From Darkness to Light

Trusting God or Trusting Self?

An experienced mountain climber decides to take on a very steep and rugged mountain, covered with snow and ice. It is a difficult climb but he knows he can do it and he chooses to go without a friend. He has the best of equipment and knows how to use it all so he has little fear of going it alone. So all alone he sets out and begins the climb.

As the day wears on it is getting colder and colder and his rate of climb is slowing down. It’s beginning to get dark and he is still a distance from the top. As darkness settles in he cannot see and realizes he is in trouble. The temperature is freezing and he cannot last the night, and he begins thinking of his options. All of a sudden he slips and begins careening down the mountains icy slope in the pitch black dark. As he goes over the side of a cliff his safety rope suddenly takes hold and he is suspended hanging in the air off the side of a cliff, unsure of exactly where he is. What he does know is that he cannot last the night in the freezing temperatures.

As he thinks about his situation he remembers a talk he had about God with his friend. He decides to put God to the test. He begins yelling “Help me please, God if you’re out there help me. I’ll do anything, just help me, please.” And much to his surprise a voice comes out of the heavens. “Do you believe in me,” the voice asks? “Yes, yes I do. Just help me get down from here.” The climber is at once both pleased and surprised. God asks another question. “Do you trust me?” The man thinks for a moment and then says “Yes, yes I do. Just get me down from here please.” The voice comes back from heaven, “If you trust in me, take out your knife and cut the rope.” The man thinks for a moment and then begins yelling “Help me someone else, please help me”.

You see, the man understood climbing and he understood that that rope was keeping him from falling. He couldn’t understand how cutting the rope made sense, and he didn’t trust in God. He trusted in the rope. Today, our rope is many things: church, people, music, books, maybe even ourselves. When we don’t like or understand what God tells us to do, we look for other answers. Because we don’t trust in Him.

As for the man, his friends found him the next morning frozen to death holding fast onto the rope. The rope that held him just 2 feet off the ground.

Mr 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

What stops us from loving the Lord as we are called to in the verse above? One very big thing is trusting Him at His word and cutting the rope. Why can’t we trust Him and cut the rope? Because we don’t fully believe. Take a look.

The mountain climber, hanging from the rope thought he was being saved by the rope. His security was the rope. He knew, himself, that the rope was keeping him from falling further. His understanding was correct, as far as it went. But his knowledge (limited) and fear kept him from being saved. Did he believe in God? Probably. Did he trust in God? Absolutely not!

And here we are. Do we believe in God? Absolutely! Do we trust in God? Too often, the answer is no. And while the result may not be death or spiritual death to those who truly believe, it so limits our ability to receive the wonderful blessings God is wanting to give us. You see, until you cut the rope and fall out of trusting in yourself, and fall into a full trusting in God, you can’t experience the full measure of His blessings on your life. And until you cut the rope, without understanding what will happen next, you cannot even begin to appreciate what God is wanting to do in and to your life.

Pr 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

How about this version: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and cut the rope. Cutting the rope when He tells you to goes against all you know. It puts you out there, relying totally on Him. Not on yourself, or your own understanding. Trust in Him. With all your heart. And not in yourself, and most of all your own understanding. (I know I repeated that; it’s that important!)

How can you tell how much you trust in God and not your own understanding? When was the last time God asked you to do something that you didn’t want to do, or were afraid to do? Not something you really wanted or dreamed about, but something that took you outside of your selfishness. Something that you didn’t want, but He did. Something that you couldn’t do, but He could. Maybe it was giving some money, teaching a class, going somewhere, talking to a friend; anything that was beyond your comfort level. How did you make your decision?

If you held securely onto the rope of your life and could not understand how you might accomplish this task, therefore turning away, congratulations! You are like most of us. Wandering in the wilderness, afraid to leave our own understanding and trust God by crossing into His promised land, trusting Him to provide the way. This is where we will die, wondering why we never seem to receive those wonderful blessings others talk about.

If you thought about it and prayed about it and determined that it was the right thing for your life, but you couldn’t understand how it was possible so you just committed to it and trusted that God would make it work, then you already know this lesson. Your only desire should be that God provide even bigger and more extreme tests and tasks so that He can continue to show you the depth of His love and desire to bless you and others!

So, if you are ready to cut the rope, pray that God will reveal to you what test or task you should participate in. Then when it comes, and you are at a loss to understand how to accomplish it, cut the rope and trust in the Lord. With all your heart. And don’t try to understand it, just cut the rope. And He will bless you.

One last thing. If the task or test is impossible, difficult or at least not within your desires, it may well be the right thing. If it is your dream, your desire, your lifelong wish for your life, pray hard and fast. While God may bless us with what we have always wanted, the flesh is contrary to the spirit. The mountain climbers test was not anything he had always dreamed of doing. Be careful that you don’t get caught up in what you want and not what He wants…

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Extreme Bible Study. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.