Reasons Why We Can Trust God With Our Lives

This past week, the Lord lead me to Psalm 23 to comfort me and tell me some reasons why we can trust Him. I don't know about you, but sometimes, when situations arise and our circumstances look bad, the first question I ask is "God, are you sure?" Many times we are so overcome by the emotions that we feel that we can't see past them and we start to doubt if God is worthy of our trust. We start doubting God when we worry. We doubt God when we ask the opinion of others even though we might know exactly what God wants us to do. We may even be doubting God when we struggle to pray or read our Bible..."What will God show me today? or What will He ask me to do?" There are other forms of doubt of course, but I want to focus tonight more on the fact that no matter what doubts may arise in our lives or how we feel or think, God is VERY worthy of our trust.

Psalm 23 is a very familiar chapter. I learned it in Sunday School :) But sometimes the most familiar chapters and verses are just randomly quoted or read without thought because we have heard them so much. Today, I want to point out four ways that God shows us that He is faithful and worthy of our trust in Psalm 23.

1. (Verse 1) We will never be without if we am with God: As God as our Shepard, or our Leader, we will never be in want.
*In Matthew 11:28,29, Jesus calls us to come to Him when we are weak and burdened, and He will what?....Give us rest.
I don't know about you, but when I am overwhelmed about something, the thing I need most is rest. God offers that to us in the midst of our situations and emotions.
Jesus also says, come to me and take my life as your own and He will teach us what we need to know. As a teacher, I actually love to learn too :) Jesus offers us His "lessons on life". Why do we look everywhere else first to figure our our situation before we go to the Great Teacher?
Jesus finally says, His burden is light. I like that Jesus still uses the word burden here. Although the life that God gives us is light and easy, it still can appear as a burden sometime. Life is hard. But Jesus begs us to come to Him because with Him, we WILL NEVER be without - what are you needing today? Joy? Comfort? Financial provisions? Jesus tells us to come.

2. (verse 2,3, 4a) God knows how to lead us: He is not only a good Shepard (Leader), He is the best. He will NOT lead us somewhere without providing EVERYTHING we need to be there. Look at Psalm 119:105 - God's Word is the light to our life. Why? Because God made life. So He also drew us a map to make sure we don't fall off the face of the planet. Don't you just feel like sometimes you're gonna fall off the face of the planet?...you just feel as blind as a bat. Goodness gracious, OPEN YOUR BIBLE! Brandi! OPEN YOUR BIBLE!! It is our light.
The first part of verse 4 in Psalm 23 talks about "walking through the valley of the shadow of death". This tells us that sometimes, even when you are in the will of God, you will walk through valleys of death, pain, scary stuff...But we have nothing to fear because God is a faithful, comforting, and loving leader. So if your situation
looks gruesome, don't give up hope yet. Look for God and follow Him. Look in His word. Go to church. Listen to worship music. We must fill our life up with the Light of God's Word so to know where we need to be and what we need to be doing. The more of the world we have in our head, the more worldly decisions we will make out of the Lord's will.
God waits for us to follow Him, but the scary thing is, if we do not call to Him, He will allow us to to get lost. Don't look at what is around you. Focus on God. God knows how to lead us. Trust Him.

3. (verse 4b) God will NEVER leave us: I like the way the Spanish translation states this verse. It says "I will not fear anyone because Your are at my side; Your Shepard's staff comforts me again." Don't you love that? First of all, it is very specific that we do not have to fear man. Having fear of what people say about you and your family and your life is one of the fastest ways to start doubting God. Like we talked about a few weeks ago, John the Baptist came and lived out in the dessert and ate honey and people said he was crazy. Jesus came eating and had friends, and people called him a glutton and a drunkard. The opinions of others, although well-meant sometimes, can cause us to doubt what God has told us to do.
Then, the verse says that God is at our side. When I think of a Leader, many times I picture the lead chicken in the front and the chicks following close behind. But, here we see that not only does God lead us, He stays by our side. Friendship is what I picture when I read those words. Not only will God never leave us, He WANTS to be with us. We are worth so much to Him and He desires to be by our side. Deuteronomy 31:6 says "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes WITH you; He will never leave you nor forsake you." Where it says "God goes with you" it says in Spanish that "God will accompany us" Accompany us like "Oh man, I've got to go to such and such a place today...all by myself" then God says "Don't worry, I'll accompany you." Ladies! God chooses to go with us. He chooses to accompany you. He is God. He doesn't have too. But He accompanies us because He loves us.
He will not leave us! Ever!!

4. Finally, verses 5 & 6 speak of the last reason for today why we can trust God. If everyone in the world hated you and despised being around you, God would still show His kindness towards you and love you. If God called you to leave everything you have to go somewhere you've never been before, God will continue to pour out His kindness and love on you. If you made 500 terrible decisions yesterday that were out of God's will, God still loves you and shows His kindness to you and shows you mercy. We are NEVER unloved or unwanted. God loves us and wants to bless us and lavish His love on us.

There are so many other reasons why we can trust God, but the most important reason why we can trust God is because He loves us so much. God loves us and created us to live a full life and one with purpose. Will that purpose make the world happy? NO. Will that purpose make human sense? NO. But God loves us. That is reason enough to trust Him.

Trust Him. God does not fall short....EVER. Go to Him first.