The Riddler

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5 -6

This is a wonderful scripture with much promise.  But when you didn’t grow up in church, learning these scriptures, it was hard to understand.  I come from a broken home, alcohol and unrest was a large part of my childhood.  But one thing that my childhood did for me, after all the fear, I became a very strong-minded and determined person.  This can be a good thing or a bad thing.   For me, a lot of bad habits and ideas occurred in me.  I was very OCD, self-reliant and prideful.  This makes it hard to trust in anyone, the Lord included.  When I decided as a youth to attend church, my pride kept me from asking too many questions about the Bible . I guess you could say, I had a strong hunger for Jesus, but I wouldn’t get out of the way to learn about Him.

When we started attending Harvest, after attending other churches, I finally started learning about the Lord.  Sure, I had learned some from the previous churches and was growing some, but by the time I came here, I had been so rooted in my pride it felt natural for me.  I struggled with trusting in the Lord for anything.  I didn’t think He needed my problems, I could handle them on my own.  But God!

Here I am writing on Giving my battles to God.  I felt like I had to tell you some of my back story so you can understand how hard this is for me. I have finally come to the place where I can ask Him for His help.

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:13 – 14

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

One of the big times I learned to trust in Him was when we were getting older. We lived in a really nice home that He had given us, even though I probably didn’t ask, but it was big with acreage.  It was getting harder to take care of for us.  We were getting close to retiring and it was costly to live there.  I went to an estate sale at another home and felt that it was our home.  I couldn’t explain it but I felt at home.  After telling Dewitt about it, we went to see it and he was not interested.  I started seeking the Lord and His thoughts.  Dewitt wanted to see it again in about a week and we both prayed about it.  I would go on my lunch hour some days and sit in the driveway and talk to God about it.  Read His word and wait.  Yes, I said wait.  Hard for this get ‘er done girl to do. If you wait for what your heart desires, your treasure means more when you get it. But I was determined to let God be in control of this.  He made a way and we made a pretty easy move, except, on the day we had people coming to help us load. The buyers that were to purchase the house of the ones that were buying our home, backed out.  I freaked out, for a while, cried and asked why.  But then we prayed, I gave control back to God and asked Dewitt, what are we going to do.  He told me we would keep getting ready to move and God would work it out.  He did!  That’s another story for another time.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Matthew 6:33

Another time, we were in our reaching forward campaign at Harvest.  We were asked to pledge for our new building.  We prayed about this and filled out our pledge.  This was above our tithe. I was a girl that grew up so poor, MY money was important to me.  I had fought battles, with God sometimes, to get out of that spirit of poverty, but I let Him have control of this.  When we got our letter thanking us for our pledge, what was typed on there was WAY more than we thought we pledged, and I freaked out again.  We prayed about it and told the Lord that if that was what He wanted He would have to take care of it.  We had 3 years to fulfill our pledge and continue paying our tithe.  But God!  He/we paid it off early and had money in the bank like we had not had before.  God really showed us His love.  And even better, with the money we saved on moving to a new, nice, home.  We paid off all our debts and for the first time ever we were debt free.  I am not boasting about us I am boasting on the Lord. 

No matter where you are or what you need or want, let the Lord be in control, trust Him and He will take care of it.  I love Jeremiah 29:11, but have you noticed Jeremiah 29:13 ? “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

We want to thank Debbie Crosby for sharing this post.