10yrs and counting

Friday evening we had dinner with friends. I have a strong desire for Christian fellowship. I love hanging around with Believers who have a desire to serve God and I love to talk about God- its really a need I have and not just a "want". I keep trying to get up Saturday morning early enough to go to the men's group for this very reason.

So, when these friends came over for dinner I told them about a new thing the Lord has been working in me about trusting the Lord. My wife teased me thinking this was really funny because I've been talking about trusting in the Lord for 10yrs now. Its true, it is funny but its also pretty incredible. Imagine that as I've sought the Lord for a bunch of years now that he has been able to keep teaching me new things about trusting in the Lord for 10yrs straight! That is an awesome God who can do that. So, it is funny and ironic but it led me to really stand back and be thankful to a God who would stay with teaching me something really important like this for 10yrs.

So, I went on to tell our friends what the Lord has been teaching me new about trusting God. I said, "you know, the Lord is always teaching you- there is a theme you are walking in, a lesson you are being taught by the Holy Spirit at all times and it will change and build on itself every few weeks or so- you have to sit still and listen and get quiet in your spirit occassionally and even ask him what it is he is teaching you- but he's always teaching you."

I said, "several weeks ago as I was patting my youngest daughter to sleep the Holy Spirit used that quiet time and really blessed me with a new meditation on trusting the Lord. It was really a new vision of trusting the Lord with absolutely everything - every situation, struggle, event that takes place, every question, every doubt, every fear, every joy, every sorrow, and everything else. Its impossible to put into words because it just dropped in my spirit but it involves pre-judging life's situations through a filter of a pre-made decision to trust God. Take any situation that happens- lets say for example something happens that makes you worry or fear. Don't shy away from that impacting you, don't deny its happened to you, but process it and say "ok, here is something I can pray about and trust God with." So, that was the lesson for several weeks.

The new lesson builds on that and says, "yes trust God with everything but also understand as you're trusting that God has a plan". As we seek him, put him first, and walk closely with him our steps are being ordered by him and we don't just trust blindly - we trust with understanding. We trust understanding that God has a plan and things aren't just flying around on their own. Things aren't as chaotic or random as they might look. With the first lesson of several weeks ago you would say, "Wow, I am really worried/stressed about how chaotic and out of control my (for example) family life is right now but I will trust God 100% and not fret." The next lesson became, "I will trust God and not fret - and things are not random or out of control- God has a plan and I can trust him to work that plan. I can also began to pray, as I begin to understand he has a plan, just like Jesus said "Thy kingdom come" in this situation, and "thy will be done", in this situation.