Temporal Trust

“What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold."

Job 8:14-15

TEMPORAL TRUST is fleeting and deceptive. It looks like a safety net, but when you lean on it, it gives way. For example, you can trust in a good boss for your employment. However, your boss may receive a promotion, or he or she may leave the company altogether. Do not believe your job secrity revolves around a person or an institution. People may tell you something one day and do something entirely different another day.

Joseph experienced this when his boss believed an untrue accusation about his lack of integrity at work. “When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, ‘This is how your slave treated me,’ he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined” (Genesis 39:19-20).

Trust in stuff is also vain, as metal cars cannot move mountains. Planes and homes cannot answer prayer. Stuff can provide leisure but cannot forgive your sins. Stuff can make life easier, but it cannot provide eternal life in heaven. Certainly money is not to be trusted; rather, it is to be given away and leveraged for God’s kingdom. Trust in what you can see, and you will be disappointed. Trust in what you cannot see, and you will be fulfilled.

Trust in God is like being an instrument-rated pilot who flies through the night.. The flickering lights that illumine the ground can be misleading. It is the accuracy of the pilot’s instrument panel that can be trusted. Otherwise, you may talk yourself into landing on a well-lit freeway instead of the safety of an airstrip.

So are the instruments of prayer, God’s Word, and wise counsel. God uses these tools to provide you the coordinates to direct your life. Do not be in a hurry. He gives you His coordinates for your life as you are ready to receive them. Whether they come one at a time or all at once, remain patient.

Refrain from moving forward until you know exactly the longitutde and latitude of God’s will. The last thing you want to do is land prematurely or, even worse, crash and burn. Trust in God. You cannot see Him, but you can see His evidence all around you - the marriage He healed, the body He made whole, the job He provided, the soul He saved, and the prayers He answered. These shout of God working all around you.

Christ is at work around you and in you. Trust Him with your prodigal child or with a friend who cannot seem to find his or her way. Trust means you give God everything moment by moment, especially those things out of your control. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18).

What temporal trust limits my trust in the Lord? How is He working around me?