Learning to Trust

Sometimes I like to take a step back and look at my life, my family, and the lives of those around me.  I like to look at how God is working in and through our lives.  I also like to look at the ways in which the real enemy attempts to get us off track.  I look at all this because I want to fight off the enemy and walk together with God.

David is such a great example because he, too, was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).  While David is not perfect and certainly falls short of perfection, he does give us a good pattern to follow.  When David seeks God, listens to God, and trusts God; things go well for him.  He avoids death at the hands of the king, becomes king himself, and defeats the enemies of the One True King.  David begins to build a kingdom that follows God as King.  This blesses David, the people around him, and even the generations to come.

For when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house--a temple--for My name. And I will secure his royal throne forever. (2 Samuel 7:12-13 NLT)

David is the one through whom God’s promise to Abraham will come true: all nations will be blessed.  It will take many, many generations after David before we see the promised King who reigns forever.  He is the one who builds a house for the LORD that will stand forever.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:19-22 ESV)

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NASB)

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 NASB)

Sometimes God’s promises take thousands of years to be fulfilled, but that does not mean God is unreliable or untrustworthy.  It just means it is not time yet (2 Peter 3:8).  Sometimes God’s promises come to fruition by the end of our lifetime, but we need to wait.  Other promises, still, come true right away.  It is these “quick answers,” combined with the “slow answers” we see God fulfilling through the people in Scripture, that give us reason to trust.  We have plenty of reasons to trust The LORD.  The question is simply this: will we?

How about you?  Have you seen God’s promises come true in your life?  Are you still waiting for others to come true?  Do the stories about God and people from the past build your trust?  Do you trust The LORD?