Trusting God: Maintaining Spiritual Lift in Trials

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. I want to read to you from a report in the ABC News on February the 2nd in the year 2010 the National Transportation Safety Board met today to discuss the findings from a report on the crash of an airplane which killed all 49 on board and one person on the ground after having left the airport in Newark and it was approaching the airport near Buffalo New York as it was coming in to land the plane lost speed due to ice on the wings. [00:01:07]

When ice gets on the wings of an aircraft it not only makes it heavy but it interrupts the flow of air over the top of the wing and makes it heavy and it loses what we call lift which means a plane can literally plunge straight down out of the sky it won't come in on the nice little glide it just stops flying and falls like a stone to the earth that's what the loss of lift is all about when the cockpit warnings indicated that the plane was about to stall remember the stall is just literally stopping in the air and falling. [00:03:20]

Instead of trusting in the training that they had received they'd be they leaned at least the captain did we don't know about the first officer but at least the captain leaned on his own instincts and not on the training that he had been given how much different are we in the house of God you're in a simulator this morning and we're looking in the Bible and we're reading about stories of others and how they've reacted either positively or negatively to situations and we're being trained and taught the right way to speak the right way to think the right way to act so that when we get into a crisis situation we don't have to stall and we don't have to come crashing down. [00:05:01]

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint now the word weight means intertwined as by twisting that's really what it means it's not just waiting on the Lord just sitting there and waiting for God to do something it that's not the context the context is I have inter woven with Christ and he is interwoven with me I have asked for his heart to become mine he promised me new thoughts I've asked for those to be embedded inside the character of my life. [00:07:32]

Coldness gets into the heart coldness gets into the heart because of repetition sometimes of of just doing the same thing every day all day that's why marriages get into trouble because there's there's no effort on the part of the husband or the wife to rekindle that that flame of love that was the the bedrock of of that marriage and quite often that's what will happen to that relationship and coldness can get into our walk with God where we're just so used to doing things repetitively that we're just doing it almost on autopilot we're not even thinking about it anymore. [00:09:21]

It's in these moments that it's imperative that we go back to our training it's it's in these moments it's imperative that we recognize again what God has spoken and in spite of our own instincts if we were instinct is to pull back when God says push forward that's what the pilot did he drew back and the Lord was or the training he had was telling him to push forward and sometimes when we get into trouble or we get cold in our walk with God or the weight of the hour comes upon us our tendency is to pull back even from the house of God pulled back from the service that God pulled back from the Word of God when God saying no not that was not the time to pull back now is the time to push forward. [00:10:21]

In many cases it's because they begin to take lightly both their calling and the instructions that God gave to perform it they begin to take it lightly they don't take it seriously they forget that there's an eternal reward for what we're called to do each one of us are called of God you're not just an observer in the church if you're born again by the Spirit of God you have a calling of God on your life a calling that only you can fulfill nobody else can do it only you can do it it's your calling it's what God gave you to do and he gave you giftings to do it it gave you abilities it gave you reasonings he gave you instruction it's all there everything is there to fulfill your calling. [00:13:27]

He told her all his heart and he said to her no razor has ever come upon my head I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb if I am shaven then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak like any other man in other words since I told her my strength comes from my separation to the purpose of God for my life that's where my strength comes from and he has given me instruction to fulfill that calling now one of those instructions of course was that he was not to be shaven but in his compromise he gave away the secret of his strength to his enemies. [00:16:03]

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man but God is faithful it will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it therefore my beloved flee from idolatry and the adultery at this time that I believe that Paul is in measurably speaking about is the idolatry of the human heart taking the place of God flee from becoming God in your own life flee from putting your own thoughts above the thoughts of God flee from pulling back on the throttle lever when you should be pushing it forward. [00:20:22]

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 it's not time if you're in trouble it's not time if you're heavy it's not time if you find your getting cold to the work of God it's not time if you don't know how you're going to get through tomorrow to draw that stick back and pull back from the Word of God it's time to push it forward this is the instruction and get your face back in the Word of God again instead of lifting up your head and looking for an alternate solution and looking for something from your own heart and from your own mind and a source that comes from your own strength instead of drawing back from the Word of God pushed forward into the Word of God and acknowledge him in all of your ways and he promises to direct your pass. [00:24:27]

You don't learn whether you don't find out whether or not you passed the test when you're in a simulator it's when you're in the crisis of life it's when you have to trust God for your finances it's when you have to believe for your family and for your children and for your grandchildren in for your marriage it's when you don't have the strength to go forward but God says look to me I have all the strength you need to be everything that I've called you to be it's when in honesty we can turn to God say Lord I've lost the passion for your word I've lost the passion for your work I've lost the passion for your presence in my life I've lost the passion for your flowing through my life everything now is heavy everything now is looking like I'm gonna go down and God says you may have lost the passion but I haven't lost the passion for you and I live inside of you my spirit is inside of you you push that stick forward and you will find yourself gaining lift again. [00:30:26]

You know before a plane takes off in cold weather the truck shows up and I'm always glad when I see that truck and they have it as a solution to call a de-icing solution that it sprays it on the wings of the plane thank God because I don't want to ever be in a plane that loses lift it's not a that's not a good thought I guess some of you need to be de-iced before you take off from here today you need to be de-iced and it's a spray called trust God I will trust you I will trust you as we have a song we sing I'll trust you in the darkness I will trust you with life's problems I will trust you I will trust you Lord. [00:32:56]