I was somewhere between wow and ouch as I was reading the Word this morning. I was reading in Genesis 26 as the Spirit began to speak, loud and clear. Check this out.

There was a famine in the land where Isaac and Rebekah were living. God told Isaac to stay put –not to go to Egypt– and He promised to be with him and bless him. Isaac obeyed, despite the circumstances. He chose to “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). His choice to obey and stay allowed God to do what only He could — “Isaac planted crops in the land and THE SAME YEAR reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him.” (26:12-14).

Now the flip side — reading Genesis 26:6-11 showed that, while Isaac trusted God enough to “provide” (a lesson he learned first hand on Mt. Moriah when God provided a ram), Isaac did not trust God enough to “protect” his wife from the men of that land so he lied saying she was his sister. (This screams generational sin –Abraham did the same thing…twice!)

But staying on point here…both Abraham and Isaac feared what man could do to hurt them, and made wrong choices because of that fear.  Let’s face it, it’s scary to trust people because people have the potential to hurt us. 

I know firsthand the pain that comes from being hurt by people, I struggled with the resulting fear for years.  But you know, that fear in my heart and mind was due to my misplaced focus. That fear of trusting people was focusing was on the horizontal, when my focus should have been vertical. The long and short of it is this – people can be untrustworthy, God CANNOT.

People can be untrustworthy, God CANNOT

I may not be able to trust people, but I CAN trust my God. Here’s why I can say that. Because I know that “(my) times are in God’s hands” (Psalm 31:15) and I know that “all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16), and because I have the promise that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) and because His word says that He chose me “to become conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29), then I can be SURE that whether or not I am shafted by people, God can use ANY SITUATION for my good and for His glory.

The only thing standing in the way of this becoming my reality…is ME. What will I choose when faced with a fear-invoking situation? Where will I allow my focus to rest?  Wow…