Plan A, B, and C

I’m great at trusting God until I have to. Trusting God is easy when
things are going my way, but when I face a challenge or when life isn’t
lining up the way it’s “supposed to,” I start trying to take matters into
my own hands. I find myself trying to take control—making plans a, b, and
c—effectively putting myself in God’s place and saying, “I can do it better
than You can.”

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Control can become an idol: something we put in the place of God. I often
want control because I’m looking for safety and security, and these are
good desires, but God tells us in His Word that He is the One who
ultimately provides everything we need. If we try to rely on our own
strength, wisdom, etc., we will always let ourselves down.

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God cares deeply about us, and He calls us to trust Him in all things and
at all times. He has proven that He is worthy of our trust by the greatest
act of love: Jesus (who is God the Son) gave up His life for us on the
cross, and then He rose from the dead so that we could be saved from sin
and death. Now, God asks us to put our trust in Jesus. He offers us eternal
safety and security, and He wants us to rely on Him, not just for
salvation, but for everything.

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But putting that amount of trust in Jesus can seem difficult when we can
feel so removed from Jesus’s life here on earth two thousand years ago. Yet
even now, Jesus is present with us through His Spirit, His Word, and His
people (the church). The Bible reminds us that we are blessed and filled
with joy for believing in Jesus, even though we haven’t met Him
face-to-face yet (John 20:29; 1 Peter 1:8). As we put our trust in Jesus to
save us, to give us eternal life, and to lead us, we can also trust that
God will provide what we need for our lives right now, because He cares for
us. • Naomi Zylstra

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• Are you ever tempted to idolize control or try to take matters into your
own hands? While it’s good to make plans and think through our problems,
ultimately, only God can take care of us. How could it be freeing to rely
on and follow Him instead of trying to do things ourselves?

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• When life gets chaotic, how could remembering God’s love for us—expressed
in the good news about Jesus—make it easier for us to trust Him with the
things going on in our lives?

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own
understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths
straight. Proverbs 3:5-6 (CSB)

Read Verses:

Psalm 28:7; Matthew 6:19-Matthew 6:33; 1 Peter 5:7; Proverbs 3:5-Proverbs 3:6