Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Why should we trust in the Lord with all our hearts? Here are three reasons as to why:
Reliance on Self is Frustrated by Sin
In order to understand why we ought to trust in God we ought to understand why shouldn’t we lean on our own understanding and here are but some verses that show why:
“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9
as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Romans 3:11-18
Before we come to terms with the good news of salvation we ought to understand and come to terms with our sinful nature that necessitated it in the first place.
We are all children of wrath and dead in our sins and trespasses
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Ephesians 2:1-3
but God being rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4) loved us in spite of our sins that Jesus Christ by dying for our sins on the cross became the propitiation for our sins
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 2:2
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
and because of that, we have been saved by grace through faith, not of our own that we may not boast
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:5-9
In all honesty, having a salvation that is based on me would be rather scary as due to the sin we commit every day
If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:8
then that means our salvation is extremely spotty and that isn’t very hopeful. Why this salvation then? Ephesians 2:10 answers that question for us and the answer is “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
What are these good works? To enjoy and glorify Him forever. To count everything as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:5-11). Not worrying about tomorrow but seeking His kingdom first knowing that all the other things you need to glorify Him shall be added unto you (Matthew 6:25-34).
Because God’s Sovereign, That’s Why!
Another thing that jumps out from Ephesians 2:10 is that God predestined all our good works as Paul says that He prepared them beforehand. He also in Philippians 4:13 says that he can only do all things through Christ who strengthens. So, why do we rely on the Lord and trust in Him because only by His strength can we fend off the attacks of the enemy (Ephesians 6:17) as His word is our strength and our only weapon? Without the sword of the spirit basically, our entire armor is useless in fighting the enemy (I am certain you know that firsthand). We can’t rely on ourselves as our wisdom is foolish (Romans 1:22) and we are fallible human beings with a shelf-life and we will inevitably die but we can rely on Him because as He says to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, His grace is sufficient for us for it is made perfect in weakness or in Romans 8:32, He gave up His only son why won’t graciously give all things, or in Isaiah 41:10, fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Most importantly it is because He is sovereign over all things
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17
and I hope and pray that you will always rest on that wonderful fact.
That’s what Jesus did!
There’s a popular phrase in the world which is ‘What would Jesus do?’ Well, I can tell you for a fact that he trusted in God so much so that Paul tells us in Philippians 2:6-8:
who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
He trusted in God’s will so much so that He died on the cross willingly. Despite being God He lived a life of adhering to God’s perfect will which is found in His Word to the point that when the devil came to tempt Him, He refuted him using scripture. This is despite being God and thus having the power to do away with the devil but He was also the Word in human form (John 1:1,14). Not only that but in His prayers that are recorded in scripture He showed complete trust in God. In the Lord’s prayer, He says “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” – Matthew 6:10. This is an affirmation of God’s Will not only being true but also sovereign and the only way we can live fruitful lives to God’s glory. His other prayer in John 17 which is rightly called the High Priestly prayer is basically an affirmation of trust in God and in the truth which is only found in His word (John 17:17-18).
That’s what Jesus did. Why can’t you? Remember we are commanded to be imitators of Christ (Philippians 2:5, 1 Corinthians 11:1). So, if Christ trusted in God and His word and relied on Him why can’t you? My exhortation for you today is to stop relying on yourself and trust in God fully no matter the circumstances and if you aren’t going to do it because of the first two points do it because Jesus did it. However, you’ll soon realize that in order for the third to be true then the first two especially the second have to be true as well.
With that, I will finish with a story from John MacArthur’s latest GTY.org monthly letter (which I highly recommend all of you to always read as they always contain wonderful nuggets of Biblical Insight) that I read.
I want to tell you about a brother in Christ who recently moved his family from Canada to Southern California, where he is now part of our congregation. I know you’re going to be encouraged.
Nathan came from a broken home, and his family was involved in what he describes as a cult. He joined the Army, and while serving overseas was exposed to death and depravity that fueled a pursuit of immorality. After marrying and starting a family, he thought life was going well. He says, “I rarely thought about religion—it had done so much damage in my family. I thought religion was for people who were insecure or crazy. I was doing great. Why did I need God?”
He tells us “it all came crashing down” when his wife divorced him and his dad succumbed to cancer around the same time. Troubled by how the divorce affected his relationship with his children, he started drinking so he could sleep at night. He then began engaging in sexual sin and increased the drinking. He states, “I couldn’t believe all these things were happening to me. I now know they were a consequence of my own sin. I knew I needed help, but I didn’t know why. Instead of dealing with it the right way, I imploded.”
Around 2007, Nathan began living with a woman who initially claimed to be a Christian, but who was actually deeply involved in the occult. Here’s how he describes his circumstances and how he came to hear the gospel:
I felt trapped. I wanted out, but I had no hope for figuring it out so I turned to more drugs. I was spiritually dead in sin and trespasses, but I just kept going on with the charade. When my divorce was final, I cranked up the drugs and lost all hope that I could ever get my children back after the way I’d abandoned them. I just wanted it to end.
I took the only job I could find (I needed money for booze and drugs)—I was hired to cut down fence posts out in the bush. I was hitting rock bottom. I walked up to the edge of a cliff, but I remember thinking, “My boys need to know I never stopped loving them.” I thought death was coming for me, but it was actually something quite different. I was working nights and needed to stay awake, so I found an old boom box. No numbers were left on the dial, and I had no idea what radio station I could tune in. I spent an eight-hour shift making an antenna out of coat hangers just to get music or something to keep me awake. The only radio station I could get was one that featured preaching!
“Holier-than-thou Bible thumpers,” I thought, “Great. At least it’ll keep me awake.” But one preacher I heard was different. He just opened the Bible, read it, explained the meaning of it—EACH WORD. He had such confidence in the text. He let the text speak. He said if you don’t have the meaning of Scripture, you don’t have the Scripture.
I learned more about the Bible in a few weeks, listening [to Grace to You], than some Christians do in decades. Then things turned toward the spiritual. He was talking about walking in love from Ephesians 5. He started to unleash God’s truth, one verse at a time. When you’re being convicted of a lifetime of sin, “verse by verse” is painfully slow. He explained God’s holiness, sin’s penalty, and my guilt. I had never been so afraid before. I had been in war zones, but I’d never been afraid as I was then of God’s wrath, which was over my head and inescapable. I knew I deserved it.
That night, this preacher on the radio was faithfully preaching the gospel. The same holy light that exposed my sin exposed my Savior. I begged God to forgive me. I understood why it pleased God to crush His own Son. I immediately felt emancipated from my shame. And within that week, I went home, left the witch, stopped the drugs—never took them again and never wanted to.
To say Nathan’s life changed after that is a vast understatement. He eventually married a Christian woman, reconciled with his children, and in 2017 committed himself to pursuing full-time ministry. I met Nathan that year during our Shepherds’ Conference at Grace Community Church and suggested he take classes at The Master’s Seminary. He started online and last year, at age fifty, moved his family to California, where he now studies and is a part of our congregation.
Shalom.
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