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:: Do You Trust Me?

Do You Trust Me?

Part 2: Trusting God with your Life and Future

by: todd veleber

“Do you trust me” is a question that we all have to answer many times in life.  But the most important time you will answer that question is in your relationship with God.  Now those of you that have been hanging around church for a while – you’ve given your lives to Christ – I know you know the answer is “Todd, of course I trust God.”  But what if I asked you “Why do you trust God?”  or “What in your life shows me that you trust God?”

If you remember our big idea from last night, it was this: Since God is trustworthy, I can trust Him with my life and future.

Remember, we saw this visually with our trust fall, that is so much easier to trust your life and future to someone you have a relationship with.  And the same is true with God.  When you have a relationship with God, then your trust begins to grow the better you get to know Him.

And the reality of having a relationship with God is you really can’t have a relationship with Him if you don’t trust Him.  Some of you may have seen the bumper stickers or license plate things that say, “God is my co-pilot.”  Sounds like a good statement, right?  Well, there is a problem with that logic.  If God is your co-pilot then who is still in control?  You are.  Who is still flying the plane of your life?  You are.  And that means you are in the wrong seat.  You’re sitting in the stool that God sits in.  It doesn’t work any other way.

Again the question for you tonight is who is sitting on the stool of your life?  Jesus won’t just take it from you – that’s not how He works.  He wants you to desire to give over the controls of your life to Him.  Because isn’t that what you did when you repented of your sin and accepted Him?  Many of you have asked Jesus to save you and be the Lord of your life. But the problem is, since the fall of man, we’ve been in a power struggle with God over control.  We surrender to God’s will, but when His reality interferes with our daily lives, we jump right back in the driver’s seat.  So then we enter into this power struggle and God isn’t going to fight you for it.  He wants you to willingly give him control – to willingly trust Him.

Here’s the verse that we are going to focus on tonight.  I would strongly encourage you to memorize it and hide it in your heart because it changes the way we think:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.  Proverbs 3:5-6 (Message)

That’s an awesome promise isn’t it?  That we can and should trust God with all of our hearts – and not trust in ourselves to figure it all out… and when we do that, God says He will keep us on the path that we should go.  So then the question becomes, “Are you interested in making the crooked paths of your life straight today?”  Are you willing to trust God with your life and future?

action steps

1. Trust God with all your heart

We are called to “lean” on God, to put our full weight upon Him and we are called to believe in His promises.  We’re saying to Him, “You are the only one worthy of sitting in the stool.  You’re the only one I can truly trust with my life and future.”  Why?  Because of His character and promises.  The Bible tells us that God says, “I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.”  In the book of Jeremiah, God says to us, “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for good and not for harm to give you a future and a hope.”  But we can’t halfway trust.  Remember God won’t be a co-pilot.  He doesn’t want to share the stool.  Our verse says that we are to trust with our whole heart.  This means we don’t just give God the hard stuff and we do the day-to-day.  No, we learn to trust Him, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute – for our every breath.

2.  Don’t rely on your own knowledge

When this verse talks about putting trust in ourselves or leaning on our own understanding – it means that we are putting ourselves in the position of God.  And we’ve talked about how that isn’t how God works in our relationship with Him.  There can only be one sitting on the stool and it is Him.  And He is the one who should be there, not only because He is trustworthy as we just talked about, but because He is all-knowledgeable.

3.  Acknowledge God in all you do

So to put this into practice means that you recognize the authority of God in every single situation of your life.  Your family life – acknowledge God; relationships with friends – acknowledge God; your school work, sports team, hobbies, all of your life and in all that you do – acknowledge God.  What you are saying to God is, “Hey God, I know that you created all of this world and you created me and you know what is best.  So I want you to have total authority over all of my life.”

 

So our challenge when it comes to trusting God with our life and future is really summed up in this word: Surrender.  Give Him the stool.  You’ll be really glad you did!

to think about

·    When things are good do you trust Him? What about when things are bad?

·    When things turn out differently than you thought they should do you trust Him?

·    When you are faced with difficult decisions who do you turn to first?

·    Do you listen to your friends’ advice more than God?

·    What area(s) of your life are you keeping God from?

·    What are the things you want so much that you do not invite God into the issue?