March 8, 2016

Trust God

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.

-- Isaiah 30:15

This verse has shown up at different times in my life, always when I needed it most. God is good that way. He gives us what we need, when we need it.

It’s very simple really. We are to repent when we sin, then rest in God’s grace. A sweet friend wrote about leaving our past in the past. We don’t. We keep dredging it up. God has forgiven us and forgotten it. Not us. We’ve got to go over it again and again and again, beating ourselves up over something we can’t change.

We also have a need to fix things, to change other people, to control what goes on around us. We can’t, of course. Only God can. But we are so determined to try.

God calls us to be quiet and trust Him. So simple and so strong. Give it to God and walk away. Stop obsessing and let it go. Your strength -- your true strength -- comes in trusting God to work things out for your good and His glory.

This message was aimed at Judah. They were looking everywhere for military might instead of trusting God to save them. We do the same thing. When we need help we look everywhere but to the One who can save us. He’s just waiting for us to ask, to seek, to count on Him to do what He wants to do for us. We belong to Him and He loves us unconditionally.

But we would have none of it. Let’s not forget that last line of this verse. We can choose to ignore God’s help. We can choose to go our own way. We can choose to do it alone. Or we can seek God and trust Him to do what is best.

It’s quite simple really. Trust God or wallow in the aftermath of your own choices.