Trust in God

The message given in the Onida and Gettysburg United Methodist churches on Sunday morning, January 8, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 40:1-11.

            The world can be a difficult place to live sometimes.  The world can be very hard.  It can seem very unsympathetic.  It’s changing constantly, and some of those changes seem like their going in the wrong direction.  The world can seem very lonely sometimes.  It can seem like there’s no one who understands what we’re going through and no one who would care if they did understand.

            We wonder why the world is that way.  I don’t have a good answer for that.  The best answer I can give you is that the world is that way because it’s full of people.  And people are, well, imperfect.  We can be very hard and unsympathetic.  We can be pretty selfish and self-centered, too.  Not necessarily because we intend to be.  We just get wrapped up in our own stuff, and we kind of go through life with blinders on.  We don’t see others, and they don’t see us.  And of course, that affects the world we live in.

            We want to think that things will get better.  And maybe they will, but–it’s hard to see signs of it right now.  It seems like it’s a lot easier to think of reasons things will get worse than it is to think of reasons things will get better.  And a lot of the time, it seems like there’s nothing we can do about any of it.

            What we need, when we start feeling this way, is some encouragement.  Some comfort.  Some reason for optimism.  And God knows that.  That’s why, in the Bible, God gives us that encouragement and comfort and reason for optimism.

            In our reading for today, God is speaking through the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel.  The world was hard for the people of Israel at this time.  The people had abandoned God, and God had withdrawn His blessings from them.  God was not deliberately punishing them.  He just was not helping them anymore.  Basically, God was saying to the people of Israel, you want to abandon me?  Okay, fine.  I’ll leave you to your own devices.  You can see how that works out.  And of course, it does not work out very well at all.

            Have you ever done that?  I have.  Sometimes I did not even realize I was doing it.  I did not intentionally leave God.  I just was so convinced that what I wanted was right, that it was good, that it would be the best not just for me but for everyone, that I just assumed that what I wanted had to be what God wanted.  Instead of asking God for guidance, I was trying to give God guidance.  Without even realizing it, I had abandoned God and decided to do things my own way.

            And of course, it did not work out very well at all.  I did not know better than God, even though I thought I did.  God did not punish me for doing that, but God did not bless me for it, either.  It felt like God had cut me off, but that’s not what had happened.  Instead, God simply let me see what would happen when I tried to do things my way.  

            Maybe you’ve experienced something like that.  I suspect at least some people here have.  It’s not much fun, to feel like God has cut us off.  It’s a pretty terrible feeling, really.

            But eventually, God speaks to us.  And God tells us what He told the people in our reading for today.  God tells us, I’m still here.  You may have abandoned Me, but I have not abandoned you.  Yes, I left you go your own way for a while, but I have not abandoned. You.  I’m still here for you.

           And again, just like in our reading for today, the first thing God does is give a word of comfort.  In fact, that’s the first word of our reading for today.  “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed.”

            God does not punish us for walking away.  Instead, God speaks tenderly to us.  God comforts us.  God tells us that our hard service has been completed.  If we simply turn back to Him, things will get better again.  God will bless us again.  In fact, if we follow God’s way, God will make the way easier for us.  “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall be made level, the rugged places a plain.”

            What an awesome thing that would be.  Most of us have had times when the ground seemed pretty rough and rugged.  When it seemed like we were constantly going uphill, and the hills seemed like mountains.  Some of us are probably having those times now.  If we’re not having them personally, the chances are we know someone who is.  To have those mountains chopped down, to have the rough places smoothed out, to know that the way is going to be easier, would be such a load off our minds.  It would be such a relief for us, to have God do that for us.

            And the thing is, God will.  God will do that, if we trust Him.

            Now, maybe you’re thinking, okay, that sounds good and all, but I know people who put their trust in God, and God did not smooth things out for them at all.  They had some really high mountains to climb.  It’s easy to say “trust God”, but what happens when we trust God and the world is still hard for us?

            And you’re right.  Trusting God does not guarantee our life will be easy.  But even in the hard times, God will still be there.  And the hard times are less hard when we trust God.  Because, even in those hard times, we don’t have to do everything ourselves.  All we need to do is to do the best we can, and trust God to take it from there.

            But that’s the hard part.  Because, again, we often think we know what’s best, rather than letting God decide what’s best.  And then, too, sometimes it’s hard for us to see God at work when we’re in one of those rough places.  We get impatient.  We think something needs to happen right now, and when we don’t see God doing something right now, we decide we need to do it ourselves.  And so we try.  We try, and we force things, and it does not work out.  Again, we may have had good intentions, but we failed to trust God.  We failed to trust God’s timing.

            God speaking through Isaiah, tells us that our own power is not enough.  In fact, our power is pretty powerless.  “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field…The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God endures forever.”

You and I cannot do it on our own.  That does not mean we should do nothing–again, we should always do the best we can.  But we don’t need to try to do more than that.  We can do the best we can, and trust God with the rest.  We can trust in the power of God.  And we can trust in the love of God.

We need both of those things to get through those rough places.  The hard times are less hard because of both of them. 

God has the power to get us through those times.  As Isaiah says, “The Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm.”  God is all-powerful.  God has the power to overcome anything.  God has the power to cut down obstacles or remove them entirely.  And when we trust God, God will use His power for our benefit–remembering, again, that God will do that in God’s timing, not ours.

But we also can rely on God’s love.  God “tends his flock like a shepherd:  he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.”

Think about that.  How would that feel?  To feel God gathering you in His arms.  To feel God carrying you close to His heart.  That seems like it would be the most awesome thing ever.  It’d be like when you were a little kid and your mom or dad carried you.  Remember that feeling?  You did not have to worry about anything.  It never occurred to you to worry about anything.  You knew you were totally safe, because Mom or Dad, or both, were there, and they would take care of everything.  

That’s how it feels when we put our trust in God.  That’s how it feels to have God gather you in His arms and carry you close to His heart.  We can have that feeling.  God wants to give us that feeling.  God wants to carry us in His arms.  All we need to do is trust Him and let Him do it.

The world can be hard.  It can be a difficult place to live.  But it does not have to be.  If we put our trust in God, God will be there for us.  God won’t wave a magic wand and solve all our problems.  But God will give us comfort and encouragement.  God will make the mountains we face smaller, and make the rough spots of life smoother.  God will carry us through whatever it is we’re going through, if we only trust Him.  That’s a promise God makes.  And God always keeps God’s promises.