical questions. Uh oh. These are the questions to which we don't want to admit the true answers. However, when we do answer them, when we do admit the truth, when we do identify the discrepancies in our personal and spiritual lives -- that is when we also discover the greatest opportunities for our personal and spiritual breakthroughs.
Identifying discrepancies within our spiritual lives is the first step to eradicating those discrepancies, which leads us to experiencing personal and spiritual breakthroughs
in our walk with the Lord.
The truth is this: We say we trust in God; but in actuality, we are really trusting in something else, and merely "attaching God" onto the end of the worldly trust. *see note below regarding trusting in doctors/ medical advice
Fill in the blank for yourself: "When I have a problem, I trust in God and in ___________ to help work it out."
How would you honestly finish that sentence?
I trust in God....and also in my best friend's advice...in how to handle problems in my relationships?
I trust in God....and also in my gut feelings...to help with _________?
I trust in God....and also in my own planning to help with deadline conflicts?
I trust in God....and also in my feelings of fears or inferiority when deciding whether or not to volunteer for or to take on a leadership role?
I trust in God...and also in my credit card to help with a financial problem?
It is good to use our resources, our intuition, and our Godly friends' advice to help us solve problems. God gives us our resources, our intuition, and our friends too.
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If God's word gives certain advice, and your friend's advice differs, then the choice should be clear and simple. Trust God over your friend's advice.
If God clearly opens certain doors for you and gives you peace in moving through them -- even though your own planning would have taken you in a different direction -- then you ought to really pray and seek clarity from Him, in order to ensure that you are trusting God over your own pre-determined plans.
We put our trust in many things: our own abilities, our own intelligence, the wisdom of others, and in our own resources.
When you pray and know in your conscience that God's way is different from what you figured out -- trust God first, and ask Him to show you which resources to rely on in addition to prayer.
We could lose every ability we have developed;
We could lose every resource we have obtained;
We could lose every friend we have ever known;
We could lose everything. We could lose it all.
But we can never lose God. He never changes. We can never lose His word. God's word and His ways will never go away and will never change.
We cannot lose Him; but we can ignore Him.
We cannot lose Him, but we can also lose His power and guidance in our lives by relegating Him to second or third place in our lives.
Trust God first, over chariots and horses.
Trust God first, over secular advice and planning.
Trust God first, over your psychological defenses.
Trust God first, over your friends' advice.
Trust God first, over your fears.
"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust IS the Lord."
- Jeremiah 17:7 ESV
* I always have to be careful when blogging, so that what I write may not be misinterpreted and potentially cause harm to someone. I always look over my posts before hitting the "publish" key and ask, "How might this be misinterpreted in a way that could potentially cause harm?" Then I seek to clarify those issues. For this post, I am led to clarify this: I am in no way saying do not trust anything but God alone. For example, I would never say don't trust in doctors or medical advice, instead just trust God. Instead, I would recommend trusting in God first, through prayer, to help lead you to the doctors He knows are best for you. The purpose of the post is to help Christians identify areas where they are trusting other people or resources more than they are trusting God. Specifically, resources I have in mind are those such as secular advice, personal fears, or close friends. This writing is in no way a recommendation to stop trusting in all other resources. Rather, make sure God has first place, and that you go to Him first; so that He will then guide you to the best resources and guide you on how to implement them.