Trust In God [Updated]

Having trust in God is not always easy.  Perhaps it’s because you don’t have a very good relationship with God.  Perhaps it’s because you have a hard time putting your trust into something intangible.  Or perhaps it’s simply because you’re new to the whole idea of putting your complete trust in our omnipresent God.  No matter the scenario, we all fail to trust God from time to time.  Trusting God can be described in the term saving faith, or trusting faith.  When we sin, we’re telling God, “I don’t wanna do it Your way, God; I wanna do it my way,” and we fail to trust Him.  Do not fret, however.  “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).  Faith is defined perfectly in Hebrews 11:1, 3:  “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen…  By faith we understand that the universe was created by the Word of God, so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.”  Most of us do not know what we can trust God with or even how.  Anything can apply — finances, health, relationships; but the two major aspects, I believe, are trusting Him with your safety & preservation and salvation, and the rest will follow.

I have a few more words to say about faith.  Everybody has faith.  It may not be in the same thing, but we all put our faith in something.  The question is not, “Will we have faith?”  Instead, the question is, “Where will we put our faith?”  What, or whom, is your idol?  Whatever we put above God, that thing becomes our idol — it becomes our god.  It can be your boyfriend or girlfriend, wife or husband, video games, food (gluttony), the existence of aliens, science, your rationality, some personal sins like homosexuality, other sexual immoralities, greed, gossip, and the list goes on almost infinitely.  Faith in God is putting your trust in His promises, because that faith is attached to  His promises.  God’s Word promises to protect us, to deliver us from evil, to give us all our needs (if we seek His kingdom first [Matthew 6:33]), and He even promises to discipline and chastise us when necessary, and His wrath against the wicked.  By faith, we put our trust and hope in the reality of Jesus’s second coming.  By faith, we trust that God created the universe out of nothing.  By faith, we trust God with the entirety of our lives.

First Timothy 6:17, “Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.”  Put your trust in God and nothing else, and He will provide everything for your heart.  We cannot put our trust in our wealth and materialistic things because of their uncertainty — they are temporary and unreliable.  God, however, is certain.  He is eternal and has proven His care for us since the beginning of creation.  Trust in Him and you can be sure that He will guide your heart in all your ways.  Trust and rely on Him and He will make your paths straight.  Do not allow Satan to belittle your ambitions and make your path crooked, for God is always faithful during troublesome times.  God always loves you, so remember His love for you and His protection over you as our Father.  He provides all healing, so trust and rely on Him and talk to Him through prayer and He will smile upon your face and you shall be healed.  Putting your whole trust and reliance on your riches and talents can only do so much for you.  Putting your hope and trust in God is limitless; He will keep you from all harms.  Putting your hope and trust in the impure, imperfect materialistic things of this world exposes a great susceptibility to the wiles of Satan.

The prophet Daniel is a perfect example of having trust in God.  Daniel 6:23, “The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den.  So Daniel was taken out of the den, uninjured, for he trust in his God.”  Daniel trusted that God would not allow him to die.  This is absolutely remarkable because God saved Daniel from hungry, untamed lions, all because Daniel trusted in God!  This is evidence that trusting God with your safety can and will keep you safe and even save your life some day.  When I was on a mission trip for flood recovery work in August of 2008, my team and I were helping rebuild a church in Iowa City, called the Christian Rock Church.  Our music minister, Pastor John Martineau (who was also the leader of the team), asked me to go up in a ceiling area and pull some wires.  I looked at the ceiling and became sceptical about my safety and afraid for my life because it was literally falling apart.  (Just as a side note, I was one year into my faith at this point.)  The safety precautions had me realise that I could possibly get severely injured or even die in the worst case scenario if the ceiling ever collapsed while I was up there.

However, I thought to myself, “Wait, God isn’t going to allow me to die.  My work here on this earth isn’t done.  God isn’t finished with me yet.”  After that quick thought and putting my trust in God, my fear immediately vanished and I willingly climbed up the ladder into the ceiling.  About thirty minutes while I was up there, Pastor John asked me to come down and help him and our other leader, Jim Walcholz, with some wires on that level.  On my way over to the ladder, a part of the ceiling collapsed from underneath me.  As I fell, my leg got caught on something and it twisted my left knee.  I hung for about five seconds.  As I was hanging, I swung myself up and grabbed onto the edge of something and just as I got a grip, my foot was immediately released.  When I was ready, I let go and landed on my right  foot, which was my one good leg.  In spite of my injury, my leg getting caught and my knee getting twisted simultaneously actually saved my life.  If my leg had not gotten caught, one of three life threatening possibilities could have occurred:  A) I could have landed head first on the cement floor; B) I could have landed head first on a large, sharp blade from a metal fan; or C) I could have landed head first on a sharp metal corner of a furnace that we had just installed the day before.  Pastor John mentioned that while I was hanging, my head was at least one inch above the sharp corner of the furnace, if that.  I ended up with a strain MCL (one of three major ligaments in the knee) as well as my knee being sprained simultaneously.

That night, we talked about the incident.  I can tell you right now that it was not luck.  I’ve said this before in previous blogs, but it needs repeating:  Luck is the most quintessential human delusion.  I cannot say that enough.  Back where we were staying, we discussed how miraculous my survival was and how it was actually a glorious event.  Pastor John was convinced that there was an angel holding me.  I thought to myself that this was very possible, but being new to the faith at the time I didn’t think much of it.  The next morning, we went  back to the site we were working at and to the area where I fell.  We examined the ceiling and there was absolutely nothing that could have grabbed on to my leg — no wires, no pipes, just absolutely nothing.  Then we looked at the ground to see if there was anything that could have fallen after my leg was released underneath all the insulation, but there was still nothing.  Another amazing thing during this supposed atrocity is that while I was hanging, all the witnesses there said that there was insulation literally everywhere in the air and on the ground (at least 5 inches thick) as I was hanging from the ceiling, and miraculously none of it got in my eyes.  And if you get insulation in your eyes, you either suffer permanent blindness or serious damage to the eyes.

This is where it gets even more amazing.  A fellow team member, Brian Birchmeier (who is mentally handicapped but nonetheless has great integrity, more than the average mentally healthy and stable human being), he mentioned that he saw a bright white light in the shape of a vine — an angel — fly through the nearest door to me at extreme speed, and when it reached me I immediately stop falling.  The amazing thing about Brian is that in spite of his mental condition, everything he tells you, he tells you exactly as he sees it; he literally does not lie.  He pretty much has that blunt honesty of a child (hence Jesus’s exhortation to have childlike faith).  He could not describe the angel’s identity entirely other than its shape as a vine because he looked away from the immensity of its brightness.  Sceptics will say that because of Brian’s mental condition, his information is unreliable.  One, if you knew Brian, you would not say that; and two, that is an incredibly mean spirited thing to say.  There is no other “rational” explanation for my miraculous survival.  The angel’s presence would certainly explain the lack of pipes or wood or anything else in the ceiling or on the ground that could have caught my leg.  Also, after saying all that, when I leaned up to catch myself, there was nothing that I could have grabbed — nothing but air.  Every time I think of that moment, it leaves me in awe.  Maybe I unknowingly grabbed on to the angel’s hand.  So, needless to say, God sent an angel to save my life.  Praise the Lord!  Or, since Jesus is the vine (John 15:5), maybe He saved me Himself.  Who knows?  Either way, because I trusted in my God, He went out of His way to save my life.

After the accident — no, incident — the Lord really laid on my heart Psalm 91:11-12:  “For He will give His angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.  They will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”  Those who say that God does not give each believer a guardian angel because “this verse doesn’t mean that,” that is a lie.  I was once unsure of this because others had told me that interpretation of this passage, but after my experience, I have to believe it’s true.  Again, maybe it was Jesus, but in the Old Testament He was always called “The Angel of the LORD” (emphasis on “the” added).  God also lay on my heart Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  The moral of my testimony is that if you trust God in anything, like your safety, He will keep you under His protection, and perhaps depending on the situation sending one of His angels to keep you safe if the predicament calls its necessity.  I trusted in God to keep me safe and away from death because I had faith that He was not finished with me, and indeed He wasn’t and still is not, for He sent an angel (or Jesus Himself) to prevent me from falling head first on either the cement floor; a large, sharp metal blade from a fan, or a sharp corner of the metal furnace, all of which offered instantaneous death.  Or if I were fortunate, I would suffer permanent paralysis or severe brain damage, but still alive.  I always wonder what would have happened if I chose not to trust in God and had gone up there anyway, especially since I was new to the faith at the time…  As Daniel trusted in God to save his life from death, I also trusted in the same God to save my life from death, and He followed through in both situations, thousands of years apart.

The verse I would use to define this message is Psalm 62:8, “Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him:  God is a refuge for us.  Selah.”  So, my brethren, trust in God, seek His comfort (the Comforter — the Holy Spirit), and fear not, for God is our refuge.  A refuge is protection from danger or trouble, and if you trust God to protect you from such things, you shall be protected.  As Psalm 9:9 confesses, “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”  If you’re in fear for your life or any other dangers, whether physical or moral or emotional or spiritual or financial, pray and trust in God.  If you’re in fear for your personal troubles, pray and trust in God; never fear.  God is our stronghold — He stands firm for each of us in our safety, happiness, and protection, and no one, not even the Devil, can move Him from protecting you and delivering you.  You can always trust in God in anything.  He will never let you down; I guarantee it.