“I walk by faith, each step by faith, to live by faith. I put my trust in You.”

I love that worship song, “I Walk By Faith,” by Chris Falson. I especially feel the Lord’s presence at the end when we sing, “I put my trust in You,” over and over and over again. I can just sense the Father smiling each time His children put their trust in Him. When I’m in that place of His pleasure, everything is right and it seems that nothing can go wrong. But surely things do go wrong here on earth, don’t they? Have you seen Bruce Almighty yet? It was the most hilarious movie I’ve seen in years. (I went to see it last night.) I hadn’t laughed that hard in a movie theater in quite a while. In the film, all kinds of things go wrong for Bruce. So he shouts angrily up at God, shaking his fists, foolishly charging God with shirking His responsibility as God. Do we sometimes think like that? “If God were really doing His job, I wouldn’t be suffering from all these problems in my life!” But by the end of the movie, Bruce learns that he really isn’t qualified to pass judgment on God. Even though he was given all the powers of God, he was severely lacking in wisdom to do what was best in just in own life, to say nothing of the millions of people that were praying for God to help them. The only thing we human beings are qualified to do is trust in Someone higher, better and wiser than we. I was meditating on a proverb from today’s reading:

Those who listen to instruction will prosper; those who trust the LORD will be happy. (Proverbs 16:20, NLT). 

“Those who trust the LORD will be happy.” There is a deep truth there. If we will truly trust in God who is truly wise, then we will always follow the best course. God’s way is always the best way. And as we continue to look to Him, we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds, as Paul says in Romans 12:2, and then we will know His good, pleasing and perfect will. Read on to the rest of the chapter in Romans 12. It talks about serving the Lord with our gifts and truly loving others (not just pretending), even to loving our enemies. It’s a pretty tall order: to truly love others. But if we would live lives like that, I think, we would truly be happy. It all comes down to this question: Who do I trust? Do I trust in myself, my own wisdom, my own ideas about what’s best in my life? Or, do I trust in the Lord who truly has divine wisdom far beyond what mere humans can comprehend? It is far better to trust in the Lord Jesus. But some may say: That’s too simple. It can’t be that easy … to trust God like a know-nothing child. Yup, it simply is that easy. It takes swallowing our pride to realize that in comparison to God we have the brain power of a paramecium. It comes full circle, doesn’t it? We start off life as children whose every need for life depends on our parents. When we get older we test our boundaries and rebel a little. As adults, we think we know enough to steer our own course. But Jesus said that unless we change and become like little children, we will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 18:3). After a healthy helping of humble pie, we are now back at the beginning where all we can do is trust our heavenly Parent to care for our every need. And hopefully we will taste and see that “those who trust the LORD will be happy” indeed.

Dear God, help me to get off my high horse. Though I may not say it, my actions betray the truth that in many ways I do not yet trust You with ALL of my heart. Forgive me, Lord. I believe, but help me in my unbelief. Help me to truly believe in You like a little child. I cannot discern the best path, but You do. Please give me a spirit of wisdom and discernment that I will recognize right from wrong. And help me to trust You enough to obey wisdom. God, in the name of Jesus, I now reject my own ways and turn to You. I walk by faith, each step by faith, to live by faith. I put my trust in You. I put my trust in You! I put my trust in You!