Dec 28, 2022
The biggest problem the children of Israel had in the wilderness was not their lack of faith that God could do great things. It was their inability to trust that He would take care of their personal needs. A recent experience exposed this problem in my own life, and I think Christians should face this reality. With all our faith in the greatness of God, there is still something in us that does not trust that He will meet our needs. This new year let’s see that change and learn to trust Him with all our hearts.
Show Notes: During the Feast of Tabernacles this year two recent messages became very meaningful for me personally. These messages are a blog titled “Do You Trust Him?” and a study guide titled “Do You Trust God's Motivation?” Both messages are available on this website, and I encourage you to read them. As I was reading these messages, something happened that made Tabernacles come alive to me. My refrigerator broke at a crucial time and there seemed to be no way to fix it. “What does a broken refrigerator have to do with Tabernacles?” you might ask.
At Tabernacles we remember how the children of Israel saw God do many mighty things as He delivered them out of Egypt. Once they were in the wilderness, however, they had a big problem with God. And that problem was not their lack of faith in His power, it was their inability to trust that He would care for their simple daily needs. A broken refrigerator made me face my own need to trust God on a personal level.
As Christians, as believers in Yeshua (Jesus), we have seen God’s great salvation and deliverance in our lives. We have faith that God is able to do all things, yet there is still something deep in our spirits that does not trust Him to take care of the little things in our lives. This year I want God to take out of me every inability to trust Him even in the simplest ways.
Key Verses:
- Deuteronomy 1:26–35. “But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God.”
- Numbers 14:11–12. “How long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed?”
- Psalm 95:7–11. “Your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work.”
- Hebrews 3:6–11. “your fathers tried Me by testing Me, and saw My works for forty years.”
- Hebrews 4:1–11. “Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest.”
- Proverbs 3:5–6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”
- Isaiah 26:3-4. “Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.”
- Matthew 7:24. “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
- Philippians 4:19–20. “My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Quotes:
- “Every time we fail by not trusting, I think we invoke the Lord's anger towards us as Israel did.”
- “We still exist in the place where we need to enter God's rest, and we enter God's rest through our ability to trust in Him with all of our hearts.”
- “I know we have faith in the Lord for the big things. But going forward I want to trust Him that He supplies all of my needs in everything that I face, that it's He who leads my path.”
Takeaways:
- He provides the fire by night to keep us warm. He provides the cloud by day. He provides the water, the food, the covering, the shelter, the defense—all that we need. But it is born out of our ability to trust Him.
- This year, in all the difficulties we are beginning to face in the world, we need a rock to build our house upon. We need not to be moved by the things that will come against us. And that is born out of trust in the Lord.
- Lord, Your Word states that we are to trust You with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding. Let this be the focal point of our lives this year. We trust You to provide it and create it within us.