Trust God with Everything

September 16, 2024

A man is walking next to a cliff, when suddenly the earth gives away, he falls over the edge, but is able to grab a tree root growing out of the side of the cliff. Hanging hundreds of feet off the ground, he yells, “God, please help me,” many times.

Suddenly, there is a thunderous voice overhead that says, “This is God. Do you trust me?” The man screams that he does, but God must act soon, he is losing his grip. God says “Trust me. Let go of the root!”

The man looks down at the rocky canyon below, then up to the edge of cliff, and says, “Is there anyone else up there I can talk to?”

I often speak of how important it is to learn to trust God with everything. It is much easier to say, than to do. I found this out while I was taking a spiritual healing course. It was a great course that focused on using prayer to hear God’s voice, and be directed by God to seek healing for past wounds. We had eight people in our small group, and we practiced by taking turns allowing the group to help us discern and pray through any hidden wounds God may lead us to address. When it was my turn to be the guinea pig, I didn’t think much would happen because I didn’t think I had any hidden wounds. I was in for a big surprise.

The group leader led the group in a prayer to open us up to the voice of God, and ask God to show me if there were any events in my life that I might need to deal with. As I opened up my soul to God’s gentle whisper, I immediately saw a mental picture of myself in first grade. It was a scene I hadn’t thought about in a long time, but I would never forget. We were working on colors, and I was asked what a certain color was, I remember looking at the color and having absolutely no idea. When I made no response, my teacher scolded me with these words, “Now Albert, you should know what color this is!” I burst into tears, sobbing in shame. That is where the memory ends, but not where my mind stopped. I remember vividly making a pledge to myself that I would never let myself be embarrassed in that sort of way ever again. I would do everything I could to protect myself from public humiliation…AND I DID!

I was good at protecting myself. I’m intelligent, and so I was always prepared with the right answer or a clever response. God whispered to my soul that my pledge to trust only myself was not His will at all. I asked God to forgive me for not trusting Him, and made a new pledge to always trust God to protect me.

God’s timing is always perfect. Soon after that experience, I had the first of a number of very public accusations made against me that were false, but it would be hard to protect myself given the accusations and circumstances. In each case, I was tempted to lash out at the person, and use my position in the community and my clever tongue, to crush them in any way necessary in order to silence them. Fortunately, I prayed first, and God’s gentle whisper was clear, “Trust Me!,” just like His word tells us in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

It was scary to just trust God with everything. I had always been so good at protecting myself. But I had also hurt people along the way. In this situation, someone spoke badly about me as a pastor for eighteen months. People would come up and ask me if I knew, and then say things like, “I thought about the person and the pastor I know you to be, and I just didn’t believe what he said.” I would thank the person for their honesty, and thank God for His protection each time. Years later, God opened the doors for me to minister to this man. God protected me much better than the way I protect myself.

Do you think you trust God with everything? Can you think of a time when that seemed especially hard to do? Can you think of a time it felt like God let you down? Play the scene through your head and ask yourself, “Where are you God in this experience?” See if you don’t have a mental picture of God protecting you in a way you didn’t expect. To God be the Glory.