Trust Me

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

Sometimes life can be hard to understand. There are inconveniences and then there are real problems. It’s when the real problems occur that our faith in God and our obedience to his Word are put to the test. Problems like the loss of a job with a family to feed, a marriage that is falling apart or a sickness to which medical science says there is no cure. It’s at those times, when we sometimes panic and frantically try to find solutions to our problems and how we can fix them. We pray, but we don’t always trust God to take care of it, at least not the way we want him to.

I’ve discovered that I have felt this way lately. I would probably never have admitted that I didn’t trust God, but I realize I haven’t fully put my trust in him concerning my dad. My dad has been sick with ALS for about a year and half. Over the past few months, the progression has happened rather quickly. To tell the truth, it’s scary. To see him go from a healthy, active man to being confined to a wheelchair not able to do anything for himself has been heartbreaking. My family and I along with countless others have prayed so much for him, but he has only gotten worse.

I’ve questioned God’s faithfulness. I’ve always believed God’s word is true, yet I couldn’t understand if he was faithful, why my dad was suffering so much. Why my mom, who has always loved and trusted God, has to be physically, mentally and emotionally burdened with this tremendous job of caring for my dad. I have tried to figure out where I was failing. As if it all depends on me. Was I praying wrong? Was I not praying enough? Was my faith not strong enough? Was there doubt in my prayers that God would heal him? What else could I do?

Then God spoke to my spirit, “trust me.” You see, I didn’t quite understand God’s faithfulness. His faithfulness doesn’t mean he will always come through exactly the way we want Him to. Does every disappointment we face mean that God is less faithful? Absolutely not! God will be true to his plan and his promises and he will continue to work in our lives. Now, I don’t believe for a minute that this suffering is God’s perfect plan for my dad. Even so, I felt God telling me to place my dad in his hands and stop trying to figure everything out. He reminded me that he loves my dad and my mom more than I do. Although I don’t understand, that is what faith is all about. It’s about trusting God and his word even when we don’t understand. Things don’t always make since to us, but God’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours. Isaiah 55:9.

Even when God allows trials that seem unbearable, he remains the same, and we can still trust him. We have to make that choice. “All he does is just and good, and all his commandments are trustworthy. They are forever true, to be obeyed faithfully and with integrity.” Psalm 111:7-8.

We always need to remember that this world is not our home. God is an eternal God and his thoughts are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 says “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal.”

Our troubles may not seem light to us. Sometimes they are more than we can bear. But if we put our trust in Jesus, they will pale in comparison to our final reward: a home in heaven with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.