Can God Be Trusted?

This was when I came face to face with the beaten pulp of my broken self. I was a young man with a trust problem. My desire was to earn the favor of God and be a better person than everybody else. I wanted to be perfect. But the Spirit of God was saying, “You must trust me. You are a fellow struggler not a superhero here to save the world. I saved the world. You cannot.”

I wasn’t able to pin-point the source of my life’s problems until God led me to Ozark Christian College. A man named Travis Hurley gave his personal testimony during chapel insisting that we must, “Rip open the floorboards of your life. Hide your old self no longer. You died to sin. How can you hide it any longer?” You can watch the sermon at https://youtu.be/tt-QxpO0w-E.

Not more than a couple of weeks later, I drove home and made two life changing decisions. First, I completely opened up about the battles in my mind to keep lustful thoughts at bay. Second, I took one of my brothers out for a Sonic drink and apologized for the frustration and dissension that I had held over him for 3 to 4 years. By the power of the Holy Spirit, I dared to rip off the floor boards and allow Jesus to work on the parts of my life I had been keeping secret. He removed the seed of potential from my beaten flesh and planted my life in His life.

This was the start of my journey to freedom in Christ! It was an invaluable turning point for me that allowed me to move from doubting God to trusting God. And as if a switch had been flipped, it also benefited my friendships with others. Why? Because I was willing to speak with raw honesty about my failures and successes, others were willing to share their lives with me.