Surrender the outcome unto God
Faith is an essential part of our belief in God. Scriptures tell us that without faith it is impossible to know God. Why is that? It is mainly because of how God exists. God is not a person as we know people to exist. God does not live in a mortal body or live in a particular location where you can go there and meet Him face to face. God exists in Spirit and in Truth. In order to know God, you must know Him as He exists, in Spirit and in Truth. You might ask, how does one learn how to do that when we live in carnal bodies and truth does not appear to live in us in its pure form. We tend to relate to information gathered through a multitude of resources that we use to come up with what we believe to be true. However, unless that information comes directly from the Holder of Truth, we cannot be certain that our information gathering abilities are capable of discovering the truth. Though we wish it so, there are no guarantees from our side of the equation.
Because of our inability to discover the truth with certainty we are left only with our faith, which dictates how firmly we believe in the things we believe. Scriptures tell us that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen. There again are those intangibles that we cannot put our arms around. We hope for a lot of things but that does not always translate into things that we acquire. If the evidence is based upon things that are unseen then that means that we hope for things that we cannot see. Quite frankly that is usually a problem for most human beings. It goes against the very way we are taught to think rationally. It is not even logical by human standards, yet that is at the heart of our faith and our belief system.
As I have aged my faith has gotten stronger because I have tons of life experiences to use in order to measure how things ultimately panned out as I applied my faith. When my faith was weaker during the days of my youth I did not have experiences under my belt to help me figure out how things would possibly work out. It was like walking in the dark. I used my gut instinct to assist me and many times my gut was dead wrong. Hopefully, I would learn from my wrong choices and choose another option the next time something similar occurred. After so many life experiences you eventually learn from the earned wisdom you acquired over your lifetime. Would that what we believe to be faith?
Proverbs three tells us to tune our ears to wisdom and open our hearts to understanding. If we hold these two things as precious commodities then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God because the Lord gives us wisdom and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding, according to Proverbs. These would be very eloquent words to a wise heart but to one without experiences in life, you would wonder how do you receive wisdom from the mouth of God?
The passage that I am leaning towards in this message is this:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.
I have spent years studying scriptures so I personally know that the Lord gives us wisdom through the very lives that we are living. We learn to know God by living with Him through life and relying upon His gentle guide. Most of us do not come out of the womb blessed with such ability. It is gained through wisdom, life experiences, and just as importantly, a study of the Word of God. Only then does the voice of God open to those who seek Him diligently. It is more precious than anything else in life that you could possibly ever desire. But, unless you know how to get there it appears as elusive as the substance of faith, based upon unseen things hoped for. To me, it is no longer a thing that I seek because I know God in Spirit and in Truth but it took me the better part of my life to get to this point of inner knowing.
If I look back at my life as a child further up into my early to mid-adult years I had no clue about the things that I would learn through the experiences my life has unfolded. Since the seed of God was planted in me from the beginning, that seed sprouted, it grew roots, a plant formed reaching upwards, and now the plant is producing good fruit. I am not entirely sure all people are as fortunate in the same manner. Not all have the seed of God planted in their lives at an early stage as they are developing into who they are, what they believe, how they feel or process things. Yes life comes at us very fast and furious, but are people able to slow down enough to consider this notion of God? Though it’s the most essential thing of life itself, if you do not know how to get there you most certainly will miss the boat.
Does God somehow signal to all people alerting them that there is something very important that they need to figure out? Perhaps! I am so grateful that I had my elders, friends, and relatives that promoted God to me. They put this desire in me to find God. But again, does that happen for everyone? When I was younger I did not have this burning desire to really get to know God in a very intimate way. That only came over time and through a lot of soul-searching that led me to reading and studying in order to activate the Spirit of God in me and also hear the gentle voice of God that guides me.
Can those of us who have found this wisdom share it with others who are just as lost as we once were? Though I am willing to shout the good news from every mountaintop and even shout up from the valleys below about the love that I have found in God… I don’t think my belief or faith transfers to others just because I believe. You actually have to desire God and open your heart to Him using your free will power. The Spirit is the one that teaches you what you need to know once you desire Him in order that you might develop an intimate relationship with the living God.
My title says to surrender the outcome unto God. Before many of you feel comfortable surrendering to unseen things that you hope to find you must be willing to trust in the Lord with all your heart and all your soul and all your might and then… then… and only then will He open the doors to wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that usually comes with older age after life has beaten you down to the internal doors of your immortal soul. They say youth is wasted on the young… Tell me about it!
If you want to learn more about God perhaps you might consider looking for a church, or a person, or a place where such things are taught. In that manner, you are not simply hoping for things unseen but relying on people or things that God has already placed in your life. Our fellow servants serve as earthly angels down here as well. Guess who sent them to you? Perhaps it is time to slow down and listen for that quiet gentle voice of the Most High God… Selah!
