Life's Daily Challenge Devotional

Trust God with all your heart

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths," Proverbs 3:5-6.

To those passionate for God,

When asked what the greatest commandment was Jesus said that we were to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and that we were to love our neighbors as ourselves (Mark 12:28-31). We are to trust in the same way. A trust this deep can only flow from a love this deep.

The Bible parallels our relationship with God to a marriage. Wedding vows often state that we are to forsake all others and cleave only to our spouse. This is the covenant that we make with God when we give our lives to Him. In a natural marriage our vow to forsake does not necessarily mean that we are to ignore, avoid, or severe old relationships. It means that our marriage becomes the relationship of all relationships. In the natural realm, our relationship with our spouse moves into the central place of prominence in our life.

As powerful as the covenant of marriage should be, it is only a shadow of the covenant that God seeks to make to us. To walk in covenant relationship with God we must forsake all others. Our relationship with Him must become the relationship of all relationships. We must love Him with every ounce of our being, saving nothing for anyone or anything else. When we love Him this way, the love that we share with others is His love. We receive His love. Then we express that same love back to Him as we reach out to others.

Trust is an outflow of this relationship. We cannot be let down by people or circumstances because our trust is not in them. All of our trust has been given to God along with all of our love. We simply trust God by extending ourselves in love to people in response to His call. We can give and work with people freely and without reservation. We need not, and must not gauge our safety or success by circumstance. We are held only by the powerful, yet tender, all protecting, all providing hand of God. We have expectation in nothing else. We have hope in nothing else. Our faith is in nothing else. We trust in God and God alone. We can never again be the victim of man or circumstance because our destiny is no longer in their power. We have given up on depending even in our own understanding. Every decision, every action, very footstep reflects the sovereignty of God. Our happiness does not rise and fall according to what is happening around us. Our inward climate is constant because our God does not change. He is never caught off guard. He is never short handed. When we trust in the Lord with all of our heart He, and He alone will make our paths straight. We can know this reality to the depths that we are willing to know and be known by Him; to love and be loved by Him. He is faithful.