Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart

The Bible instructs us repeatedly to trust in the Lord and be assured that He is faithful and trustworthy. Sadly, many believers find that they cannot hand over control of their lives and trust Him. This is usually because they have trusted people in the past and their trust has been broken. They have been let down by those who should have protected them. The lie that God cannot be trusted becomes lodged in their heart. When we believe that God is absolutely trustworthy, we come to a place of security and obedience.

Abraham trusted God with all his heart. He had an encounter with the Living God. He trusted the promise God had given to him that he would become a great nation, and he was promised that all the land he could see, north, south, east, and west would be given to him and his offspring forever. The promise came when Sarah, his wife, was barren. He is called the ‘friend of God’. He believed the promise, “And it was credited to Him as righteousness” (Genesis 13:14).

Faith in God’s word and in His promises pleases the Lord. Abraham is an example of deep faith, even though he didn’t fully understand the situation, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going” (Hebrews 11:8). He trusted in the promise giver who is “The father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11).

However we may feel, the truth is that God can never fail. He is absolutely trustworthy. Security and trust in God go together, as do insecurity and doubting God. Doubting God goes back to the Garden of Eden when the serpent asked Eve, “Did God really say?” There was one tree in the garden that Adam and Eve were told they must not eat its fruit. Eve knew that God had said this, but when doubt entered her mind, she disobeyed God’s command. The serpent was the most crafty creature in the garden and he knew how to distort God’s truth. Satan has not changed. He delights when the children of God don’t trust Him.

We can’t live without trust. If our trust is not in the right source, we will put our trust in substitutes, often things which are addictive and which stand between us and the real source of joy and peace. God will never stop loving us, but when we experience that love deep in our hearts, we know we can trust Him.

Our text for today assures us that, when we trust in the Lord with all our heart, and don’t lean on our own understanding but acknowledge Him, He will guide our lives in the way He has chosen. The command to trust is repeated through the Word of God and it is usually followed with the rewards for trusting which is faith building. Trusting fills the heart with joy and causes us to sing at the recognition of God’s goodness (Psalm 13:5-6). It is an antidote to fear and leads us into praise (Psalm 56:3-4). Trusting gives us sense of safety and rest. The Most High will protect us (Psalm 91:1-2). We are filled with hope, joy, and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in every believer (Romans 15:13).

I close with the words of an old chorus:

Simply trusting every day, trusting through a stormy way.
Even when my faith is small, trusting Jesus that is all.