When you can't trust anyone else, trust Me.

Why trust the Lord, anyway?

I can see many wheels tuning inside your mind as you read this title. Why? Because we should all ideally trust in God first before we trust in anyone else! Think about this for a moment, though, do you always trust in God first? When you are in a predicament, do you always remember to turn to Him before you turn to anyone else?

As I went home a few days ago, wondering why I had not gotten a solution to a problem that I left home in search of, I heard the words, “trust me.” It was hard to hear those words at that moment, especially because I needed an instant solution! This led me to think – why should I trust God before I trust in anyone or anything else?

He knows my future, and the right direction for me

Jeremiah 1:5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” (NLT)

Do you know where you are supposed to go tomorrow, and the day after? You most probably do, especially if you have a predictable schedule or you follow a strict calendar! Does any of us, however, know what will happen to us tomorrow, the day after, in three months, or in a year’s time? No, which is why we need to trust Him.

Fear of the unknown is real. I always get all weak in the knees and short of breath whenever I have to go somewhere new where I have no idea what the reception will be like. For example, when I was taking my kids to get the ‘Huduma Namba,” I was very apprehensive because I was not sure how long the queues would be, or if my son would be able to wait long enough for us to be served. I remember whispering a prayer that the Lord would give us favor at the registration center, and He sure did!

Trusting God means letting Him take charge of our tomorrows because He is the only one who knows for sure what lies ahead. For the Lord, the future is not a prediction; it is a reality that He saw even before you were born.

Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (NLT)

It is so exciting to finish school and start planning the future, isn’t it? Here is how my life plan looked after I finished high school.

Go for French classes (everyone did that those days)
Go to university and continue with French during the school vacation
Finish university with an upper second class degree
Get a job in a bank

After I finished campus, plans changed a little…

Start music lessons
Get a job in a bank to pay for the lessons
Start teaching music
Buy a car
Get married before turning 30

Out of these grand plans, only one or two worked out. As I look back now, I realize that most of these plans were made without asking the Lord what He wanted me to do. They were my plans, not our plans. I wonder what He thought about them…

As I wrote this article and looked at the lists above, I noted something important. The Lord has fulfilled some of those desires, yes, but not in the order that I would have wanted. Over the years, He has also chosen to reveal His plan for my life in little bits, rather than giving me the entire blueprint!

So – what would happen if the Lord let us know all that He had planned for us in advance? Let me paint a picture for you.

The Lord lets it slide that you will have a great job at the age of 23, that you will get married at 27, and get your first child at 30. At the time He reveals this, you are only 20 and just about to finish school. You then decide that since you will definitely get a great job at 23, you don’t need to hustle to get an extra qualification or to do an internship before you land the job. Instead, you choose to laze around the house for three years, occasionally going to church on weekdays to help out.

Three years pass, and you get the job. What’s next? Marriage. Since you know when you will get married, you decide that practicing godly dating principles is not necessary. Instead, you choose to have fun, with the intention of cleaning up your act just before you meet your future spouse. You get married and begin to work on the next project- getting a baby. Because everything is already laid out for you, there is no anxiety surrounding any part of your life. You are peaceful and contented.

Note that there is no mention of seeking God and trusting in Him at this point. Why trust in Him anyway. He’s already said what He is going to do – it’s a done deal!

That, my friends, is why the Lord never reveals His future plans for us in totality. We would never trust Him – we wouldn’t need to.

Now that we are completely clueless as to what lies ahead, we need to trust Him even more. He is the only one who can prepare us for the journey, show us which path to take, and show us how to get to our destination – a journey of complete trust in the Lord.

He does not change

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (NIV)

Humans change. Times change. Seasons change. God does not change. That’s why we can trust Him.

Today was an interesting day. It started off cold, and then the wind came and blew away the dismal clouds to reveal glorious sunshine. How I enjoyed the warm sunshine and the warmth it brought into my house – until the rain came at around 6 pm. Now we are back to our layers of sweaters and socks. The weather did not ask us for permission to change – it just went ahead and changed! Imagine how the people who left the house without sweaters felt when it started raining! Clearly the weather this season cannot be trusted!

For those of us who use matatus, you know this story only too well. I have gotten into a matatu many times in my home town knowing that when we get to the capital, we will be dropped at a safe and convenient place. Some time back, when I was just about to get into a matatu to the city, I asked the conductor three times where ‘mwisho’ (the final drop-off point) was, and what route they would use to get there, and he assured me that we would use a certain route. The journey was uneventful until we found a nasty traffic jam right at the entrance to the capital. Suddenly the matatu took a diversion and we found ourselves in the back streets of the capital. Let’s just say that I got to know a few spots in the city that I previously had no idea existed. Clearly, humans cannot be trusted!

God, however, is completely trustworthy. What He says He will do, He will definitely do it! He never breaks His promises. Abraham’s story is a testament to this. He was promised a land of milk and honey, and a multitude of descendants. When Abraham received this promise, he was living in the desert and had no children. By the time he passed on, however, he had a son, Isaac. The coming of Isaac renewed Abraham’s faith in the Lord and everything else He had promised. Though Abraham never got to see the complete fulfillment of the Lord’s promise, he still trusted in Him.

Joshua 21:45 “Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.” (NLT)

The Lord never changes. He does not alter His nature or standards to suit the situation. He remains the same. That’s why we can trust Him.