New Creations’ theme for 2012 is “Trust in the Lord!” On July 20, 2011, a good friend of ours, sent me an email that made an impact on me. The email had a quote from Francis Chan: “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” Then my friend went on and said: “When I think of this concept, I think of you and Bonnie and your exceptional faith.”
You know, there is nothing sent to you from people that love and care for you that doesn’t challenge you to grow deeper in God, and prepare you for the next test that is going to be in your life. I never in my wildest dreams thought that God would put me in a spot where I would have to go even deeper in my Trust in the Lord. We should be really careful that we don’t overlook messages from God through others.
In my study of what Trust in the Lord really means, here’s what I found: Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” The Hebrew word trust “batah” means: to confide in, so as to be secure and without fear. So, if you are going to Trust in the Lord, you are going to have to confide in God so much that you’re secure and without fear in what He allows to happen to you. God is running your life, or you are running your life.
When I was young, I would think in my mind, “I am young, and if I fail and miss God, then I, being younger, can start over.”
Now that I am older at 67 (and I don’t see that as old), the thoughts of starting over or failing are harder to think about, because I know the cost that it has been for Bonnie and I to get to this point. The long hours, the cost to our family, and the many tears that we have shed for youth, children, and adults. It’s kind of like raising children when you’re old: it’s harder. That’s the reason God gives you children when you’re young so you can keep up with them.
My father-in-law, Larry Reeves, said to me, “What’s wrong with you, son-in-law, you keep going out getting teenagers and bringing them into your home?” He went on to say that “no man should have to raise as many teenagers as you and Bonnie have. You get them, turn around, and then you send them home and go looking for another one, maybe even with more trouble than the last one. I just don’t understand you!”
That’s the way our calling has been! We have just kept believing that we are going to make a difference in someone’s life. Even in the middle of some of our greatest storms in 2009, 2010 and 2011 with our family crises. Like our 14 year old grandson, Lucas, our trust in the Lord was strong, but, yes, there was some fear that we had to overcome. Today, Lucas lives a normal teenager life, glory to God, because God healed him! But the strain from March 2009 until now has depleted more of our strength, not our faith or trust, but our strength to stand the day to day war of life.
We have had so many challenges during the last 42 years! Through our Trust in the Lord, we have come through all of them! We have learned so much about Trusting in the Lord.
So what kind of trust does God want us to have? Job 13:15, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Like Job, we must be determined to trust in the Lord.
When we know that we know, that we are doing our best to live righteously, we can be determined to trust God no matter what happens. That’s where the “no fear” comes into the picture. We just trust God, no matter what we see, hear, smell or feel.
Do you and I have that kind of trust that we could go to death?
Can we, and will we, maintain our own ways before him knowing if we are wrong, we suffer or die for it?
If you’re righteous, then you better live righteously and know you’re righteous if you’re going to trust and maintain your own ways that God has led you to. You can fool yourself and others, but you cannot fool God.
I Samuel 22:3, “The God of my rock: in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior; thou savest me from violence.” We must trust in God, our Rock, our Savior, and our Protector. This is something that just can’t be only in your mind, it must be in your Spirit. So you can then do the following: Psalms 125:1, “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.” You cannot be removed, and you will abide forever.
Proverbs 29:25, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” You are safe when you trust in the Lord.
Proverbs 30:5, “Every word of God is pure; he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” It’s God that will shield you when you put your trust in the Lord.
So, we must come to the point that we can say: “I will trust in the Lord!”
Psalms 115:10-11, “O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.” Our only trust should be in the Lord, because He is our help and our shield. We must trust in the Lord and have no fear if we are going to do and be what God wants us to be in this life.
So Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
Bishop Timothy W. Cummings
