Examining Trust

By Beth | August 21, 2018

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. Proverbs 11:2

I asked some friends for help developing a devotional on pride and humility. Several did it and gave me good feedback.

One said that God has already been working on her pride. She added this, “but what I am learning about my pride being driven by my lack of trust in God has profoundly changed the way I see all of these verses.”[i] The verses are all about pride and humility.

There have been some overwhelming circumstances in my life lately. The blessing is that I am an observer of most of them. They all affect me but I am not able or responsible to “fix” any of them.

The days I have peace are those days when I am reminded, and truly believe, that God has it under control. Even when the people look like they are falling off the edge, I know God is there to catch them.

There have been a couple of days when I felt anxious and a little beaten down. What I realized as I worked on this pride and humility project and read my friend’s response, is that those anxious times are the days I was wondering what “I” could do to straighten out other people’s problems. On a “trusting God” day, I know that no human can change some of them.

Some problems have to be left to God to resolve (Job 42:2). Our choice is whether or not to trust Him with the solution. This may mean that He calls us to action!

Sometimes we try to be the Holy Spirit in another person’s life. We have approached a brother or sister about an issue from a biblical view and were not heard, believed, or in some cases, even acknowledged. So, we go back and make our case again and again. In pride, we think we can change another person’s thinking.

This appears to be a lack of faith in God’s ability to use His words and messengers to change a person’s heart and mind.

Faith trusts God to get the message across in His timing, not ours.

On a larger scale, look at the abortion holocaust going on in our nation. It can be overwhelming to think about how much innocent blood is being spilled in our land. It is heartbreaking to think about unrepentant mothers who have murdered their own children. It is just as sad to think of the church’s apathy and my own past indifference to all aspects of the problem (individual, governmental, and the Church).

God seems to be raising up an army of His people willing to fight this impossible (from our perspective) fight. God has them and the blood-saturated land in His hands. It will change in His time, as we trust Him to overcome. Again, He will use His people to accomplish this…just not our way, in our timing.

When we, on our own, take on the problems of the world, the Church, and our friends, pride has entered. Our God is trustworthy. Do we trust Him more than our own schemes and plans to make the necessary changes?

We pray. We work. We wait. trusting God to win each war in His strength, not ours.

[i] You can see the writings of this friend at http://dianekarchner.com/