Trusting the Lord (QT sharing)

So in my daily devotions I've been reading through Numbers, and I find as I read the Old Testament, there's often such an untapped reservoir into the character of God. You learn to fear the Lord, and also want to praise him so much more by reading the Old Testament. But I'm sure everyone is already aware of this, so I won't waste my time preaching to choir on the importance of immersing ourselves in the Old Testament.

But one thing that really stuck out to me was in Numbers 13-14. In short, it's the passage where the spies are sent into Canaan to see what the promised land is like. They come back to the Israelites and all of them except Joshua and Caleb gave a despairing report of what they saw. They reported how the people in that land were much stronger than them, and that there was no way for them to overcome them. Then the people began to grumble and say how it would have been better for them to stay in Egypt. God's response to this lack of faith and trust in the Lord is quite strong. God basically says to Moses that he wants to strike the Israelites with pestilence and disinherit them for their lack of trust, and he'll allow Moses to start over with making a new nation. But Moses intercedes for the people, and God doesn't disinherit them, but he does end up killing all of the spies except Joshua and Caleb. He also extends their wandering for another 40 years.

And as I read this passage, I thought to myself, "this is all due to a lack of trust in God." The extra 4o years and all of the death is due to a sinful anxiety on the part of the Israelites. Now let's put ourselves in the position of the Israelites before we write them off as fools who should have trusted God. The people in Canaan were much stronger than the Israelites, so by mere human strength, they couldn't win. How often do we judge a situation without once consulting God? How often do we make choices while forgetting that the God of the universe is on our side, working all things for our good?

I found myself reading these passages with a humbled spirit and honestly an ashamed one as well. More and more, God reveals to me my unbelieving, untrusting, forgetful heart. More often God shows me how much I'm relying on my own strength, and putting no trust in him.

Now people always talk about trusting God. But I find usually we talk about it in an either light manner, or as merely something that would be beneficial for us to do. And the Bible obviously sees it as beneficial for us as well. Passages like Matthew 6:25-34 and Philippians 4:6-7 are some of the most comforting passages in the Bible, and I'm sure these are passages that many of us have memorized (or at least a paraphrased memorization).

But if you look at Numbers 13 and 14, and Mark 4, we get a different side of the trust coin. In Mark 4, when we look at the parable of the sower, we see that when the seed falls on one of the bad soils, the truth is choked out by the "cares" or "worries" of this world, and that makes the soil unfruitful. Do we really recognize the warning being presented in this passage? That worrying and anxiety leads to unfruitfulness. Then if we turn to John 15:2, Christ is clear that the Father cuts off any branch that doesn't bear any fruit. Do we see the concrete contrast between a Christian and one who is swept up in anxiety and worrying?

And looking again at Numbers, I see the seriousness that worrying is as a sin. We generally I don't tend to think of not trusting in God as a sin, but obviously God sees it as a very serious sin, a sin that's worthy of death. Usually like I said earlier, trusting in God seems like an added bonus, but not a necessity. But on the contrary, trusting in God is what faith is all about. Without a deep-rooted trust in Christ, you can not call yourself a Christian.

Now that might be obvious to most people. Obviously we have to trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins, but how often do we trust in him for the daily cares of our lives? How often do we trust God with such a serious matter such as our eternal destiny, but think that he can't handle the next couple weeks of our lives because of some important decision we have to make.

This hits me hard as I think about my battle to make a decision about next year. I really want to go to seminary, but then I think about all of the bad things that "could" happen, and all the things I'll be giving up by leaving Korea. Now this is not to say that I shouldn't make a wise, informed, well-thought out decision, but am I making this decision in the blanket trust of God. Am I bringing my petitions before God like in Psalm 25 and 32, that he will counsel me in the steps I need to take? I can't honestly say that I've done this well. One of my biggest sins is in this very area. I don't trust people, or God easily. But this doesn't make me any less responsible to do it, and passages like Numbers let me see this issue in a new light; and show me how offensive this sin is to God.

May we all seek to trust God more for everything, because I honestly think if you say that you trust him with the big things (like salvation), but you can't practically trust him for tomorrow's food, there's an imbalance there that needs to be examined carefully. That's what I'm seeking to examine in my own life now.