The Challenge of Trusting God

“Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart
And do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him,
And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].” Proverbs 3:5-6 AMP

It’s one of those verses everybody knows. Your great-grandma Ermatrude who barely follows Jesus knows it. Your cheesy neighbor who’s happy to throw a platitude in your face quotes it. It’s one of the first ones kids learn at church and it’s as sage as it is common: “trust in the Lord with all of your heart” 

Sometimes the verse, and the truth nestled within, makes us cringe.

I’m not talking about the truth truth (we’re called to trust)…..I’m talking about the truth of what truth does (we’re happy to say we trust, while holding on for dear life to our fantasies about control…..basically not trusting). Truly trusting? It wrestles and rattles us, uncompromising in its clamor. And more than staring down life, it unflinchingly stares us down. Sooner or later truth wins out, and we, the guilty bystander must let it take its place. 

That’s where I’m at with trust friends. 

I find that while I, along with Ermatrude, the neighbors, and even kids can see it…..it’s a struggle that is there all the same.

Trusting God should be as easy as breathing, but instead, trusting God sometimes feels like we’re suffocating.

I don’t mean any offense by it, because it often is easier said than done but the battle is often trusting enough to let go, and trusting that God meets us as we let go. It is a biblical command to trust. And like most things the Bible tells us to do it is never a half hearted suggestion but rather a full hearted beckoning bellow. With all of our hearts. All. Our. Hearts. 

Take that Ermatrude. 

I think as hard as it is for me to admit, there is something that trust demands of us. It gets us out a slumbering spirituality and gives us an emphatic nudge to let go, and press in. I don’t know many other things that push my personal buttons the way that trust does. Trust proves that I am not in charge. Trust proves that I am not in control. Trust reminds me that I have nothing on my own to prove because I am not the one who holds everything together anyway. So, as much as I hate to admit it, trusting God really isn’t an option.

It is a release. 

It is a surrender.

It is a hallelujah and holy yield.

Trust calls us to acknowledge with everything we’ve got, that we are not in control and God alone is. Then and there, we are found trusting his capable hands to hold us. While this season finds me in daily surrender I’m certain God’s not wasting it. There is something beautifully sacred, and unequivocally challenging about owning this verse, and staking your life on it. Trust is not only a choice but an invitation to lean in, and more fully rely on the promise that as we trust we will know, acknowledge and recognize him more and more. As hard as it is to admit, there is no better way to go than trusting God.

So much love,

Joy