Trusting God

What an idea..."Trusting God". Do I even have any clue what that encompasses? I say I trust God, but really I think it is more trusting in myself to get things done. Then, when they do get done, I congratulate myself on a job well done, and of course throw up some haphazard thanks to God for helping me (if I remember). ..."Helping" me? He's basically doing it for me, and I just happen to be following His direction, if it happens to be the same direction I'm going! Only by the grace of God does anything get resolved in life. And yet whom do I place my trust in? Myself. [Yeah, that makes sense...riiiiight]
So what exactly does trusting in God mean? Well, for starters, it means that when we have no idea where life is taking us, we can have comfort in the fact that God has a plan and a purpose for us that are better than we could ever put into place ourself. It also means that not only do we need to trust God with those things that are out of our hands, but also trust God with the things that are IN our hands! (That's the hard part!) So whenever we have to make a decision, we need to look to our Guide for direction, and then actually follow where He leads us, in full knowledge that HE knows what He's doing (we don't!).
In the end, life becomes so much happier - we stop worrying about things we can't control (big relief!), and we stop worrying about things we CAN control, because we trust God's Word and direction to lead us in making the right decision. Wow! What a relief! If only it were as easy as I say it is, right? :) Well, it is - Just look what God himself tells us ---

"Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more precious than they? ...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin...Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ...Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." -- Matthew 6:25-34

More thoughts on Passion

As I think about the whole idea of having a passion in life, it continues to astound me how easily we are distracted by our other "passions". Whether they are for work or play, though they may be good things to do, they still must be subordinate to our first passion, or love, for Christ. It may be that we have these good passions because we love Christ, but they must not become more important than Him, or they will cease to be good and instead become idols. The fine line every person must learn to define is when a passion becomes an idol.
Good questions to ask are, "Does this passion of mine draw me closer to Christ or farther from Him?" "Does this passion cause me to think about myself or it more, and Christ less?" "Is my life, thoughts, time and energy directed towards this passion more than Christ?" Passions can very easily turn into idols, especially under the disguise of being "spiritual" passions. May we be discerning in evaluating our loves and likes, and learn to focus on our true passion - Christ.