Trust in God

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Proverbs 3:5

Trusting God can be very easy in seasons of plenty but challenging during difficult times.When we face challenges or when things don’t go according to plan, our level of trust and confidence in God is put to the test. Little wonder the wise one needed to remind us that trust is essential if we want to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. Trusting in God means putting our faith in Him completely. It means acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers and that we need His help to navigate through life’s challenges. When we trust in God, we are surrendering control over our lives to Him, knowing that He will guide us towards what is best for us. He always knows what is best for us, God is our best driver of our destiny but as humans with human tendencies, sometimes we may want to exercise our control or free will to choose that which we believe is best for us. Letting go of our control over our lives can be quite challenging and difficult and that is when we ‘lean on our own understanding’.

But the wise one, warns against leaning on our own understanding, against relying solely on our own knowledge or experience instead of seeking wisdom from God. Often, when faced with difficult decisions or situations, it’s tempting to rely on our own intuition or logic rather than seeking guidance from above. Relying solely on ourselves can lead us astray. Our human understanding is limited and flawed; only God has perfect knowledge and wisdom. Therefore, if we truly want to make wise decisions and live a purposeful life, it’s essential that we seek His guidance above all else.

Trusting God should be with all our hearts. The heart represents not only our emotions but also our innermost desires and motivations. Trusting in God with all our hearts means committing ourselves fully to Him – not just intellectually but also emotionally. When we truly trust in God with all our hearts, there’s no room for doubt or fear. We know that He will always guide us towards what is best for us, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable. This kind of trust requires vulnerability and surrender, but it also brings great rewards – peace, joy, and a sense of purpose.

Trusting in God is not just a one-time decision; it’s a daily choice. Each day presents new challenges and opportunities to either trust in God or rely on our own understanding. Therefore, we must make the conscious effort to choose trust every day. This means spending time with God through prayer and reading His Word. It means seeking wisdom from Him before making decisions instead of relying solely on our own understanding. It means choosing to see the world through His eyes rather than our own limited perspective.

Hence we ought to surrender control over our lives to God completely and seek His guidance above all else. Therefore let us make the daily choice to put our faith in Him completely so that we can experience the fullness of life He has planned for us.

That Your Faith Might Not Rest On Human Wisdom

My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Cor 2:4-5

We love persuasive speakers or orators. Don’t we all love to listen to the people who have their way with words, who can weave threads by the spoken word and make so much sense. Some of those with oratorial powers are motivational speakers. We may listen to them, may have our favourites from among the pool of the rich speakers out there today; speakers who have what it takes to cause people to make changes that can produce better results in life. Most of them possess human wisdom, which produces results. But mere persuasive words of human wisdom cannot go far enough.

Within the kingdom of God, we are not short of men who have their way with words and indeed the word of God. Now, while oratorial power is great and desirable for public speakers, it is important to reflect on the preaching of the gospel especially today. What greater example could we look at than the apostle Paul. Though not blessed with oratorial prowess, we see that his message was not about enticing words but more about hope and trust in Christ, more about having faith in God, more about inviting people to a relationship with God through Christ.

When he, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he made it clear that he did not use enticing or persuasive words to convince them to believe in God. He made it clear that it was not because of his oratorial prowess, although he wasn’t as great a speaker as he was a writer (2 Cor 11:6). He mentioned that he was not called to oratory or eloquence. He admitted that the reason for this was so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power (1 Cor 1:17). We can deduce that this was deliberate, remember when he said that God’s power is made perfect in weakness? Certainly, this must have been one of the aspects where God’s power overshadowed him. His work of the ministry saw him raise Eutychus from the dead, cast out demons, shake off a viper and lived when onlookers expected him to die. The power of God was indeed highlighted and brought to the fore in these and many other circumstances, his writings has encouraged many believers over centuries now.

So, the gospel as shown by Paul is meant to showcase the power of God and faith is built on hearing the great things that God has done in the past and is promising to those who believe. Chief among these promises is the promise of eternal life. Our faith is meant to be anchored on the power of God not human wisdom. The power that is working in us daily to help us to conform to the image of the invisible son of God and rid ourselves of self-will and/or iniquity. The power that can convince others to come to Christ through the spreading of the word. The power that helps our weaknesses.

We can have faith in God’s power to deliver on his promises. In every aspect of our earthly life, we can have faith in the one true God. The one through whom we live, move, and have our being. The one who has called us his people even when we were not a people of his. So, this is where our faith should rest and not on human wisdom.

Should the Bible be Amended?

“But you and I know the Bible is, in many places, a flawed document. My point to you about gay rights for example – it’s time for an amendment to the Bible. You should compile a new Bible.”

– Piers Morgan.

A few months ago, someone re-echoed this sentiment by Mr Morgan and I remembered the above statement that was made a few years ago. In fact, for Christians in the 21^st century, such statements have become common place. Non-Christians often wonder why most Christians are not so amenable to change in consonance with changing societal norms. The reason for that is not far-fetched as Mr Morgan identified – the bible. The bible is not a dynamic document that changes in accordance with changing society, otherwise it would have been revised far too many times by now. It is not flawed as Mr Morgan said; one’s ignorance or the biblical principles does not tantamount to flaws. The bible is never like any other human written book but is an inspiration from an all-knowing God (2 Pet 1:21). Never in the history of humanity have people openly and so blatantly called for the amendment of the bible. Perhaps people in the past have not called for such changes because they understood the content of the bible more so than a lot of non-Christians and some Christians do today.

You see, the bible is like a constitution but more than that even; because it is sacrosanct, self-interpreting, self-regulatory and self-explanatory and divine. The bible does not mince words or sit on the fence when it comes to issues. For example, consider the words in the bible in the concluding remarks in Revelations 22:18-19, it says:

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.

Revelations 22:18-19

You cannot add to it; it’s that simple. So, the simple answer to the question of updating the bible is that you can’t update it because (1) there are negative consequences, (2) another important reason is because it is complete, correct and more than capable of making the truth seeker wise (2 Tim 3:16-17) and (3) God’s foolishness is wiser than any man’s ideas or updates (1 Cor 1:25). No man is clever enough to write a document that will remain true for all ages and most importantly capable of saving eternally.

So that leaves us with two choices – either we adhere to what the bible teaches or we don’t. We cannot alter what has been written and has been helpful and has made the wretched person wise for up to two millennia. Simply put, we are incapable of producing a better document than what we have which is able to make men wise and able to offer salvation.

If it was up to people today to add to the bible, many concepts will have no right or wrong answer. It will be open to a personal interpretation. It would be something like, let each person do as they please as long as they don’t hurt other people. You see, the world has become very subjective, even simple biological facts have become subjective in the eyes of many. People now want to bend the rules of nature to suit every whim and caprice of their choice. Even biological science of which was for centuries objective and determinant is becoming more ‘tolerant’ or ‘inclusive’ of people’s choices. Words and principles that governed human society for ages have assumed new meaning.

That is what an updated bible or a bible written by today’s moral standards and judgements will be like. It will have nothing to do with the kind of statements that people today will call inflammatory. For example Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, NO ONE comes to the father except through me. Now, that statement leaves no room to any other interpretation, you either believe it or you don’t. You cannot really say that other ways to God are also legitimate because when you believe that statement it invalidates other claims of access to God.

Another point to be made is that there isn’t any book that has influenced society positively as much as the bible has. And it is imperative to leave you with this statement from the bible – do unto others what you want them to do to you. This is a sacred message, the bible contains sacred wisdom inspired by God to make people wise, if you accept it as it is – the word of God that is no flawed and needs no human update or interpretation, you will be better for it.