What I want to talk about today is how do you trust God in times of trouble, when you’re going through hardship, difficulty, and stormy weather. Just how does one do this? I must admit it’s easier said than done.
I do think there are some words we use so often we actually forget what they mean and they just become commonplace. So it’s good to go back and ask, what does the word really mean? So that when we talk about trusting God we know what we’re talking about. We have a bigger understanding of that word. Here’s at least one definition. We may look at more later. Here’s the first one:
To trust is to allow someone to do something without fearing the outcome.
Many of you can relate to the difficulty of needing to or having to delegate something to someone else. At one time this was very hard for me. I would always think, I’d rather just do it myself. Because what if they mess up or what if they don’t do it the way I would do it or what if they fail? Don’t point a finger and say you have never ever thought that.
So when you’re trusting God you have to delegate, allow him to do what he wants to without fearing the outcome. That means I have to be willing to let God fail. What? Now you’ve got a problem. He’s God and God cannot fail, therefore I have to let God do what God wants to do. I have to trust God enough to let him succeed. But to let him succeed on his own terms in his own way on his own time, and not fear the outcome.
One of my favorite verses about trusting God actually comes from the Old Testament. From a little tiny book called Nahum. The Bible says “The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” He has his way in the whirlwind and the storm.
Many of us have a tendency when we’re facing one of life’s storms, to want to run away from the storm. I want to try to find a way around the storm. But somebody once said the quickest way around is through. The Bible tells us “The Lord has his way in the whirlwind and the storm. And the clouds are the dust of his feet.”
So if there are clouds on the horizon, it just might be the dust of His feet. We need to trust Him and follow Him. There are a couple of stories where Jesus’ disciples found themselves in a storm. One time Jesus is with them. He’s asleep in the boat while they’re in the storm. Have you ever felt that Jesus is asleep in your boat (life)? Another time he comes walking to them out on the water. But in both of those storms, they are in the storm because they are doing what Jesus told them to do. They’re obeying Him. They haven’t done anything wrong. They’re doing everything right. Simply because they’re following Jesus they find themselves in the middle of a storm.
This is what gives a lot of people trouble today. If I am following Jesus, obeying Jesus, treating people right, giving money to the church, and reading my Bible, then why is all this trouble coming my way? Our problem is somewhere along our journey someone told us or we drew a wrong conclusion that God is there and Jesus is here to deliver us from all our troubles. This is just not true.
Allow me to share Psalm 46:1 “God is a very present help in time of trouble.” Got it! He is always there to help us with and through our troubles but not necessarily take them away. John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” He will also help us get through our trouble. There are some lessons that we need to learn that we cannot learn anywhere else under any other circumstances apart from trouble.
Storms (troubles) have to happen in our life. There are things we learn about ourselves, about God, about life, that we can only learn when we go through a storm. When we’re following him, keep looking for the clouds, remember they are the dust of His feet. He is never far away. In fact, He is Spirit and He lives within us. So we have to be willing to trust God and wait patiently for Him to do what He wants to do and not fear the outcome.