The best kept secret

Life...it's hard. Have you ever struggled and worried because your life wasn't going the way you wanted it to go? Do you feel that way right now?

You have legitimate needs and desires. You know what would make you happy and you pray for it with all your might, asking God to help you get it. But if it doesn't happen, you may feel frustrated, bitter or disappointed.

Sometimes you do get what you want, but then you find it doesn't make you happy after all, just disillusioned.

Many Christians repeat this cycle their entire life, wondering what they're doing wrong. I should know. I was one of them.  Did you know there is a secret that can free you from this cycle? It's really easy to understand and to do! All you have to do is trust God. Yes, that's it...trust God. Ah, you say, that's no secret!

But in actuality, the secret lies in putting this truth into practice, by making it such a powerful theme in your life that you view every event, every sorrow, every prayer with the unshakable conviction that God is totally, spotlessly trustworthy.

That's where we mess up. We want to trust in anything rather than in the Lord. We'll trust in our own strength and abilities, in our employer, in our money, our doctor, even in the airline pilot. But the Lord? Well…

It's easy to trust in things we can see. Sure, we believe in God, but to allow him to run our life? That's asking a little too much, we think.  The bottom line is that our wants may not agree with God's wants for us. After all, it's our life, isn't it? Shouldn't we have the say over it? Shouldn't we be the one who calls the shots? God gave us free will, didn't he?

The world tell us what's important: a high-paying career, a head-turning car, a drop-dead-gorgeous home, and a spouse who will make everyone else green with envy.

If we fall for the world's idea of what matters, we get trapped. The new car, relationship, promotion or whatever didn't bring you the happiness you expected, so you keep searching, thinking "Maybe next time." But it's always the same, because you were created for something better, and deep down you know it.

When you finally reach the place where your head agrees with your heart, you're still hesitant. It's scary. Trusting in the Lord can require that you abandon everything you've ever believed about what brings happiness and fulfillment.

It requires that you accept the truth that God knows what's best for you. But how do you make that leap from knowing to doing? How do you trust in the Lord instead of the world or yourself?  

The secret lives inside of you! The secret is the Holy Spirit. Not only will he convict you of the rightness of trusting in the Lord, he'll help you do it. It's too hard for us to do on our own!

Because the Holy Spirit knows you better than you know yourself, he'll give you exactly what you need to make this change. He's infinitely patient, so he'll let you test this secret—trusting in the Lord—in little baby steps. He'll catch you if you stumble. He'll rejoice with you when you succeed. It's going to take effort to trust. Let me give you an example...have you ever played a game as a child where you were blindfolded? Maybe someone led you around from room to room and you had to guess where you were...you had to trust that they wouldn't run you into a wall...or maybe you were blindfolded and told to fall backward while someone was there waiting to catch you...you had to trust with all your heart that they would actually stay there and be ready to catch you and not let you fall, didn't you? That's how it is with God...you have to be willing to trust that He is always going to be there, even if you can't see or feel Him...He's there!

As someone who has gone through cancer, the deaths of loved ones, broken relationships, and job layoffs, I can tell you that trusting in the Lord is a lifelong challenge. You never finally "arrive." Each new crisis calls for recommitment. The good news is that the more often you see God's loving hand working in your life, the easier this trusting becomes.

When you trust in the Lord, you'll feel as if the weight of the world has been lifted off your shoulders. The pressure's off you now and on God, and he can handle it perfectly. He is trustworthy!!! 

God will make something beautiful of your life, but he needs your trust in him to do it. Are you ready? The time to start is today, right now.