By Staff
In the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verse 5, we read, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”
Sounds good, doesn't it? The problem is, we are human and, as somebody said, “full of human nature.” We can claim the Living God of Heaven as our God, and worship Him, but trusting Him with all our heart is another matter.
God showcased His care, provision, and protection during the forty years the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness.
Our first clue about trusting God is the perception about those forty years in the wilderness. We think the children of Israel wandered. Actually, God led the people every step of the way.
God did not plan for the people to be in the wilderness for 40 years, but they had a problem believing God was powerful enough to enable them to conquer Canaan, so the result was a 40-year delay (Numbers 13).
The time in the wilderness, beginning with the Exodus from Egypt and concluding with the crossing of the Jordan River in floodtide, was a time when God showed up daily with power, presence, and provision.
God did not allow the people to ever establish themselves in any one place all those forty years. The instruction was that God's presence would be manifest to all through a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22). When the pillar moved, they moved. If the pillar stayed still, they stayed. This would be most difficult because as humans we want to know what is going on. Human nature is to settle down. God said, in essence, “Trust Me. I will tell you when you are to move on.”
The next issue was food and water. Human nature is to store up, have provision. There is great security in knowing where the next day's food is. God gave them manna, bread from Heaven. The manna came down every morning with the dew and melted away with the hot sun (Exodus 16:14-21). Each family was to go out and gather enough manna for that one day. If they gathered enough for two days, the leftovers bred worms and spoiled. They could, however, gather a two-day supply on the Sabbath eve.
The people did not appreciate the manna. They did not like to work for it, they did not like the monotony, and they did not like the fact that they could not gather up a bunch and then relax for a few days.
God's way is to give us just enough, just in time. He knows our human nature, that we would rather trust in ourselves than Him, so He forced the issue and gave daily provision for forty years.
Note: The manna never failed in 40 years.
Water was scarce in the wilderness. People settle near water. Rivers, streams, lakes, or good wells define cities and settlements. God led His people through the rocky countryside. There was no water. God's way was to have the people stand by an unlikely rock and then God would miraculously produce water out of the rock.
When we read these stories about the mighty power of God, we think, “Wow! That would be great!” But not one of us really desires to live that way.
There is difficulty trusting God because there is such a gulf between leaning on our own understanding and submitting our lifestyle to God's schedule and methods.
Trusting God involves learning to wait on Him. Waiting on God is not a passive activity; it is being conscious of His power, His presence, and His interest in us. The real issue in trusting God is our reputation. We do not want to be perceived as powerless, directionless, and waiting.
Trusting God may seem difficult and scary, but who else can you trust?