Building the ultimate trust
Jeremiah 20:11 “But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.”
Trust. The mere mention of that word might make us feel a little queasy. We know well how many times we have failed to trust God and to trust others. But think for a moment of why we often fall short on trust. Isn’t it because all too often we make the trust dependent on ourselves and something we have to do.
Maybe you’ve seen or participated in the “trust fall” where you have to cross your arms in front of you and fall backward trusting that the person who is standing behind you will catch you and keep you from falling all the way to the ground. So often trust is built on the idea of “seeing is believing” – in other words we will trust when we can see and know what is going to happen. Think for a moment of the disclaimer which you might see on the bottom of your retirement account statement or in super tiny print at the bottom of a commercial for a financial planner “past performance is not indicative of future results”.
If you look at our verse for this week, Jeremiah teaches us that our trust in God is built solidly and squarely on God’s past performance. From his vantage point, Jeremiah could look back and see all the enemies which God had defeated, all the sticky situations which he had delivered his people from and all the problems which God has worked out for the ultimate good of his people. Based on that, Jeremiah confidently says “the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail”. Jeremiah didn’t know exactly how or when God would cause those who ridiculed him for his faith to stumble and fall, but he confidently trusted in God that he would make it happen on his timetable and in the way he knew was best.
Have you ever looked back on some of your “failed” trust situations? If you look at them honestly, you would likely have to admit that your lack of trust came from things not turning out exactly the way you want or in the timeframe that you wanted. But if you look at the end result, you will have to admit that ultimately God worked things out in a way which was much better than you could have drawn up.
We have the advantage of over 2000 years more of history than Jeremiah had. Take a moment to look back at that history and see all the times and ways in which God has worked “like a mighty warrior” in your life, the lives of those around you, the history of the world and the work of his church. You will notice several things: 1) God has never faltered or failed once and 2) he has carried on and worked things out in marvelous ways even when people failed to trust him or scoffed at his plans.
The next time you are faced with one of those “trust” situations pause for a moment and analyze your frame of mind. Do you have the confidence that God can make things happen just like he has in the past? Are your thoughts scoffing at God or totally letting go and putting things solely in God’s hands confident that he will do what is best?
Such faith and trust is not something which just falls into our lap. It comes from having a close relationship with God through faith in Jesus as your Savior. That trust is strengthened and undergirded each time you read your Bible, read a devotion sharing God’s Word with you or listen to a devotion in one of the chapel services on your campus or in worship at your church.
As you undertake that ongoing effort to strengthen your faith may God give you a firmer trust in him and a confidence in his plans – knowing that they are always best.