Trusting in Something We Cannot See

Text: Proverb 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.

Remember the days when we all used paper road maps to plan our trips and get from Point A to Point B?  I remember my Dad mapping out our vacations or even a day trip to visit relatives by using the map and calculating the mileage from our house to where we were going.  He determined the best route to take based on the types of roads there were.  He then figured out how long it would take us to travel that distance based on the speed limit and the number of stops we would make.  

Or sometimes we just knew the route when going to visit a relative or a friend.  We had travelled the route so many times that it was ingrained in us.  Even today, we may direct others to a certain destination by the number of houses to pass or even landmarks because we never paid attention to the street names.  But suffice it to say that we had our ways of getting from point A to point B.  And if there was ever a time that we did not know the way, we stopped to ask someone, and typically they could direct us.

Now I wonder how many young people know that there is such a thing as a paper map and how to read it.  Why would I ask that?  Because of something called a GPS or Global Positioning System.  They are everywhere these days.  You can find them on your smart phone, your smart tablet, your smart computer or in your smart car.  Not just any device will do - it has to be smart!

The GPS is the electronic-age device which takes the place of the paper map.  It tells us and shows us how to get from Point A to Point B.  They have become common-place, and we heavily depend on them to lead us on our journey or our path.

But did you know that God operates a GPS?  This GPS is known as God’s Pilot System.  The word pilot in Greek and Hebrew means  helmsman, the master, the shipmaster, and as a verb, it means to make straight, to steer, and to guide.

By using God’s Pilot System, we will receive guidance and direction from the Master Helmsman when travelling from Point A to Point B or from one level to another in this spiritual journey.  Even though we sometimes might veer off course, God will “recalculate” and bring us back onto the right path.  The main things we need to do are to trust Him and praise Him, and He will lead us where He wants us to go.

Let’s compare the man-made GPS and God’s GPS!

Comparisons

Man-Made GPS	God’s GPS
Was developed in the 1970’s by the Dept of Defense & was made available to the public in the 1980’s	Was developed when God spoke it and has always been available to those who will accept it
Works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours per day	Works in any weather conditions, anywhere in the world, 24 hours per day
Made up of 24 satellites orbiting the earth; these are used as reference points for locations on earth	Made up of 24 elders - the 12 disciples and the 12 sons of Jacob - used as the structures for our faith walk to give us the strength and maturity we need
Calculates its position by a technique called triangulation, which measures the distance between the receiver and three satellites	Calculates our position by His own triangulation system using God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit working together as one to guide and direct us along His path for our lives
Can locate positions anywhere on earth and give directions from point A to point B	Can locate Sons of God anywhere on earth and direct them on the paths He has for them
Powered by solar energy but has back-up batteries in case there is a solar eclipse or interruption of solar energy; signal will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.	Powered by God; it needs no back-up; the signal does not fade, go away or get interrupted; God’s signal is direct and cannot be stopped by any kind of object; you can count on it!  He’s the right now God!
To use, position the GPS in the car where we can see & hear it	Position ourselves so we can see & hear God
Activate by pressing a button which turns on the system & sends a signal to the satellites in the atmosphere using an outer source for navigation	Activate it by seeking/calling to God; we have a direct line of communication with Him because He is right here within us!  We have the inner source for navigation so there is no great distance for the signal to travel and potentially get lost or interrupted.
It prompts us to enter an address (or destination)	We talk with God about where He is leading us
The computer voice will give us optional routes for getting to our destination & we must choose one based on our preferences for the length of time it will take us or the type of roads we want to drive on, etc	God uses various means to communicate with us on the route he has selected. He makes the decision on the most appropriate route to take in order to accomplish His will in us.
It gives commands on how to begin the route that we have selected & then we begin driving	We must listen and hear God’s directions for this route, and more importantly, we must obey and begin
The GPS instantly gives the directions for traveling and includes the route #, the exit #, whether to make a right or left turn off the exit, the distance to the next route change, and the total # of miles to the destination	God’s GPS may or may not give us instant directions; He is constantly teaching us patience because we want to know what to do but often have to wait to receive an answer; nevertheless He is constantly leading us as long as we trust Him and obey Him
The GPS tells us everything we need to know to arrive at our destination.  We don’t have to do anything but follow the directions.	God’s GPS will undoubtedly lead us to our destination, but He will not do it without expectation; He expects us to “share the load” or “do our part” by studying and sharing His Word with others.
If we decide to change our route or make an unexpected stop, the GPS will recalculate our position and continually do this until we either change the destination or follow the directions it is giving us.	God’s GPS will do the same thing and recalculate our route until we arrive at where He wants us to be.  Then it’s time for the next destination!

3 Necessary Tasks for Traveling on Natural and Spiritual Journeys:

a) fill the tank with gas to power the vehicle:  with God, we fill our tanks (heart, mind, soul, and strength or body) by studying His Word, which is our Life Guidebook, and by prayer and by our praise

b) take a bathroom break to relieve ourselves:  with God, we relieve ourselves of the Living Waters within us by sharing His Word with others; by relieving ourselves, we are giving relief to others, setting them free, lifting a burden

c) take a food break to power our bodies:  with God, we continually renew our minds with the spiritual bread of heaven in order to refresh ourselves in the truth of this kingdom knowledge

With these 3 necessary tasks in our natural journeys, we see that they are also necessary tasks within our spiritual journeys.  We must constantly re-fill after we have relieved ourselves of this kingdom message.  It is a continuous process of relieving and replenishing our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies with the Word of God.

Distractions

Along our paths in life, there are so many distractions - likewise on the highway.  Think about the billboard signs along the highway.  Signs to stop at the next exit for fuel and food; signs for historical sites to visit; signs for campgrounds, museums, breweries, colleges, small towns, and shopping adventures.  Every sign is trying to entice us to take the next exit and stop our journey, even if it’s only for a short time.  They are vying for our attention and are distracting us from our destination.

Now there is nothing wrong with stopping along the way to enjoy the sights and sounds of our travels.  Regardless of where we stop, God will use it for our good.  It may be something to encourage us, but it may also be something to take us through the fire and burn out of us what is not like God.  Either way, God will see that we benefit from it.  

However we shouldn’t stay off course too long!  The critical part of all of this is that we get back on the same route headed in the same direction.  The man-made GPS and God’s GPS can recalculate our routes for us, but we must continue to travel to the designated destination.  

If we turn off the man-made GPS, we have ended the route.  The GPS will need to be reactivated so that you can re-enter the destination to get you on the same route again.  It will calculate the route - not recalculate it but calculate it as if for the first time.  

With God, He does not break the connection between His GPS and ourselves - we do.  We are the only ones who can break the connection, but He will patiently wait for us to re-focus on our destination and then begin his guidance system again when we ask Him.  We don’t have to ask Him for a destination because He already knows it.  He will recalculate our path from where we are when we turn back to Him.

Don’t turn off the communication between ourselves and God; don’t disengage ourselves from daily, constant communication with God.  However if something happens and we do stop talking to God, He thankfully won’t go away; the “signal” will still be active on His part, but He will wait until we decide to return to Him and call out to Him again and reconnect.  He will continue the route from wherever we are and continue to lead us to the same destination that He has for us.

God’s GPS requires something that the man-made system does not.  His system requires that we trust in something that we cannot see, which is Him.  We need to trust in God and where He is leading us because on His GPS, we can’t see the little picture on the screen like the man-made GPS has.  

In our natural world, we act and react every day to things that we see - such as when driving a car, cooking a recipe, looking at our bank account.  We make decisions on things that we read about or see.  We count on and trust in things/people that we can see.  We put our faith in things/people that we can see.  

God tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding”.  What a test of our faith to trust him “with all thine heart”.  That means to trust Him with everything we’ve got!  

“Heart” in the Hebrew is derived from 3 words:

1. leb meaning the will and the intellect
2. labab which means to be wise
3. lebab meaning the mind; understanding

So God tells us to trust him with our heart, meaning our minds, our intellect, and our understanding.  

He also says to “lean not unto thine own understanding”.  The word “lean” here means to rely or rest on.  We mustn’t rely on or rest on what we know because our understanding or wisdom is not as God’s.  He is the one who knows our destinies and pathways.  He can see the BIG picture of what He has for us!

Isaiah 55:9 says “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  His guidance, His purpose for us, and His thoughts toward us are the ones we want to follow.

But we’re talking about trust here.  Trusting in something we cannot see.

When I was growing up, we had a “party line” which had several families connected to the same telephone line.  Only 1 person could make a call at a time since the line was being shared.  We couldn’t see the other person we were talking to or the operator who connected the call, but we trusted that the connection would be made.  Over the last 50-70 years, the telephone has developed from a one-style model landline, which everyone had, to cell phones, which don’t require any wires or cables to plug into a jack, and now to various shapes and sizes of smart phones which have a FaceTime application that allows you to see the person you are speaking with.  There are also numerous computer programs that allow us to see those we are talking to.  Even though there are great advantages to these devices and programs, I believe that we continue to develop into a society who depends more and more on seeing things to believe in them.

Courts of law must have undisputed evidence to convict people of crimes.  More and more video cameras are being used to show what happened during a crime.  I’m not making a judgment on whether this is a positive or negative thing.  I am pointing out a fact of how our society continues to become more dependent on seeing things to believe in and trust them.  This is nothing new in our society, but it is no wonder that people have a hard time believing in something they cannot see.

God asks us to do something which is opposite of our natural man - to trust in Him whom we cannot see.  We know that God is spirit as stated in John 4:24.  We cannot see spirit, but we know that when we look at each other, we see God.  He put on flesh, and now He dwells within each of us.

I believe that what God is asking us to do not only takes faith, but it takes a stronger faith today because our natural man has nothing to grasp hold of, nothing to look at, nothing to point at and say “I know I can count on this to help me” when they talk about their faith.  But really we do have something to hold on to - the Bible - and we’d better hold on to it with all of the strength we have!

Faith and trust go hand in hand.  If I tell someone that I am going to do something for them or help them in some way, I am going to do it.  Making a promise is very important to me.  I want people to trust me when I say that I will do something or that I will take care of this assignment.  They have my word to count on, but they have nothing tangible to hold onto.  So you see it goes back to the word - the Word of God, which is the one thing we can trust and count on because it is true and because we know that God keeps his promises.

When we give our word on something, we have to “back it up” with action.  When God gives His word and promises, He “backs them up” with action.  Let’s remember just a few events over the past few years:

• Emma’s total recovery from Stage 4 cancer
• God directing my eyes to a growing spot on my arm which was diagnosed as cancer
• Carol’s eyes seeing the snake that was so close to my legs it could have bit me when we were at the dump
• Jackie and others finding money on the ground at a football game after giving her money to someone who had none to get into the ball game
• Mary’s job promotion a few years ago which was handled differently than others before her
• Mike’s new job at Red Hat
• the 2 cars sitting outside our pastor’s home
• and so many others!

If we totally (meaning a complete and unified effort) trust God, we must demonstrate our faith by giving up control over our lives.  Now by saying that, I don’t mean give up responsibility in our lives, but I do mean give up total control.  God needs to be in control in our lives, but He can’t do it if we keep grabbing it back from Him.  Many times I have asked God to take over my life completely, but after that, my actions did not match up with what I was asking Him.  My “walk” was not matching my “talk”.  

During the past 3 months when finances have been very different and in short supply for us, I found myself going back to previous habits and not completely trusting God.  On the one hand, we were asking Him to direct Mike’s path to a new and better job, but I was gradually taking back that control over our day-to-day finances even though we both knew that God would provide for us.  Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it.  It startled me when I realized what was happening, and I immediately asked God’s forgiveness.  He has never let us down before so why would He do it now?  Just because this is a harder test than we’ve had before doesn’t mean He’s not up to it!

We’re still talking about trusting in something we cannot see.

Take a look at the word “trust”.  Spell it out - TRUST.  If you remove the “T”, you are left with “RUST”.  

Let me tell you about rust:

Used as a noun, it means a coating formed on iron when chemically attacked by moist air and water; corrosive or injurious influence or effect

Used as a verb, it means to degenerate from inaction, lack of use, or passage of time; to impair or corrode

Do you understand what will happen if we are not trusting God to lead us?  We will begin to RUST!  We will be attacked by the enemy; we will degenerate from inaction; we will become corroded from lack of use of the power that God gave us

The word “degenerate” is the opposite of “regenerate”.

Degenerate means “to sink to a lower and corrupt state”.  “Regenerate” means to be “restored to a better, higher, and more worthy state”.  Isn’t that where we want to be - in a better and higher state in the heavenlies?

For repairing rust spots, general recommendations included frequent cleaning and waxing and the application of various oils.  How about our own “rust” spots?  Don’t they need to be cleaned with God’s Word and anointed with oil?

At the first sign of rust, one may prevent further damage by attending to problem spots immediately. It is important to react quickly because light rust damage could indicate a higher level of unseen deterioration. It’s what is unseen, or in the darkness, that will affect our trust in God.  We must remain in His marvelous light and trust in His Word.

One Sunday on the way to service, I noticed that it was really cloudy.  About 10-15 minutes later, I realized that the sky was clearing off, and the clouds were behind us.  I told Mike that the sky had cleared quickly.  As soon as I said that, God told me that the sky had not cleared, but we had moved from the cloudiness into the clear, light area as we traveled down the highway.  Those clouds were history!  In the same way, we must ensure that we move away from the clouds and darkness and into His light.

We must be diligent to stay in the Word so that the distractions in our lives don’t mix us up and begin the rusting or degenerating process.  God’s Word is our anointing, and nothing can penetrate it as long as we keep it in tact.  It is the anointing that destroys the yoke or the degeneration of our faith.  We are covered in His robe of righteousness, and we can’t afford to lose or destroy that covering!  

We must always put on the armour of God and especially the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  You see, if you look at the word “SWORD” and remove the “S”, what remains is “WORD”, the Word of God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart” - this means to take refuge in Him; be bold, confident, secure & sure in Him.  Hear these scriptures:

Ps 37:3:  “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed”.

Ps 37:5:  “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass”.

Aren’t these verses saying that God will take care of us?  YES!

“and lean not unto thine own understanding”

Ps 118:8:  “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man”.

Verse 6:

“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”

“Acknowledge” (yada in Hebrew) means to be aware of, comprehend, be diligent, have respect, be sure, have understanding

Isaiah 26:3: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Trust Him; exalt Him; praise Him; worship him in spirit and in truth!  Let God take the controls, and He will direct our paths.  He knows the plans He has for us so let Him take charge!  It’s not all about our selfish desires anyway; it is about God using us to share the gospel with others so that they will know Him also.  

Our God is awesome!  HE DOES TAKE CARE OF US!  But we have to keep the GPS connected.  We can’t disengage from Him because the enemy will gladly intercept that connection and set up a different path for us!

We have a choice - either God or the enemy!  So can you trust in something you cannot see?  Can you believe in something you cannot see?  Is your faith strong enough for this journey?  

I know that it is because we are Sons of the Almighty God!  Let’s stand and celebrate the God we Worship!

~ Deaconness Rachel West