Trustworthy

“The LORD said to Moses, “How long will these people despise me?  How long will they not trust in me despite all the signs I have performed among them?” Numbers 14:11

Trust.  It’s hard. How do we get there?  What makes us choose to trust anyone or anything?  Surely there must be a time to trust and a time not to trust?

The children of Israel had been safely rescued from their Egyptian captors.  They had seen miracle after miracle as God worked to release them from Pharaoh’s clutches.  The people had watched God save them when the Red Sea blocked them on one side and the Egyptian army raced toward them from the other side.  The multitude watched God provide food for them when there was none to be had.  How many miracles would it take before they would believe Jehovah over their own thoughts? 

This great group of travelers was now poised to enter the land God had promised them, a land “flowing with milk and honey.”  God said go; He would be with them.  The spies said, “NO!” The enemy is too great.  And the people chose to believe their peers rather than the God who had brought them safely thus far.

How much do we lose when we fail to trust our Creator?  What does He have in store for us if only we will believe?  Because of unbelief, God stopped the Israelites from the joy that was before them, leaving them to receive what they mourned.  “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!” (Numbers 14:2b)

Rather than entering God’s promise, the multitude would wander one year for every day the spies were in the desert.  During the 40 years of wandering, all men of fighting age would perish for their unbelief, except for Joshua and Caleb who believed God and encouraged their people to do the same.  God would not take faithless people into the land He had prepared especially for them.

This morning, reading from two different devotion books, I heard God speaking a single message.  David Jeremiah, in Strength for Today and speaking of the love Jesus has for each of us, says, “He knows how to bear burdens, and He knows how to bless believers.”

Paul David Tripp, in New Morning Mercies, quoted Matthew 11:28-30.  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 

Before quoting from Matthew, Tripp had spoken of the lies we tell ourselves, that we are autonomous and self-sufficient.  We are neither.  We are actually “heavy laden,” in great need of our burden bearer, Jesus Christ.

Jesus knows how to carry our load, and He knows how to bless us. He does it every day.  But it requires our trusting Him, or He will leave us to fight the battles ourselves.  He tells us His yoke is easy and that in Him we will find rest for our souls.  But we have to believe His word rather than trust our own voices. 

Each day we see evidence of our Father’s great love and provision.  We find reminders of His presence in our daily routines.  Even in something as simple as the same thought given to me today from two different devotion books, words that pair perfectly with the story I’m reading in the Bible of trust and lack of trust.  God’s voice telling me that He is here, in this moment, and He is trustworthy.  God’s voice asking me if I will trust Him once more and walk with Him in faith another day.

How do we choose who we will trust?  We choose to trust one who has proven himself to be trustworthy.  For this reason, we must surely trust Jehovah who has shown Himself over and over again to be a promise-keeper.  The One whose word never fails.  The One who was faithful in the past and is faithful still. 

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is worthy of our trust.  Christ, the Son of the Living God, is worthy of our trust.  If we choose to trust ourselves instead of our Creator, if we choose to trust the voices of those around us instead of His voice, we lose everything He offers and are left to wander on our own.

Christ is our burden bearer.  His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.  He is the One who is faithful and true.  Trust Him today, tomorrow, and forever.  Why?  Because He has proved Himself over and over. He was, is, and always will be…trustworthy!