“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
“Do you see?” the Spirit of God spoke to me. What He said next was so profound, and convicting, and powerful, I stopped abruptly on the nature trail where I was walking Esther the English coonhound dog who still needs an adoptive home and wrote down what He said. “You want to trust me based on what you see. I want you to trust me based on who I am.”
For about six years, on and off, and sometimes seemingly incessantly in the most recent year, I had cried out to the Lord to provide a safe and loving home for Esther. She had been found super skinny and without collar or tags at a southern 7000 acre hunting club by my ex-husband who worked there then – a club where she didn’t belong. I had not wanted to take her as my hands were already full with other rescue dogs, and by that point I was focused mostly on special needs and senior dogs. But I was told the hunters at that club might shoot and kill her for being a nuisance as they rarely kept hunting dogs on the property. I took her and figured I’d quickly find a rescue group or individual to take her off my hands. Years later now, after multiple people prayed to God for a home for Esther, after countless attempts to re-home her, and after inordinate stress because she was picky with other dogs and had to be kept separate and was very active and thus not a good fit for my crew of dogs, let alone my desire to have a quiet and peaceful environment, there I was still with Esther – with not a single sign, nothing I could see anyway, that God would answer my cries. I felt like I was totally in the dark regarding Esther. Like there was no end in sight to my having her. I just couldn’t see one! I couldn’t see anything at all regarding Esther except that she was still with me!
For the umpteenth time, that day the Lord asked if I trusted Him with Esther. So many times, I had told Him NO. A few times I had conceded I had placed my trust in Him – but for so very briefly! This time, I retorted, with bitterness in my heart, “Why should I?”
Why should I trust you, Lord, when I can’t see? That’s when He told me my trust in Him should NOT be contingent on what I can see. Even when I can’t see a thing, I should trust Him. Why? Because He is LORD!
Do you see, my friend? Our trust in God should NOT be based on what we can see, on our circumstances, on our own understanding. We must put our trust in Him and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord in all we do, every day of our lives, no matter the circumstances, simply because He is Lord! We need to love Him, and trust Him, and obey Him, and honor and praise Him, to live for Him, because Jesus Christ is Lord!