Then you don’t. There is no, “I trust God, but” anything. There is no room for a comma, only a period.

We sit on the fence so many times, afraid of going all in with our trust of the Father. Silly us. I include myself here. I have been known to sit atop these fences. But the Bible is clear, that in believing, there is no fence sitting. We kid ourselves. We are either fully grazing on the side of trusting God, or we are completely wallowing on the other side in the mud of unbelief. (Cow and pig references not intended to offend. Just going with the picture in my head here.)

I am also reminded of the lukewarm church at Laodicea mentioned in Revelation. Those Laodiceans? They were fence sitters. Check it out. (Revelation 3) In the meantime, I can assure you, lukewarm is not preferred by our Father. He said, in essence, you’re with me or you’re not.

My dad has cows on a farm. On a fairly regular basis, a cow will take notice of the grass on the other side of the fence. My father is a good cow tender. He provides for his cows. He never has ever let them go hungry. They have all the water they will ever need on their side of the fence. There is sweet grass in the summer, and plenty of hay stored for winter.

He has provided protection from predators in the way of donkeys, which with one kick can eliminate a coyote on the prowl. There are dense woods to protect them from bad weather, and he has provided a healthy community of other cows with which they live and breed. 🙂 Nevertheless, and without fail, a cow will randomly decide that they can no longer rely on my father for their provision, and they take matters into their own hooves and jump the fence… or push down the fence in spite of the barbed wire there to prevent such shenanigans. Here is where the relevance of this analogy begins to fade, but I hope you get the gist.

The daily struggle for many of us is in staying on the believing side of the fence. How can we possibly manage this?

“I mean, what I am facing is so critical! I may need to step in just a little bit and help right here.”

Seriously? We think God needs our help?

“I can’t possibly be expected to just leave this whole situation up to chance, can I?”

No. There is no such thing as chance in the lives of God’s people.

So what are we to do?

The Bible doesn’t call us cows. That’s nice.

It calls us sheep, and Jesus is our Good Sheppard. Our Good Sheppard provides for us green pastures, still waters, rest, and restoration.

Oh, let’s just take a look at the 23^rd Psalm here:

“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures,

He leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

 Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

 Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

There’s no fence sitting in there. David is a committed sheep. He knows his Shepherd, and trusts him fully in all areas of life for provision, protection, and eternal care.

David’s Shepherd is our Shepherd  The very same one. He has never had to come back to us and apologize for making a poor choice on our behalf. No. That’s us. How often do we find ourselves at the feet of Jesus in apology for making a bad decision alone and apart from him? For me, more times than I can count.

Isn’t it time to give up the fence? We are either all in or all out. As for me? I’m choosing my Good Shepherd. I like his track record. Come on over… the grass is fine!