Comfort or Fullness? You Decide.
“Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on Him to guide you, and He will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with Him in whatever you do, and He will lead you wherever you go. Don’t think for a moment that you know it all, for wisdom comes when you adore Him with undivided devotion and avoid everything that’s wrong.”
Proverbs 3:5-7 TPT
There are many amazing things happening in this piece of scripture. The first thing that I want you to notice is the phrase “Trust in the Lord completely”…the 2nd part of that sentence is good too, “and do not rely on your own opinions”.
The first part implies that we can trust God not completely. What would that look like?
One of the amazing things about reading the bible with the Author(The Holy Spirit) is that He will interpret it to you.
Though we do not see incomplete trust of the Father in the life of Jesus we do see it in the life of Peter and Judas. Also, the book of James we see the ramifications of what I am calling half-heartedism(pretty sure I just made that up).
“When you are half-hearted and wavering it leaves you unstable. Can you really expect to receive anything from the Lord when you’re in that condition?”
James 1:7-8 TPT
Here the author is talking about being half-hearted in our ways but all throughout scripture half-heartedism is alluded to. We see in Proverbs. God says in revelation be either hot or cold. We even see in Colossians to give ourselves fully as if we were serving the Lord.
What is the big deal with just casually living a “balanced” life where we can only trust the Lord comfortably and not COMPLETELY?
When we only trust God to the level of our comfort we forfeit our privilege to walk in the fullness that He has intended for us to live in and live from through faith in HIM.
We were called to give 100% of our lives to God, not just 10% of our income, and 2-3 days out of the week. Surrendering to the Lord is EVERYTHING! It is ultimately what sets us apart from the world. As we surrender to what the Holy Spirit is specifically telling US to do we increase in Glory that leaks through our lives to all those we come in to contact with.
Notice in the book of Exodus that the people were scared to approach the mountain where God was at. They told Moses to go and find out what God was saying and to bring it back. They were comfortable in their lives. Moses went to the mountain and experienced a Glory that was meant for the all of people.
Oftentimes we rather somebody read the scriptures to us and speak to us vs really taking ownership of our relationship with God. No one can go to the mountain for you anymore. Jesus already went and made the perfect sacrifice where now we receive Him and we are brought into connectedness with God the Father, the way He intended for us to walk in .
The quality of our relationship with God is based on our willingness to be obedient to His Holy Spirit that resides in every believer, as noted in the book of Galatians.
Notice that I said “quality of our relationship”. We began a relationship with God the Father through our “belief and confession” in Jesus Christ. Any Roman Roaders? But the depth depends on depency on God brought through our realization that we NEED Him.
The deeper you go in God the more you realize the need of God in your life.
In short, the condition of unstability brings out the things in our lives that have been buried, sometimes very dark things from generations before us.
For the believer it should eventually cause us to become more aware of the Presence of God and bring us to His table where He makes the enemy watch as He showers us with His goodness and love.
How to you know you are living in incomplete trust of the Lord?
1) You may feel tormented/bound in a certain area of your life.
2) He keeps telling you to do something that you know you need to do.
3) You “know” there is more for you.
Obedience to the Holy Spirit is always worth the cost.
Ps: Enjoy an Excerpt from my book on being Intentional in our relationship with the Holy Spirit.
What is your trust in?
If I were to say I trust in my mom that could mean multiple things. That could mean that if I ask her to do something for me I would expect her to do it and not debate amongst myself if she will finish. What about trusting your boss that you work for? Your trust in the boss to pay you for the hours you work would create expectancy in you to receive a paycheck. What about sitting in a chair? You trust that chair to hold you up if you sit in it. Your trust in the object, person, or thing creates expectancy in you.
Your expectancy of the Lord can tell you a lot about the trust that you have given Him. God had spoken to my wife and me a very specific word that was going to completely change our lives. The word that He gave us was not comfortable, it did not logically make sense to us, and it actually seemed to counter the vision that we believe He had spoken over our lives. We received the word and the next question I began to ask God was “when”?”
Excerpt From: Patrick Murray. “Leaning In.” Patrick Murray, 2019. Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/leaning-in/id1476938259
