Thoughts for the Day

Tag: Trust God

  • Where Is Your Faith Anchored

    Where Is Your Faith Anchored

    “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” ~ Psalm 118:8 (NKJV) ~

    Where is your faith anchored?

    It’s an easy question to answer when life is calm.

    It’s much harder to answer when someone you admire disappoints you.

    When someone you trusted walks away.

    When someone you respected falls.

    That’s when you discover what—or who—your faith has really been resting upon.

    Every time a well-known Christian leader falls…

    Social media erupts.

    Headlines spread.

    Phones buzz with text messages.

    Office conversations begin.

    Church lobbies fill with opinions.

    Some rush to defend them.

    Others rush to condemn them.

    But almost no one stops to ask the question that matters most.

    Where was my faith anchored before they fell?

    As a boy, I often heard my pastor, Rev. E. G. Bass, say something that has stayed with me for decades:

    “Put your confidence in man if you must, but put your faith only in God.”

    The older I’ve become, the more I’ve realized he was simply putting Psalm 118:8 into everyday language.

    The Bible tells us to honor faithful leaders.

    To pray for them.

    To learn from them.

    But it never tells us to build our faith upon them.

    Why?

    Because every pastor…

    Every evangelist…

    Every teacher…

    Every Christian…

    Is still a sinner in need of God’s grace.

    The Bible never hides that reality.

    Noah stumbled.

    Abraham failed.

    Moses disobeyed.

    David sinned.

    Peter denied the Lord.

    Yet the story of Scripture has never been about perfect people.

    It has always been about a perfect Savior working through imperfect people.

    So when a leader falls, our faith should not fall with them.

    Christianity was never built upon pastors.

    It was never built upon apostles.

    It was never built upon denominations.

    It was built upon Jesus Christ.

    A pastor’s failure cannot undo an empty tomb.

    A minister’s sin cannot erase the cross.

    Someone else’s unfaithfulness cannot change God’s faithfulness.

    Some who fall repent and are restored.

    Some never return.

    God’s mercy remains available.

    Whether they receive it is a choice for which they are personally responsible.

    But regardless of what anyone else chooses…

    Jesus Christ remains exactly who He has always been.

    Yesterday.

    Today.

    And forever.

    Final Word

    Love your pastor.

    Pray for your pastor.

    Be thankful for faithful spiritual leaders.

    But never ask another person to bear a weight only Christ can carry.

    As Rev. E. G. Bass used to say,

    “Put your confidence in man if you must, but put your faith only in God.”

  • Before and After

    Before and After

    📖 “Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him… But He knoweth the way that I take…” — Job 23:8-10

    It started as an ordinary Thursday.

    You weren’t looking for your life to change.

    You were just going to work.

    Going to the doctor.

    Going home.

    Then one conversation.

    One phone call.

    One sentence.

    …and suddenly your life had a before and an after.

    At first, it didn’t seem real.

    Surely there had been a misunderstanding.

    Maybe the tests were wrong.

    Maybe they meant someone else.

    Maybe tomorrow would somehow put everything back the way it was.

    But tomorrow came.

    And so did the questions.

    “What happens now?”

    “How am I going to get through this?”

    “What if everything changes?”

    The future that once seemed so certain suddenly became filled with uncertainty.

    The plans you had carefully made no longer seemed guaranteed.

    You found yourself lying awake at night, replaying conversations, imagining outcomes, searching for answers that refused to come.

    So you did what believers have always done.

    You prayed.
    You searched the Scriptures.
    You waited.
    You listened.

    And if you’re honest…

    heaven seemed painfully quiet.

    Not because you stopped believing.

    Not because you walked away.

    But because you couldn’t understand how God could feel so silent when your world had become so loud.

    Job understood that feeling.

    He searched in every direction.

    Forward.
    Backward.
    To the left.
    To the right.

    Everywhere he expected to find God…

    he found silence instead.

    Yet in the middle of his searching, Job spoke words that have comforted weary hearts for thousands of years.

    He didn’t say, “Now I understand.”

    He didn’t say, “Everything is going to be all right.”

    He didn’t even say, “I know where God is.”

    He simply declared what he knew to be true.

    “But He knoweth the way that I take.”

    What a remarkable statement.

    Job couldn’t see God.

    But he believed God could still see him.

    He couldn’t trace God’s hand.

    But he trusted God’s heart.

    Maybe that’s exactly where you are today.

    You’ve looked in every direction you know to look.

    You’re still waiting.
    Still praying.
    Still hoping.
    Still wondering.

    If that’s your story…

    hold on to Job’s.

    Your ability to see God has never determined His ability to see you.

    He knows where you are.

    He knows what you’re carrying.

    He knows every question you haven’t spoken aloud.

    He knows every tear that no one else has seen.

    He knows every burden you’ve tried to carry by yourself.

    And even if today you cannot say, “I know the way He is taking…”

    you can still rest in this unchanging truth:

    But He knows the way I take.

  • Turning The Page

    Turning The Page

    Some chapters close quietly.

    Not because the story is over…
    But because it’s time to turn the page.

    We may not understand why one season ends or what the next one will hold. But God sees the whole story, while we only see the page in front of us.

    So when something familiar begins to fade, don’t assume God is finished.

    Trust the Author.

    He’s still writing.

    “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it…”
    — Philippians 1:6

  • The Greater Victory

    The Greater Victory

    Scripture: 1 Samuel 24:1–12

    When most people think about David’s greatest victory, they immediately think of Goliath.

    It’s understandable.

    A shepherd boy walks onto a battlefield with nothing but a sling and five smooth stones. One giant falls, an army flees, and a nation celebrates.

    It is one of the greatest stories in all of Scripture.

    But I’m no longer convinced that was David’s greatest victory.

    This week has been filled with thoughts about David.

    First, Nathan confronting him.

    Then Psalm 51.

    Then, on the drive home Tuesday, Lisa read me something she had found on Facebook.

    It simply said that David’s greatest victory wasn’t defeating Goliath.

    It was sparing Saul.

    I asked her to read it again.

    Then I asked her to send it to me.

    The more I’ve reflected on it…

    The more I think there is profound truth in that statement.

    Not because Saul deserved mercy.

    But because David had become the kind of man who trusted God enough to show it.

    At first glance, it almost feels like we’re going backward in David’s story.

    After all, the cave came long before Bathsheba.

    Long before Nathan.

    Long before Psalm 51.

    But perhaps that’s exactly why this passage matters.

    Earlier this week we saw what a heart after God’s own heart looks like when it fails.

    Today we see what that same heart looked like before it failed.

    The setting couldn’t have been more dramatic.

    Saul had spent years hunting David.
    David had done nothing to deserve it.

    He had served Saul faithfully.
    He had fought Israel’s enemies.
    He had married Saul’s daughter.

    Yet now he was living as a fugitive.

    Then the opportunity came.

    Saul unknowingly entered the very cave where David and his men were hiding.

    David’s companions could hardly believe it.

    “This is the day the LORD spoke about!”

    To them, this wasn’t merely an opportunity.

    It was providence.

    David could finally take the throne God had already promised him.

    No more running.
    No more hiding.
    No more caves.

    He quietly crept toward Saul.

    Sword in hand.

    Then…

    He stopped.

    Instead of taking Saul’s life, he cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

    Even then, Scripture says something remarkable.

    “David’s heart smote him…” (1 Samuel 24:5)

    That verse has always fascinated me.

    David wasn’t convicted after killing Saul.

    He was convicted after cutting a piece of cloth.

    Why?

    Because David understood something his men did not.

    The robe represented the office God had established.

    Saul may have failed as king.
    God had already rejected him.
    Samuel had already confronted him.

    But David understood that judgment belonged to God.

    Not to him.

    So David declared:

    “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed…”

    Those words have often been misunderstood.

    Some have used them to suggest that spiritual leaders should never be questioned or held accountable.

    But that’s not what David was saying.

    Saul had already been confronted.
    He had already been rebuked.
    He had already been judged by God.

    David simply refused to seize for himself what only God had the right to give.

    He would wait.
    Even when waiting hurt.
    Even when the opportunity seemed perfect.
    Even when everyone around him insisted this must be God’s will.

    God’s promises will never require us to abandon His principles.

    All too often we see an opportunity and immediately assume God has opened the door.

    But when we dig beneath the surface, we sometimes discover that walking through that door would require us to compromise the very principles God has already made clear in His Word.

    David refused to do that.

    He understood that God’s promise of the throne did not give him permission to violate God’s character in order to obtain it.

    Sometimes the greatest act of faith is walking away from something you have every human reason to take, because you trust that God’s way is always better than your own shortcut.

    As I’ve reflected on David’s life these past several weeks, one thought continues to surface.

    God wasn’t merely preparing David to wear a crown.
    He was preparing him to carry one.

    Anyone can display courage when facing a giant.

    It takes a very different kind of strength to lay down your sword when facing an enemy.

    Goliath tested David’s courage.
    Saul tested David’s character.

    One victory won Israel’s applause.
    The other revealed the heart God had been forming all along.

    Final Word

    David eventually became king.

    Not because he took the throne when he had the chance…

    But because he trusted God enough to wait until God placed him there.

    There are moments in life when we could force the outcome.

    We defend ourselves.

    We get even.

    We take what we believe is rightfully ours.

    The cave reminds us that the greatest victories are not always the ones everyone celebrates.

    Sometimes the greatest victory is trusting God enough to leave justice in His hands.

    Because a heart after God’s own heart doesn’t simply ask,

    “What can I do?”

    It first asks,

    “What would honor God?”

    And perhaps that’s one of the clearest marks of spiritual maturity.

    Not that we seize every opportunity placed before us…

    But that we trust God enough to refuse the ones that require us to abandon His principles.

  • What if Trusting God Means Letting Go of the Plan?

    “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5–6 (NKJV)

    This verse is popular, sure. But lived out? It’s a battleground.

    Let’s start here: Your heart wants control.
    You want clarity. You want steps A through Z laid out before you say yes. But God rarely works that way. Why? Because He’s not trying to grow your comfort. He’s trying to grow your faith.

    And faith, by definition, means trusting what you cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). That’s why the command starts with: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” No back-up plans. No “if this doesn’t work out” safety nets. This kind of trust says, “Even if it doesn’t make sense—I’m in.”

    “Lean not on your own understanding.”
    This is where we struggle the most. Your understanding might be based on trauma, pride, or fear. God doesn’t ask us to discard wisdom, but He warns us not to rely on it above His Word. In fact, Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us just how deceived we can be:

    “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

    So why would we trust our own thoughts more than His?

    “In all your ways acknowledge Him.”
    This is about submission. Invite God into the process. Not just when it’s urgent—but in everything. Invite Him into the budget, the relationship, the business, the parenting, the daily grind. This is how He becomes Lord of your life—not just Savior of your soul.

    “And He shall direct your paths.”
    God’s direction isn’t always obvious. But it is always intentional. Sometimes He redirects through delay. Sometimes He leads through loss. But if He’s leading, it’s never aimless. The path may not be easy, but it’s right.

    🧠 Reflect:

    • Where are you leaning on your own understanding instead of God’s Word?
    • Are there areas in your life where you’ve stopped acknowledging Him?
    • What would it look like for you to trust God with all your heart—no reservations?

    🙏 Prayer:
    Lord, I confess that I like control. I confess I often lean on what I understand instead of who You are. Teach me to trust You fully. Help me surrender the outcome and walk in faith. I believe You will direct my steps—even when I don’t know where they’re going. In Jesus’ name, amen.