Thoughts on Trusting God

Today is the 17th of October, the date the first sonar back in February predicted as Tabitha’s due date. Kids change your life they say. They sure do.

We had such a great time with my parents in Hersham last week. I decided not to read any magazines because I always regret it when the holiday is over and I haven’t read any good books. I didn’t get to read much anyway because in between beach walks, spa treatments, sand dune riding , nature appreciation and restaurants I spent most of my free time scrapbooking. It was my first attempt at scrapbooking – I really enjoyed putting some love into Tabitha’s photographs.

We got home late last night, bittersweet having to throw out all the funeral flowers, but being greeted by a garden in full bloom. I can’t believe how much can happen in a spring garden in a week’s time. All the roses are in full bloom, what a sight! A new season. New life. New hope!

A special rose outside my office window

No Telkom line, no internet. But that’s a story for another day! I’ll just have to make another plan to get this post up.

While scrapbooking I also got to think a lot, so please allow me to share some more thoughts with you…

I find it amazing how God can use one situation to teach so many different people different things. He doesn’t even have to create a situation in your own life to teach you something. People close, people far and people that I met through Tabitha’s life and death tell me how their lives have been affected/changed by what happened, even though they are not directly affected by it. I mean they don’t necessarily wake up missing Tabitha like we do. Yet God was able to work through it for their good as well as ours.

One of the works that God did in my life through this is to enlighten scripture. I think often a lot of scripture will not make sense or be understood correctly/completely if not for trials and tribulations. One of those scriptures for me is Jeremiah 29:11 :

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

I used to read this popular verse with a kind of understanding that all is well, that life as a Christian is about feeling good, the world is your oyster type of thing – what can be better than having God wanting to prosper you and having a great and exciting future in mind for you? If the Bible says so, who are we to differ? Who would want to differ with something like that? But what if calamity strikes? What if you don’t find yourself prospering and your future does not look bright? What if your child dies? How can this verse possibly fit into reality?

But the true beauty of this verse is that it doesn’t speak to our consumer orientated, selfish, over indulgent, status hungry, comfort seeking, contentless selves as many may think. It promises us something far greater. It basically tells us to have peace in trusting God, because even if things seemingly go bad in our lives and we don’t understand how God could allow it, we must just stay calm and know that God still has our ultimate good in mind. Do you get how big this is? If we can understand that despite any calamity that can possibly strike us, God is still in control and He knows what He is doing and there is nothing that can happen that can mess up His plan or cause Him to be frustrated. That His plans for us are good and only good, plans to prosper our souls and to give us a future and a hope in salvation through Jesus. Then we don’t have to ever get depressed or feel trapped or question God or be mad at God or be mad at people who seems to be directly responsible for our pain. We can finally learn to put our trust entirely in Him. He is sovereign. We are safe when we put our trust in Him.

Prov 18:10-11
The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and they are safe. The wealth of the rich is their fortified city. They imagine it to be an unscalable wall.

They say this is a rich man’s world. But there is a huge problem when you put your trust in money. It seems safe but it is not. Ultimately everything belongs to God and He can take it away without your permission. Putting your trust in God is the only real safety man can have. I know some may think it is bad news, but to me it is a great relief and encouragement, not only now but for the future. Who knows what will happen to me or you tomorrow or in 10 years’ time? It can be a worrying thought if you start to think of all the bad things that can happen.  But knowing that we can trust in a good God who has only good thoughts towards us is enough reason for me to put my trust in Him. I even want to go so far as to say that even when natural disasters strike, we are not to try and understand why. Our trust should not be dependent on a proper explanation or human logic. We in our limited perspectives are to trust that God still knows what He is doing. It takes a humble acceptance of who God is to get to that point, I believe.

If I look at my own life I think I find it easier to trust God when big disaster strike, than when little trials come my way. But I am going to try and trust God equally when I think things are still more or less in my control and when I feel totally helpless and dependent on God. We should learn to not only trust, but thank God for every circumstance of our lives, because we know that He is in control of it and that He has our good in mind through it. As simple as that.

I will add some photos of Tabitha’s scrapbooking album as soon as I have proper internet again!