When All Else Fails, Trust God

As intelligent and civilized people, we all feel at one time or another that we can handle most of the situations that come against us. We believe that we have the skills and abilities to attack the problems head on, but sometimes our problems are beyond us. And it’s often at that point that we turn toward Heaven and call for help because we believe that when all else fails, trust God.

As admirable as this practice seems, it’s really not the way that Christians should address any problems. We should never turn to God for help as a last resort, but instead He should be our FIRST choice for help.

The Lord has given us instruction on how He will help us through our trials, and so we begin at the beginning and that is with wisdom – Godly wisdom. We need to have Godly wisdom inside us so we know how to live in this world, how to avoid situations and how to overcome others. And we can only get this when we study the Bible and learn it.

Many of us create our own problems out of ignorance. We are burdened with debt from credit cards and so we try to work out a solution before the problems ruin us, but the Bible tells us in Romans 13:8 to owe no man anything but love, and in Philippians 4:19 He tells us to trust Him to supply all of our needs and not to depend on the world (and it’s financial system). If we’re having marital problems because our spouse isn’t saved then we need to realize that He warned us in 2 Corinthians 6:14 not to be unequally yoked; if our children are rebelling it’s because we missed the scripture in Proverbs 22:6 that says to train up a child in the way of the Lord.

Other times we face outside problems that come against us and they WILL come against us. That’s just part of living in a world that is controlled by the devil and overrun with sin. We can’t escape problems, and Jesus even told us that we’d have problems, so we shouldn’t adopt some doctrine that says we won’t get them because that isn’t realistic according to scripture.

“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” … John 16:32-33.

The Bible tells us that the beginning of wisdom and knowledge is the fear of the Lord. We need to have reverence and respect for God as being our Lord and Savior, the Creator of the Universe, the God of Heaven, the One who loves us enough to die for us and the One who the devil [an angel created by God] has to answer to. We need to realize that God is omnipotent and omniscient and that He can and He WILL judge and sentence to death all those who do not know Him.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” … Psalm 111:10

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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” … Proverbs 1:7

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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” … Proverbs 9:10

So, we need to get into the Bible and study it and learn who God is and realize that the love He has for those who love Him is beyond what we can ever imagine. We can get a good appreciation of His love when we look at Jesus because He died on that cross and took the punishment for every sin and sickness ever conceived upon Himself in our place so that all those who would accept His sacrifice would be pardoned from their sin and grafted into God’s family.

When we study the Bible and the Holy Spirit lives in us, He will guide us and help to keep us out of problems because of God’s wisdom that is in us. And He’ll remind us of scriptures so that when we face problems we’ll know how God would handle them. Our reactions and actions would be the same as God’s because it’s His wisdom and His knowledge that’s in us.

But there will be times in life when we’re not prepared for the things that will come against us and we don’t have God’s wisdom inside of us to fight that particular battle. This is when we take the problem to Jesus and let Him fight the battle for us.

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” … 1 Peter 5:6-7

We should never let our pride lead the way when it doesn’t know where to go. We need to get used to being submissive to God our Father, and we need to realize that God sees the big picture and we just see the immediate situation. Where we would put a band-aid on it and hope for the best, God will heal the entire wound. And that’s what we want and what we need – total healing whether it’s a health issue, financial issue, marital issue or anything else.

Sometimes, though, we pray and give God the problem, but it sits on us and weighs us down and our mind begins to wander as we sit in awe and just hope that God will do something. We’re going in the right direction, but we’re missing the trust. We need to trust God and know that He will take care of this need. But we can’t do that if we don’t know Him and if we don’t have faith in Him.

God is faithful and if He said He’ll do it then He’ll do it. He told us to take on His yoke – which means that we focus on the things of God and not on the world, that we should love Him and trust Him and follow His instructions for our lives.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” … Matthew 11:28-29

And we can trust that God hears our prayers and answers them because He loves us and He’s promised us that He we will answer and help us when we believe Him and trust Him.

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” … Matthew 21:22

One very grave mistake that many of us make when we pray and ask God for help is that we tell Him how to do it. We tell Him the problem and then go on to tell Him how we feel it should be resolved. Well, if our way was the right way, then it would have worked when we tried it, so we shouldn’t insult God with our ignorance. He sees the big picture and He knows what to do.

And we must never forget that sometimes God will allow things to get to this point because it’s this point that we need to jab us to get us to realize that God is in charge. He has a plan for each of us, a job for each of us, and sometimes in our walk our life gets in the way and leads us off of the path that God has set out for us. And so sometimes the answers He gives us might not be the ones we were expecting. We need to trust Him – with our lives.

When problems are beyond our ability to comprehend, let’s not forget that they are never too big for God. We need to give them to Him and then praise Him and thank Him for loving us and for helping us. The peace that will come and the way He resolves the issues will be amazing.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” … Romans 8:28