Trusting God: From What Matters Most to the Milieu of Life

“Every word of God proves true…” (Proverbs 30:5)

Have you considered why the phrase “In God We Trust” is on all U.S. currency? It originated in the costly and turbulent time of the Civil War when some Christians wanted to create a tangible reminder of the need for God and His provision. After more than three years of advocating for a tangible reminder to look to God each day, the first display of “In God We Trust" was put on the two-cent coin in 1864.

Though “In God We Trust” is still the declaration found upon all U.S currency, is it the reality of our country? Is it the reality of your life and those you have the opportunity to influence? What does it look like to sincerely trust God in what matters most as well as in the milieu of your everyday life?

From the serpent in Genesis 3 to the psychotherapies of our day, God’s Word has been distorted, neglected, and often outright rejected in the reliance upon worldly wisdom and in the pursuit of selfish ambition. Imagine for a moment how different this world (and yes, our own lives) would be if we fully believed (and lived accordingly) that “every word of God proves true.”

Trusting God in What Matters Most

In September, I had the privilege to take my son on his “senior trip,” which consisted of elk hunting with ours bows in the very challenging terrain of Rubidue Canyon near Montrose, CO. Those familiar with the area had strongly suggested we utilize a navigational app called OnX, as it is easy to get lost in that neck of the woods. Having descended 2,000 feet in elevation through dense brush and nearly impassable cliffs in the morning hours, we decided to head back to camp well before dark to make sure we could find our way back. While we failed to get back before dark, that was fine because with four decades of hunting expertise I was sure we were headed in the right direction. To verify the perfection of my hunting expertise, I pulled up OnX on my phone. Being thoroughly exhausted from the day and expecting to be within yards of our camp, what I saw summoned forth from my heart a response of anger, dread, fear, and embarrassment. I literally could not believe what I saw. OnX indicated we were further away from camp than the last time I had looked—though I was sure we had been walking straight towards camp. This left me with a critical choice to make. Was I going to trust my own inclination in that we were most certainly going in the right direction, or was I going to trust this app called OnX and drastically change the direction we were headed? Based on the confidence of those who had suggested OnX to me, with fear and trembling I completely changed course in order to follow the app. The result? You are reading this blog rather than a news headline of how two Texans went missing in Rubidue Canyon! In fully trusting and following OnX, we literally walked right up to our tent.

In a sense, the Bible is like OnX. OnX tells you where you are and how to get to your destination. The Bible tells us our standing before God and how to get to Him. Yet if we fail to realize our lostness or in our sinful pride trust in our own wisdom and our own efforts, we will never get to God. In fact, concerning our standing before God, the Bible tells us that we all start out spiritually lost. Yet there is hope for us because Jesus said of Himself in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Left to ourselves in our spiritual lostness, we fail to see Jesus for who He is and our desperate need for Him. We think we know the way to heaven in our own wisdom. To prove my point, on what basis would most people say they will someday get to heaven? Many give the answer of the character named “Ignorance” in Pilgrim’s Progress who said, “I believe that Christ died for sinners and that I shall be justified before God from the curse through His gracious acceptance of my obedience to His law.”

Do you see something damnably wrong with this statement of ignorance? Are we justified, are we made right with or accepted by God because “of our obedience to the law?” In other words, does our trying to cover over our sin with our own “good works” eventually get God’s attention and therefore coerce Him to let us into heaven? What’s the problem in trusting in our own “good works” in order to earn God’s eternal favor? Isaiah 64:6 tells us: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” God’s requirement is perfect, sinless righteousness and yet the Bible makes it clear that even our best deeds fall far short of God’s requirement. Trusting in our good works to justify us does not commend us to God, but only condemns us before Him.

What we deserve because of our sin is described in 2 Thessalonians 1:9: "They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” Our sin and our trusting in our sinful selves to make ourselves right with God only further stores up God’s wrath towards us. Romans 2:5 says, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”

God’s wrath is what we deserve for trusting in our own works to somehow gain acceptance before God. As “every word of God proves true,” salvation is not merited by our “good works,” but by trusting in Christ and His work on our behalf as the only means of rescue from our lostness (Luke 19:10, John 14:6, 1 John 4:10, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 10:9–13). Are you truly trusting God (as described in the Bible) with what matters most, your eternal destiny?

Trusting God in Everyday Life

Having trusted God in His provision of His only Son that we can be freed from the power and penalty of sin and gain Christ’s righteousness as our acceptance before God, what does trusting God look like in our everyday lives? As “every word of God proves true,” we trust God day by day by leaning not on our own understanding (or on that of this fallen world), but by wholeheartedly looking to Him in accordance to His Word that He would make straight our path (Proverbs 3:5–6).

The Lord has graciously bestowed upon all of my children the wonderful gift of playing musical instruments. Yet for their music to sound as beautiful as it should, can you guess what is required? A tuner! Each day when my youngest practices the violin, it must first be tuned so that what comes forth from the instrument is beautiful (rather than grating on the nerves!).

Consider for a moment that the violin is like our hearts. As the tuner prepares the violin to play beautifully, so by the Spirit of God the Bible prepares our hearts to live beautifully before God and others. As out of the instrument the music flows, so out of our hearts our lives flow (Proverbs 4:23).

As tuning an instrument requires an environment that is quiet and without distraction, so it is in trusting God each day as we set apart time to “retune” our hearts in according to His Word. Even now, would you ask God to tune your heart to trust Him with this day by prayerfully personalizing Psalm 119:34–37?

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law

and observe it with my whole heart.

Lead me in the path of your commandments,

for I delight in it.

Incline my heart to your testimonies,

and not to selfish gain!

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;

and give me life in your ways.

Note: If you would like to listen to the audio message from which this article was derived, please click here.