Trusting God Day by Day: 365 Daily Devotions (45 page)

It is God’s unconditional love that draws us to Him, and it is our unconditional love toward others in His name that will draw others to Him. He wants us to love people in His place, and do it the same way He would if He were here in bodily form.

Human love finds it impossible to love unconditionally, but we have
the love of God in us as believers in Jesus Christ, and we can let that love flow freely, without conditions. Man’s love fails, but God’s does not. Man’s love comes to an end, but God’s does not. Sometimes I find that although I cannot love a person in my own human strength, I am able to love them with God’s love.

The true love of God doesn’t depend on feelings; it is based on decision. I will help anyone who needs help, unless helping them would ultimately hurt them. They don’t have to deserve it. As a matter of fact, sometimes I think the less they deserve it, the more beautiful and impacting it is. It is absolutely freeing to be able to love people without stopping to ask if they deserve it.

I
f we want to love people, we must let God transform the way we think about people and the things they do. We can believe the worst and be suspicious of everything others do and say, or we can believe the best. Real love always believes the best.

What we think and believe is a choice. The root of much of our trouble in life is that we don’t control or discipline our thoughts. If we don’t discipline our thoughts, we will probably end up being suspicious and believing bad things that don’t glorify God.

The prophet Jeremiah asked the people this: “How long will you allow your… grossly offensive thoughts to lodge within you?” (Jer. 4:14). The thoughts the people chose to think were offensive to God. When we choose to believe the best, we are able to let go of everything that could be harmful to good relationships.

When people do something that hurts you, you can believe they didn’t realize what they were doing. If you do, you will save a lot of energy that you might otherwise waste on anger. When your feelings get hurt you will feel angry, but you can say to yourself,
“Even though what they said or did hurt me, I choose to believe their heart was right.”
Keep talking to yourself until your feelings of anger start to dissipate. Say things like,
“I don’t believe they really understood how their actions affected me. I don’t believe they would try to hurt me on purpose. Maybe they are just having a bad day today.”

I know from experience that keeping mental records of offenses poisons our own lives and does not really change the other person. Many times we waste a day being angry at someone who doesn’t even realize they did anything that bothered us. If we are going to keep records, then why not keep records of the good things people do rather than the mistakes they make?

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ountless times over the years the Holy Spirit has reminded me where things are that I have misplaced and to do things I have forgotten to do. He has also kept me on the right track by reminding me of what God’s Word says about certain issues at key times of decision in my life.

I learned I could trust God to help with big decisions by taking small needs to Him, too. One time we had some family members over and wanted to watch a movie, but we couldn’t find the remote control. We searched everywhere for it, but nothing was producing the remote control. I decided to pray. So silently in my heart I said,
“Holy Spirit, show me where the remote control is, please.”
Immediately in my spirit I thought of the bathroom and, sure enough, that’s where it was.

The same thing happened to me concerning my car keys one day when I needed to leave. I was in a time crunch and couldn’t find my keys. I searched frantically to no avail and then decided to pray. In my spirit I saw the keys on the front seat of my car, and that is exactly where they were.

One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit discussed in 1 Corinthians 12 is the word of knowledge. God gave me a word of knowledge about the remote control as well as the misplaced keys. We can count on the Holy Spirit to remind us of things we need to be reminded of. If we needed no help, we would always perfectly remember everything and never need to be reminded; but if we are honest, we all know that is not the case.

If the Lord cares enough to speak to us about remote controls and lost keys, think how eager He must be to talk to us about more intimate things.

W
e ask people all the time if they have received Jesus, without ever really thinking about what that means. If we receive Him, then what do we do with Him? We certainly don’t put Him in a little box marked “Sunday morning,” go get Him out on that day, sing a few songs to Him, talk to Him a little, then put Him back in the box until the next Sunday. If we receive Him, then we have Him with us always.

It is not pleasing to God for people to leave Him out of their daily lives, while going through religious formulas to try to get what they need. Don’t just go through the motions. Either have a real relationship with God that is alive and meaningful, or face the fact that you don’t have one at all and do whatever is needed to get one.

Ask yourself these questions, and you will discover where you are spiritually:

• Are you growing daily in your knowledge of God and His ways?
  
• Do you look forward to going to church, or is it something you do out of obligation? Are you waiting for it to end so you can finally go to lunch?
  
• Do you feel close to God?
  
• In your life are you manifesting the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness (meekness, humility), and self-control (see Gal. 5:22–23)?
  
• Do you have areas of your life that you have not let God into?
  

If you are not satisfied with your answers to these questions, throw your life entirely open to God and ask the Holy Spirit to get involved in
every aspect of it. If you will do that in honesty and sincerity, He will begin to work in you in a powerful and exciting way.

G
od wants us to lean entirely on Him; that is what faith really is. It is too complicated to try to stay in His will under our own power. Which one of us can even say that we know 100 percent, for sure, what we’re supposed to do every single day?

You can do everything that you know to do to make a right decision. You may be right, but there is a possibility you could be wrong. How can you know if you’re right or not? You can’t. You have to trust God to keep you in His will, straighten out any crooked paths in front of you, keep you on the narrow path that leads to life, and off the broad path that leads to destruction (see Matt. 7:13
KJV
).

I know some things about God’s will for my life, but I don’t know everything, so I have learned to stay in rest and peace by leaning on God, praying for His will to be done, and trusting Him to keep me. I learned this when God was dealing with me to make a certain decision. I agonized,
“But, oh, God, what if I’m wrong? What if I make a mistake? What if I miss You, God!”

He said,
“Joyce, if you miss Me, I’ll find you.”

Leaning is a good thing, as long as we are leaning on something or someone that won’t cave in when we least expect it! God is a good
choice to lean on. He has a proven record of faithfulness to those who commit their lives to Him.

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e often find it difficult to trust what we believe may be direction from the Lord. It is not that we distrust Him, but we distrust our ability to hear from Him.

I eventually found that I had to take a step of faith, and then I would find out by experience how to recognize the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
“Step out and find out”
is what I always say. As we are learning to be led by the Holy Spirit, we are bound to make a few mistakes, but God always helps us get back on the right track, and we learn from our mistakes.

The process of learning to be led by God is no different from the process that babies go through when learning to walk. They all fall down in the process, but as long as they get up and try again, eventually they will end up not only walking, but also running at full speed.

James, chapter 1, begins by telling us how to handle the trials of life. There is a natural way of handling problems, but there is also a spiritual way to handle them:

Jesus is saying here,
“If you are having trouble, ask God what you should do.”
You may not receive an answer immediately upon making your request, but you will find as you go about your business that God’s wisdom is operating through you and His wisdom is divine and beyond your natural knowing.

W
hen I had to have an operation, I went through all the moments of doubt and fear that often occur before a serious surgery. Naturally, all my family members and everybody around me were telling me to trust God. I wanted to trust, but sometimes I found it more difficult than others. At times I would be feeling secure, and then suddenly a spirit of fear would attack me, and I would once again feel frightened about the surgery.

This continued until one morning at about 5:00, during a time
when I could not sleep. The voice of the Lord spoke in my heart saying,
“Joyce, trust Me; I’m going to take care of you.”
From that moment forward I did not have fear, because when God speaks to us in a personal way, faith comes with what He says (see Rom. 10:17).

If we knew we could go to the doctor and get a prescription for pills that would give us instant strength anytime we feel weak, we probably would not hesitate to do so. I am telling you from Scripture that this strength is available to you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul found the strength of God so wonderful that in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10 he actually said he would glory in his weaknesses. To put it in our language today, Paul was saying that he was glad when he was weak because then he got to experience the strength of God. This particular Scripture has truly ministered to me over the years.

I thank God I don’t have to give up just because I feel weak or tired mentally, emotionally, physically, or even spiritually. I can ask God to strengthen me by the power of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in me (Eph. 3:16)—and you can do the same thing!