Tag: #trustGod

field expert.

Published on by elizabethgwin1 Comment

“EVERY PROMISE OF GOD PROVES TRUE; He protects everyone who runs to him for help. So don’t second-guess him.” – Proverbs 30: 5-6, The Message

God knows what He is doing. The truth is that He has been doing it for years. He is quite seasoned, an expert in his field.

Doubt is a form of fear. We all have it; it is normal to doubt ourselves, our situations, others around us, and sometimes, even God. This doubt is so hard to recognize God entirely, but we also may not trust him entirely. [Ouch!]

We reach a point in our spiritual maturity, our faith walk, where we realize that we are old enough to know better! In his letters, Paul often spoke of babes in the faith and reassures the new Christians in the churches that trust takes time to build.

Relationships grow when we invest time and energy into them. The same is true in our faith. We grow to know God more as we spend more time together. You don’t become BFFs with someone by meeting them once and seeing them several times a year. That’s not how friendships work, not healthy ones at least.

Our God is a god that can be trusted. Fully. Wholly. Completely. He has only our best interests at heart. When I was less-mature in my faith, I assumed that God’s plan were boring. How could they possibly be exciting? I equated God with constraining rules and limited pleasures in life, which I just knew had to provide a very mundane and eventless existence. Now that I am older [and know better!], I have learned that those rules were simply boundaries to protect me and guide me to the path He had laid out for me. What looked like exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities along the way were really facades planted to draw me into danger. [Note: Danger not planted by God, rather by the enemy to tempt me into sinful activities and lifestyles.] Like when you see a really cute outfit in a store window that you  admire. Then as you think about it later, you start planning how cute you will be in that outfit, the places you will go, the compliments that you will get. Your mind is consumed with coveting thoughts of this outfit, and you just don’t see how you can possibly go on another day without this outfit. So you go to the store, go inside and put this outfit on and realize it’s not well made, it’s not flattering, and the price tag is outrageous. All your dreams suddenly vanish, and you are left feeling empty as though someone stole your grand plans for glamour. You go home and look disappointedly at your closet and can’t fathom looking cute in anything you see. Void, empty, disappointed, feeling less than. Facades planted by the enemy are just like the cute outfit. They catch our eye and plant a seed in our minds that quickly consumes our thoughts and deters us from our paths.

God will never leave a facade for us to follow alone. That’s how you tell the difference.

God tells us that he will never leave us or forsake us. He will guide us along when we need to make a turn or take a different route.

In my experience, the blessing comes after I have journeyed on the new path with God. In other words, I cannot usually see the blessing from the road. God can, but it is not visible to me. I find it when I trust in Him to guide me along the way, and when we get to the blessing, I’m on a clear path, not busy with others, but my own personal road. I can truly enjoy and relish my blessing b/c its just me and God. Fewer distractions. More joy! If you can see it from the road, make that your clue to stop and ask God for guidance. Second-guess the facade, the situation, not God. He will let you know if you’re on the right track. He will either leave you there or He will move you. That’s how you will know!

Once I made it through the wilderness, I could see the beginning of the path that God had for me. Just for me! My only personalized, tailored to my likes, suited for my gifts, path carved out by the creator of the universe just for me! When I was moving forward, I knew I was in some danger zones and some rough areas, but I never realized how much of a wilderness I was in until I made it out to the other side. Once I was able to look back and see the forest, I knew that I would have never made it out without God’s guidance.

bad driving.

Published on by elizabethgwinLeave a comment

Bad drivers. We all have seen them, honked at them, and yelled things at them that we are ashamed to repeat outside of our cars! Even worse, some of us have been those bad drivers. Oh no!

I attended an event the other day located deep inside a large neighborhood, more like a maze. When I went to leave, I could not find the exit and realized that I must have missed my turn. You see, I had not paid good attention to all the turns when I followed my friend through the maze to the event.

Now, I found myself on a street that dead-ended in a cul-de-sac of houses. No sight of the neighborhood exit, and I was frustrated!  I made a three-point turn, retraced my path, and said some unsightly words! I was so busy being annoyed from driving in circles that I failed to look both ways before crossing the street.

I ALMOST had a wreck because I was being a bad driver!

At the disturbing sound of many long honks, I hit my brakes and looked up just in time to see a very nasty glare that lasted far longer than necessary.

I sat at that stop sign and thought about how close I was to not only being in an accident, but almost being the cause of one. As I surveyed my surroundings, I realized that I had turned prematurely. I had been on the right street in the beginning but had taken a wrong turn BEFORE I could SEE the exit gate.

So similar to our Christian walks…

We often are on the right path with God, and although we are walking with Him, we still want to turn off the path BEFORE we arrive at the gate. We lose patience with the journey and think that we have missed our turn. On the contrary, most times we have not even arrived to the place where God wants us to turn. We feel lost and frustrated and worry that God has either led us astray or misled us, or (my favorite), that we have gone too far and completely missed our turn altogether. LIES!

Now, the glares and the honks hurt my feelings, but I was grateful for their warning that kept us both out of danger.

Have you ever had warning signs that made you realize that you had veered off the road? What about in your spiritual life, in your journey with God? Have you ever felt the nudging of the Holy Spirit that caused you to stop and turn around? Or perhaps that undeniable gut feeling, or conviction, that lets you know that you need to turn around to avoid danger?

GOD KNOWS that we are human. He designed us “in His image” and empowered us with the ability to make our own decisions (Genesis 1:27). However, this free will can lead us astray when we are not paying attention to our surroundings or decide that our paths are better than the ones God chose for us.

We are not the only “bad drivers” throughout history. King David certainly did not have a perfect driving record! He made many mistakes in life, yet God never gave up on him. In the following passage, he advises his son to OBEY GOD and to STAY ON COURSE!

Hear these words of wisdom from King David of Isreal:

“When David’s time to die approached, he charged his son Solomon, saying, “I’m about to go the way of all the earth, but you—be strong; show what you’re made of! Do what God tells you. Walk in the paths he shows you: Follow the life-map absolutely, keep an eye out for the signposts, his course for life set out in the revelation to Moses; then you’ll get on well in whatever you do and wherever you go. Then God will confirm what he promised me when he said, ‘If your sons watch their step, staying true to me heart and soul, you’ll always have a successor on Israel’s throne.” – I Kings 2:1-4, The Message

We must note that David did not detour enough times to “mess up” or “miss out on” God’s plan for his future. The world may tell us that we have gone too far off course for God to save us, but that is simply not true! We are NEVER TOO FAR GONE for God to save us! God re-routed David [every time!] until arriving at his final destination of establishing the lineage for the kingdom of God through his dynasty!

Twenty-eight generations later, Jesus Christ is born from the house of David:

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” -Luke 2:12, ESV

This Messiah, this Savior, was Jesus Christ, the eternal successor of Isreal’s throne.

Remember, God will guide us, but we have to pay attention to look and listen for our directions. It is so easy to miss our turn when we are not paying attention. Turn off the distractions, and focus solely on God’s navigational directions!

ESV = English Standard Version