For me, trusting God is one of the most difficult things to do in this world. I tend to take matters into my own hands and try to figure out the problems around me in my own power. This almost always snowballs and crashes around me. But Psalm, 22:8 says, “He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him.” Therefore if we trust God then He will help us through our problems. This is not to say that He will take us out of our difficulties, but God will guide and help us through our problems. During one of the most difficult times in my life, I found this out. On June 13, 2018, I had a massive stroke that changed the path of my life and I had a hard time trusting God through the process. I had so many questions on why this happened or what happens now but trusting God day-to-day got me through this trial. I couldn’t see the whole plan so I had to trust God daily. Before, I tried to get through this trial through my own effort, but that didn’t work too well. Once I started to trust God I began to make progress.
As you’ve probably discovered, trusting God isn’t easy or pleasant. There were so many nights in my hospital bed during rehab that I could only cry and wonder why God would allow this to happen. Therapy was intense and rough! I’ve never worked so hard learning to walk, speak and write again. But I got through this by trusting God and two months later I could walk (with help from my brace) and speak fairly well. I got to go home after two months in Dallas and I believe that this was all because of God’s work.
However, God left me with thorns in my flesh, just like Paul. I believe the reason for my thorns was my pride. Specifically, my thorns are weaknesses in my ankle, foot, and right arm, but wait, there’s more! I was also left with aphasia, which causes my halting speech and occasional word-finding problems. For Christ-followers, thorns are there to weaken and humble us in order to rely on God more. I had a lot of pride before my stroke, pride of accomplishments, strength, and how I looked. I put way too much pride on how I appeared to others. Thankfully, God uses thorns to strengthen our faith and trust in Him.
Trusting God is also going to be super important on the World Race. We will have to trust God while reaching out to hurting people and while we look to forward His Kingdom in the countries we’ll be visiting. We never know what will happen, so the only thing we can do is put our faith and trust in the only One who can provide for us, our heavenly Father. Psalms 56:3-4 “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.”
We all have thorns that make us rely more on God….what’s your thorn? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
