Friday, October 22, 2010

Trust in God with your entire heart

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3: 5 & 6 

To trust in another is difficult for us humans. We tend to follow our own path. We feel secure with our own reasoning.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, advises us to trust in the LORD. The LORD, when written in the Bible in upper-case letters, is the self-Existent, Eternal God, Jehovah. He depends on no-one else; His creatures (that's us) depend on Him for every breath we take.

And so, in the light of who God is, Solomon's counsel in today's verse makes good sense.

But there's more: we are advised to trust in God with all our hearts. The heart is the seat of our emotions. The mind is the seat of our intellect and reasoning. Notice how the verse indicates to trust with both the heart and the mind: it goes on to say, "do not lean on your own understanding."

To acknowledge God is to admit that He is the Supreme Being in the Universe; it means to include Him in our plans; to give Him the leadership of our lives.

And when we acknowledge Him in all our ways - in one hundred percent of our activities - He becomes the Director of our paths. The director of a company is the top person, the operations leader.

Today, as you include God in all of your plans, take note of how He leads and blesses you on the road of life.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

God is our Shelter and Strength

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea." Psalm 46:1, 2.

When the troubles of life come upon us, and we need a place in which to take refuge, the Psalmist makes the positive statement that God is a safe place of shelter, and He is our strength.

In connection with the place of shelter, there are two identical refrains in the Psalm - verses 7 and 11: "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

The LORD of hosts is the Commander of the armies of heaven (see Joshua 5:14 & 2 Kings 6:17).

The God of Jacob is the One who appeared at the ladder in Jacob's dream (see Genesis 28:12-15) to give Jacob comfort and hope - the One who promises us victory, the One who changed Jacob's name from "deceiver" to "overcomer", after he had wrestled with God (Genesis 32:22-30).

Because of the fact that God is very close to us (present) in times of trouble, and because He is our shelter and strength, we will not fear. Even if the unmovable things - the Earth - is removed; even if the mountains are carried into the middle of the sea (both of which are illustrations of large calamities that may come our way), the Psalmist gives us the assurance that we need not fear.

And so, you can confidently step into this new day, because "The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."

God is, and all is well.