Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. This 1st day of September has the feel of the Fall season and it’s a reminder to me that things are destined to change around this old farm pretty soon. The days will be shorter and the air will be cooler. The leaves will change color and the wildlife will be preparing for the cold. Soon I’ll be heading inside to meet with the Living God instead of outside on the front porch. No amount of effort from man and no amount of threat of global warming will change these things; they’re destined to be. When it comes to those things destined by the Hand of the Living God…whether it’s the change of our seasons…good or bad circumstances…painful times or joyful times…I Trust Him. Isn’t that the way it is for you too?

It’s easy to sing praises and to trust God when things are going well. It’s easy to give thanks when there is enough food on the table or when everybody is healthy and getting along. It’s easy to trust God when the family is in order and relationships are strong and when we’ve got a roof over our heads. There’s no cause to be challenged with Trust issues when everything in life is smooth sailing. But it’s an entirely different story when the seasons in life change for the worse and our world is turned upside-down. It’s during chose challenging times that we are inclined to dig into our Faith and cry out to our God; but do we TRUST Him? Do we Trust His Plans when we lose our health or when we lose a loved one or do we just tolerate the pain and question “why?”. Do we merely endure through the agony that we experience in life sometimes, or do we consider that He has a Purpose in it all? Do we mourn our loved ones when they leave this earth and do we feel like we’ve “lost” them when He calls them Home to Himself? Life is destined to be filled with heartbreak and trials along with all of the good. It’s a piece-of-cake to Trust Him when things are good, but do we Trust Him when things aren’t?

I have no idea how many people are shaking their heads and questioning why a Loving God would allow Hurricane Harvey to come through town and bring forth such destruction….but it’s a LOT. There are countless others mocking people of Faith and shouting obscenities about the Living God because of their circumstances. Some are denying the existence of a God at all because of this tragedy, and they somehow don’t accept that bad things DO happen to good people. I don’t know for sure why God allows for calamity, but although my heart breaks over the suffering; I choose to Trust Him with His Plans. I know that He doesn’t bring forth destruction for the lack of love for ALL people and I know that He doesn’t leave His Throne and forget to protect us. After all, He sent His one and only Son to die for the sins of the world so that we might have Life everlasting…that kind of Love is impossible to comprehend! I’m not sure why people get old and sick or why people die young. I don’t know why the poor exist in our world or why we have times of war. I don’t know why people stop loving each other and homes are destroyed, and I don’t know why some people will suffer the loss of all their materials things through tragedy. But I DO KNOW that He is a multi-faceted God, and somehow the bad things are threaded into ALL of those good things that we find it to be so easy to Trust Him with. If He’s good enough to Trust with the Good and to give thanks to when things are smooth sailing, He’s certainly Worthy of our Praise and our Thanks EVEN when the course of life changes. This is the Key to Trust.

I’m Trusting Him with the bad things even more than the good things and I will NEVER stop praising Him through it all. I know that He says “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” so it isn’t wise for me to try to figure out God with my simple human mind. I have to Trust Him with my heart and my life instead. Through the good…through the bad…through the ugly…through the heartbreak….through the destruction…through death…through the poverty…through it ALL. He is my loving and compassionate God and I TRUST Him even though I don’t always understand His thoughts or His ways.

Do you Trust Him?