Have you ever had someone let you down? They say they’re going to do something, but they don’t? And then…the next time they make a promise, you have this little twinge of doubt with a “we’ll see” thought rolling around your head.
Maybe if they’re close to us, the first time we offer grace. And we don’t doubt the second time. Or the third time. But if it becomes a pattern, trust in the value of their word is broken, and doubt settles in.
This is a natural, normal, even healthy response to a person who doesn’t do what they say.
I woke up with this thought this morning, “He can be trusted.”
He can be trusted.
It echoed through my heart and soul.
He. Can. Be. Trusted.
Trust. A firm belief, confidence, assurance, conviction in the reliability and strength of someone. To believe someone is good and honest and will not harm you.
He can be trusted.
I’ve been in the place where I’ve prayed. I’ve asked God to do something and didn’t see an answer.
And the next time I prayed, the nagging thought in the back of my mind was, “What makes you think He’ll do something this time?”
Can you relate?
But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,
whose hope is in the Lord their God.He made heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them.
He keeps every promise forever.(Psalm 146:5-6)
He keeps every promise forever. Let that replace thoughts of doubt. Say it over and over.
He keeps every promise forever.
John 10:10 says, “The thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.” That word kill means to surrender. Those seeds of doubt the enemy plants in our minds are his way of getting us to surrender the promise. To release our faith and give up on God.
Oh we still walk with Him. We read our Bibles and pray. We go to church. We even still tell others all about Him. But we stop praying. We stop asking. We stop trusting that He will do what He’s promised.
Let me be your cheerleader today. Don’t surrender. Don’t give up.
God is not a man, so he does not lie.
He is not human, so he does not change his mind.
Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
Has he ever promised and not carried it through?(Numbers 23:19)
We won’t always understand why. Why when I prayed for money for a plane ticket to go to my grandmother’s 70th birthday party when I was away at school, it didn’t come. But it did when I prayed for a ticket to Africa.
Why I did get healed when my foot was broken, but I’ve had foot pain for 6 months with no healing yet.
Why we prayed for one church member and they made a miraculous recovery and we prayed for another and they moved to heaven.
I can’t explain why one mountain crumbled almost instantaneously when we spoke to it, but we’ve been staring at another mountain for years with no change in sight. Yet.
Don’t let what you don’t understand about the past keep you from praying in the future. Let those secret things belong to the Lord. Someday we may understand….but even if we never do, do we still believe He is good? He is faithful? He is God?
Let’s say like Paul in Acts 27:25, “Take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as He said.” And in 2 Timothy 1:12, “For I know whom I trust, and He is able….”
So whoever you are that wants to give up, take a deep breath. Receive strength from His presence. Let His Word author hope again. And know this – I prayed for you, like Jesus prayed for Peter, that your faith would fail not.
He can be trusted. He keeps every promise forever. Don’t surrender.
So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. (Hebrews 10:35-36)
