Trusting God With All Our Hearts

We live in a time when it is difficult to trust people and institutions. Trust is difficult when we have had past experiences of being let down and left disappointed. We withhold trusting others and we can end up having a victim mentality resulting in not being able to move forward with all that is awaiting us. Often we translate our experiences with people and institutions and we even stop trusting God fully. Trust can be defined as a firm belief in the character, strength, or truth of someone. God wants us to have a deep, high trust relationship with Him so that He can direct and guide us through life especially through life’s difficult circumstances. Can we trust God completely? Can we trust Him with all of our heart and hold back nothing? What should our response be?

The prophetic book of Isaiah contrasts the responses of two kings of Judah, Ahaz and Hezekiah who both received counsel from Isaiah. Both these kings faced threats from their enemies and they had a choice to make, to make alliances and trust others to deliver them or trust God instead. The responses of these kings help us understand the two different patterns we ourselves can choose in our relationship with God, a model of doubt and fear or a model of trust and faith. Often we are faced with these choices in our lives when we face obstacles and difficulties. We too are faced with the temptation to take matters into our hands and trust our own skills and resources or the systems of this world instead of depending on God alone for our deliverance and breakthrough.

In Ahaz’s time, two kings Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel joined forces and were lined up to fight against Jerusalem in Judah. Ahaz’s response was one of fear and God sent Isaiah to encourage him and provide him with counsel. Isaiah’s word from the Lord was that these two powers who were plotting were just smoldering stubs of firewood and Ahaz was to trust God to deliver Judah. However, Ahaz didn’t exactly follow this advice from Isaiah. Ahaz thought he would go to the powerful kingdom of Assyria instead and request it to come to his rescue.
Isaiah 7:1-4
¹ When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it. ² Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. ³ Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. ⁴ Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 

Ahaz responded in fear and out of his own understanding and resources. He failed to recognise that he was servant of One True living God and not the servant of the king of Assyria. Ahaz not only confesses to the Assyrian king that he was his servant but actually takes the consecrated articles of gold and silver from God’s temple at Jerusalem and hands it over as a gift to the Assyrian king. When we look for deliverance and a way out of the trouble using our own resources and relying on our understanding rather than depending on God, we are behaving like Ahaz. This model of fear and doubt and not trusting in God will not ultimately work out well for us just like it did not for Judah. Aram and Israel end up defeating Judah with fatalities of 120,000 soldiers and Judah was made an Assyrian vassal state paying heavy tributes.
2 Kings 16:7-8
⁷ Ahaz sent messengers to say to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, “I am your servant and vassal. Come up and save me out of the hand of the king of Aram and of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸ And Ahaz took the silver and gold found in the temple of the Lord and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.

In contrast, king Hezekiah was one who really wanted to please God. He was one of the better kings of Judah who brought about religious reforms which included resuming temple worship, getting rid of idolatry in the land, renewing commitment to the covenant and instituting the Passover celebration. Like Ahaz, Hezekiah faced threats too and this time it was far more serious. The Assyrian king Sennacherib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them and then sent a commander with a large army to Hezekiah at Jerusalem (Isaiah 36:1-2). Hezekiah humbled himself and sought the Lord at His temple. Then Isaiah brought a word of encouragement that the Lord would cause Sennacherib to go away and be actually killed and thus spare Jerusalem and Hezekiah. Hezekiah chose to trust God and offered up prayers and God did spare Hezekiah and Jerusalem!
Isaiah 37:15-17
¹⁵ And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: ¹⁶ “Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. ¹⁷ Give ear, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see; listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to ridicule the living God.
Isaiah 37:33
³³ “Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: “He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.”

When you compare Ahaz and Hezekiah, you see how Ahaz responds in doubt and fear and how Hezekiah responds in trust and faith in God. Hezekiah made a much better choice but at a later point he got too proud and made a bad choice at a decisive moment. Hezekiah on meeting the envoy of the Babylonian king ends up showing him all the treasures of the kingdom of Judah and Isaiah let Hezekiah know of the Lord’s displeasure at that. The Lord declared through Isaiah that He was done with the old systems of king, temple and city; and that God was going do a new thing by preserving a remnant after exile in Babylon. Pride, self-satisfaction and works had now replaced humility and faith in Hezekiah. Hezekiah was better than Ahaz and trusted God though not completely.

God wants our complete trust in Him in all our situations. Yes, we may not see how deliverance and breakthrough may come and it may even seem impossible in the natural. It is very tempting to trust in our resources or systems of this world but God is asking us to lift our eyes to Him and trust Him alone. We need to trust God with all our hearts and all our understanding. God will do a new thing that we cannot forsee in the natural when we are in a place of complete submission, surrender and trust! This is my prayer that you will trust God fully in your circumstance and see Him make your paths straight!
Proverbs 3:5-6
⁵Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
⁶ in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.