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To Trust Again Part 2!

by Angela Willingham  
5/21/2010 / Christian Living

I don't know if you have noticed, but there has not been a new article for several weeks. I have to be honest with you, I have been stuck in my own process. I was real with you when I told you that God was dealing with me in this area. He still is. Trusting while it should be easy or seems easy, is hard. We think we are doing it until God in His infinite wisdom and way of providing revelation lets us know that we are not. We are still holding that thing in one form or another. I thought it was just me until I spoke to some friends and found that each of us is struggling with the same challenge.

Have you tried it? Have you tried trusting again, putting yourself out there, taking a chance with somebody or something that hurt you once or rejected you?

Even as I was writing To Trust Again Part 1, God saw fit to put me in contact with friends who had developed trust issues based on some things that had happened in their lives. One found himself involved in emotional eating to alleviate the pain he was feeling because of betrayal. I know you thought that was something only women did, but it's not, men struggle with emotional eating also, they just don't label it as that when it's a man. We expect hurt from non-Christians, but his hurt came at the hands of the church, the very people we expect to provide comfort and support, the very people God sent him to help. All he wanted to do was to please God and help His people and he ended up hurt.

My sister committed herself to a ministry. She was part of their team, but at the end of the day she was left feeling hurt, betrayed and rejected. Not good enough to be part of their team.

Both of these people are strong Christians, both are the called and chosen of God, both are anointed to do a work in and for the kingdom, but they both face trust issues. If they are to move forward in all that God has called them to do, they will have to trust again. One of them told me that in order for her to move forward she had to make a decision, a decision to trust and a decision to love in spite of how people treat her. Wow. That is a big decision and a huge calling, but is that any different than what Jesus did on the Cross when He decided to take the pain and be the sacrifice for our sins? A choice had to be made then also. A choice to love enough to turn the other cheek and allow the very people that were hurting Him to go free. The key to being able to trust is to make a decision. She decided to be like Christ. That means we have to trust that God has our back and He will fight our battles. All we have to do is trust God and do what we know He wants us to do. It sounds easy doesn't it, then why do we find it so hard? We have to surrender our rights and desire to be right to the one who is able to do exceedingly and abundantly beyond all that we could think or imagine. We have to surrender our will to the one whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts and whose ways are higher than our ways. It will not and does not make sense the things that He may allow to transpire in your life and in mine, but the truth is that He has a plan, the plan and we are His, we belong to Him. His plan may not make sense, just like it did not make sense to Joseph in Genesis or to David in 1 Samuel, but He still had a plan. Joseph dreamed his brothers would bow down to him and at the end of the story they did. It was necessary that many lives would be saved. David was named king, but he first had to run from Saul who was trying to kill him before he ever sat on the throne for the first time. It did not make sense to Abraham, who was told that he would be the father of many nations, that God would have him sacrifice his only son, the son of promise, but that is exactly what God told him to do and his obedience was rewarded. If we are honest the things we are going through don't match the promise God made to us either, but we have to keep sight of the promise and not dwell on the circumstances or the conditions. My son shared this scripture with me and it seemed appropriate for our situations and circumstances. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. I don't know about you, but I have been perplexed and pressed down, but never abandoned by God. How can I trust Him? Because He has a track record of proving Himself trust-worthy. Look at the stuff He has already brought me through.

I have been perplexed. Like Joseph, David and Abraham, God promised me something. He promised me something about business and this ministry and I have struggled. I have had up days that have been immediately followed by down days, because I believed the enemy was trying to stop us from going forward with this. What I realize now is that everything was not the enemy. Some of it was me, my strong will and desire to have it my way. I was wrong and God knew that. He knew that if I was going to do and be all that He wanted me to do and be, I was going to have to learn submission in a very new way. Submission when I don't always agree with the idea or the implementation. I don't always agree at my job, but I do my job anyway, pressed on every side, perplexed, knocked down, but not forsaken or abandoned my God. My attitude to trust God is different today than it was yesterday. You might have already got this message, but I am a little slow. It does not matter what happens, if God is in it, because we can trust Him.

Sunday, I listened to a good friend Minister Ricky Thomas preach a word that just blew me away. He came from Psalms 27:1 and he talked about how we need to let God into our situation, because in the darkness of our situations He is the light. All right I don't know about you, but I have been in some dark situations. I could not see what was going on and I could not see my way out. I was actually praying and asking God what to do that very morning when I rolled up at the church just to support my brother in the Lord and instead found myself getting the answer that God had for my situation. Sit still and wait for His next instruction. Wait for Him to shine His light in my dark place and show me which way to go. Wait for Him to bring my salvation aka my deliverance. I don't know if that spoke to you, but I told Minister Ricky I knew God sent that word just for me. He said Angela, that is not the way God gave it to me, He flipped it on me when I got up to preach. I said Ricky, that's because my Daddy knew I was in the room and I was looking for an answer to the prayer I had just prayed that morning. My answer to God has been "Yes", but I did not understand the "How". He needed to communicate with His daughter so He did it through my son and again through Minister Ricky. Yeah, you have been hurt, but not crushed. You have been perplexed and pressed down, but not abandoned. You might be missing your shout cue right now, but let me tell you I was shouting and I still am.

Yes, some of the things that God is allowing us to go through are painful, but it is time out for blaming the devil and running from the Lord. It is time to trust that God knows exactly what He is doing with your life and mine. No, it does not always make sense when we are going through it, but if we will just do what He tells us to do, when we get to the other side it will make sense. The circumstances and conditions will make us stronger if we do not allow ourselves to give up or to lose heart. The circumstances and conditions will actually prepare you to carry out the assignment or fulfill the promise that God has made to you.

The story is told of a young woman who was riding in the car with her father. They entered a storm and she could barely see ahead of her, but her Father told her to keep driving. She wanted to pull over because it got so difficult, but her Father said no just keep driving. She could see other cars on the side of the road that had decided it was too much and they stopped, but He said no keep driving. She drove another 10 minutes and came out into clear blue sky. Her Father told her to pull over and look behind her. She did and she saw cars that had stopped just before they came out of the storm, if they had just kept driving. This story is a story for all of us. The Father, our heavenly Father, God knows how difficult it is. He knows that there are times along the way when you just can't see and you don't know what to do, but He is saying just keep driving, the end of your storm is coming sooner than you think.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be the one that stopped driving, right before the blue sky and my deliverance into the awesome thing that God had planned and purposed for my life, just before the storm passed. I am purposing in my heart, mind and spirit to keep driving, to keep working, to keep studying, to keep praying and to keep trusting God until I see the full manifestation of what He has promised me and I encourage you to do the same. Don't give up. Keep looking at the little signs that God gives you along the way to let you know that you are on the right track, because He will. Remember Psalm 27:1, 1The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? He is our light, our salvation and our strength so there is no reason to be afraid. We can trust Him and His plan for our lives. Keep walking, driving, crawling or skipping, but keep moving through your storm. Don't stop and don't quit, because when you get through it everything will make sense. Today, I found myself caught on three songs, More Than Anything, by Lamar Campbell, I Trust You, by James Fortune and Praise Defeats The Enemy by Lamar Campbell and I know they are all true in my life. I love God and want to please Him more than anything, more than I want my own way, more than I want to be right.


Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:8-9:
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

Angela Willingham, CEO New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.
www.mynewtemple.org
Copyright New Beginnings Holistic Fitness Ministries, Inc.

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