In God We Trust

In God We Trust.  Four small words that I have been mulling over lately.  Found stamped on our currency, they once were proudly displayed to signify a country founded upon Christian principles.  Today, they are oft debated and scorned by many.  But my thoughts really aren’t about those things.  They are more pertinent to my own life.  In God We Trust.  Do we?  Do I?

How easy is it to put our trust in small slips of printed paper given a value?  How often do we label our security by how much or how little money we have?  See, I’m thinking that perhaps it is FAR too often!  When things are going well financially, we often see ourselves as “secure.”  And when things are tight?  Somehow that security doesn’t feel so great.  But are our feelings real?  Or are they just an illusion?  

God tells us that He gives us ALL things.  ALL things.  He’s taught this to me so often in the last year.  It wasn’t by my will or might that we have been blessed with a beautiful home.  It was by His great love, mercy, and provision.  It wasn’t by Joel’s ability or talents that he obtained a great job at just the right time.  It was from a God that gave it to Him and moved the corporate wheels along faster then normal.  We have seen Him work and I would like to say He has proved Himself and we have learned our lessons.  

But sadly?  We so often fall back into the state of trusting what WE can do, get, earn, achieve and we rest in those things for our security.  But the problem is, that kind of security isn’t real.  It just SEEMS real.  We are instructed to trust in God, rest in Him.  Money can buy lots of great things, things that make us feel “in control” or sometimes even invincible.  But how quickly can these things be taken away?  In Job, we read that the Lord GIVES and the Lord TAKES AWAY.  In the blink of an eye, a fire can occur (have seen that happen too) or a family member can become critically ill.  Circumstances change that are beyond our control and it is THEN that we realize, our SECURITY only comes from God!

So here’s the question.  Are we going to rest in His security only AFTER something happens to show us how LITTLE control we have?  OR are we going to CHOOSE to rest in His security today when everything SEEMS as if it is in OUR control?  Are we going to acknowledge Him as our Sovereign God and go where He sends?  Leap when He asks?  Step out in faith when He beckons?  Or are we going to cling to our illusion of security?  Because it FEELS safer?  Because it LOOKS safer?

This life.  It holds no promises except those from God.  He promises to care for us!  So when He asks us to do seemingly impossible things, are we going to do them?  Are we going to cling to THE God?  Or are we going to cling to our money and the “financial security” we have obtained for ourselves?  But are we even really doing that?  If our homes, jobs, money, clothing, food, and everything else is His and comes from Him, THEN, it seems to me that The Rock is Who I want to cling to.  EVEN when things are GOOD.  ESPECIALLY when they are GOOD!!  Because if I’m doing that.  If I’m REALLY remembering where all “good and perfect” gifts come from, THEN when things start to change and God asks me to “jump,” it won’t seem AS scary.  Because while I may not see the big picture, He does.  And I am His.  

In God We Trust!

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air:  they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow:  they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we wear?”  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

                                                             --Matthew 6:25-34 ESV