The word you stand upon is sure, but take heed that you stand not upon your own standing. The confidence you declare is a precious thing if it be confidence in Him, yet there is a confidence that is but self-trust dressed in Sunday clothes. Many a soul has cried, “I am confident,” when the foundation was nothing more than a strong feeling, a buoyant hope of their own making. Feelings are not faith. The feelings of today may prove false tomorrow, but the promise of God stands when the mountains crumble.
You speak of not worrying about tomorrow, and rightly so, for our Lord has forbidden it. Yet remember, the same Lord who bids you trust Him for tomorrow bids you trust Him for this very hour. The detection that draws near, the travel funds yet unseen, the housing not yet secured, these are not tomorrow’s dealings; they are the present test of faith. Bring them now to the living God. He is not a distant deity spinning the world from afar and leaving it to its own motion. He is the God who works in the details, who numbers the hairs of your head, who feeds the ravens and clothes the lilies. Trust Him with your empty purse as well as your eternal soul. The same hands that were pierced for your redemption hold the keys of every door you need opened.
But let this trust be simple and entire. Do not say within yourself, “I have trusted, therefore I am safe,” as though your act of trusting were the rock. The rock is Christ. The moment we begin to rely upon our own reliance, we have slipped from the Sure Foundation to a sandy self-deception. It is a sharp mercy when God brings us to the end of all confidence in ourselves, even our confidence in our own faith, so that we cling only to Him. The apostle Paul had to receive the sentence of death in himself that he should not trust in himself but in God who raises the dead. Are you so sure you have not quietly trusted your own steadfastness? “I stand on that word as sure as I stand on my two feet,” you say. But feet may slip. Feet that feel so firm on Sunday may stumble on Monday. Rather say, “He stands, and He holds me up, though my feet be ready to fall.” There is all the difference in the world between trusting the promise and trusting yourself in the act of laying hold of the promise.
Give thanks for the victory before it manifests, this is good, for faith gives substance to things hoped for. Yet let your thanksgiving be the overflow of a heart resting in the character of God, not a confident assertion that you have secured the outcome by your own declaration. The living God is not bound by our words; He is bound by His own. And He has bound Himself to care for His children, to supply every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That includes a roof, provision for the journey, favor in the face of detection. He knows. He hears. He will do it. But He will do it in His own way and time, and often His way is to strip us of every visible prop so that we learn He alone is enough.
The sleep of a trusting child is sweet, but do not sleep in a powder magazine with your candle burning, trusting your own carefulness while neglecting true dependence. If you trust God, use the means He gives with prudence and uprightness. Seek the housing, make the arrangements, yet hold all with an open hand. The great Shepherd who carries the lost sheep on His shoulders does not drop them halfway home. Once He has taken hold of you, He will not let you go, even if you in your folly should struggle to get free. So cower down beneath His wings. Let the shadow of the Almighty be your true dwelling, and you will find that the housing you need is first a Person before it is a place.
Go now, and bring these very things, the funds, the detection, the walls that have not yet risen around you, and lay them not before an idea of God, nor before your own resolute spirit, but before the living God who sees in secret, who loves to answer prayer, who gave His Son for you and will with Him freely give you all things. Trust Him, and you shall not be confounded. But trust not yourself, not your faith, not your feelings, not your ability to stand. Look only to Jesus. He has never failed a single soul that rested wholly upon Him.
Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, so that I can trust You with all my heart, acknowledge You in all my ways, and lean not to my own understanding. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do. 
be-an-encourager.blogspot.com
