Trusting God - Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. - Proverbs 3:5-6

    I have often heard from people how God has somehow disappointed them in their lives. The issue may arise from personal problems that remained in spite of prayer. It can often come from friends or family members who have found life to be a constant struggle. Again prayer or a poor facsimile of prayer has failed to produce a remedy for these problems. The one constant in their minds is that God is at fault. For some inexplicable reason it is all God’s fault. “When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.” - Proverbs 19:3. We are so certain that it’s all God’s fault that we even devise ways to place the blame on Him. “The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’” - Genesis 3:12.
    Since I’m not necessarily privy to people’s issues I could only, at best, suspect what the inherent problem really is. However, my own human experience allows me to analyze the base vexation. You see, over the years, I have lived my life as an offense to God. By the time I reached the age of fifty, I had cajoled, given excuse, and tried to mitigate my stiff-necked resistance to all thing related to God. I was certain that I was doing just fine making life decisions on the fly, regardless of the effect those decisions had on those around me. The heartache that I fueled throughout those terrible years can never be recompensed. And despite the personal responsibility I bore, I still managed to question the involvement of God. When things came crashing down around me and blame needed to be placed, I heard the question of the ages - “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” - Romans 9:20.
    Despite the hedonist lifestyle I lived, God chose to bless me in spite of myself; the blessing did not go unnoticed. In fact, it is only by the grace of God that I can confess to those bad decisions today. And it was only after I surrendered my will to God that my life turned as all truly repentant lives turn. I stopped living life according to my own worldly agenda and started living my life according to God’s will for me. Once I did, life became “liveable without regret.” Because I learned the lesson of the Kingdom of God. “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” - Matthew 6:31-33. Once I learned to seek first the Kingdom of God, I was blessed to receive the things I needed in life, not this very moment but when God deemed I needed them.
    We all grouse and complain over the things we don’t have or the opportunities we have been denied or the results we wanted and expected. Whether it be prosperity, health, or just our basic needs, God knows what we need and He knows when we need it. And until we recognize and accept those realities we will continue in our misery. And that is not to suggest that accepting God’s providence and His timing is going to make our lives trouble-free. We must remember that we live in a fallen world and its corruption affects us all. Saints and sinners share this world and oftentimes God’s common blessings and providence  are granted to and thrust upon all of us. We cannot escape the effects of sickness and death as long as remain in this world. It is ludicrous to think we can, regardless of our standing before God. “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die” - Ecclesiastes 3:1-2.
    It makes no difference what our bone of contention with God is. Whether it be a nasty divorce, a child’s death, the loss of employment, a personal battle with some terrible disease, or simply a less than stellar set of life circumstances. Anger with God is a no-win situation. God is infinite; we are finite. The proper response to a crisis or distressing situation in our lives is not to choose battle with God! We must accept the will of God as it manifests itself in our lives, whether the outcome is what we hoped and prayed for or not. And we must constantly remember - “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:26-28.
    Because we live in a fallen world we will, at times, be faced with tribulations and adversity. We can either grouse with the Almighty God or we can approach Him with humble and contrite hearts, willing, through the strength of the Holy Spirit, to accept His will for our lives. That is trusting God.