Good morning, friends. Last week we spent time looking at fear and the antidote to it, which is, in simple terms, heeding God’s call to come and find rest in Him (Matthew 11:28-30). This week the word I am focused on is TRUST.
The Lord has really been speaking to my heart on this topic in recent days. It started with a conversation I had on Saturday morning with our 10-year old granddaughter, Felicity. This sweet child is a very deep thinker, probably because in her short 10 years, she has experienced deepest pain and sorrow, losing her sister and her Daddy within a 4 year period of time. This particular morning she asked me a very tough theological question, which I am choosing not to share because it is a deep, and often controversial subject, one I don’t want to get into in this particular venue. However, I will share with you my answer to her.
I told her that the Bible does not give us a lot of answers to this particular question, but what we can know for sure is that God is good and He will always do what is right. Our job is to trust Him, no matter what. We looked up the meaning of the word trust and found this definition: “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something”. Synonyms include confidence, belief, FAITH.
This conversation brought to my mind some thoughts that I have been waiting for the appropriate time to share with you. This seems to be it! Last summer, Steve and I were blessed to vacation in Interlaken, Switzerland. (See picture below. Yep, that is the absolutely amazing scene we were privileged to see for 6 glorious days!). One of the most popular activities people choose to do in Interlaken is Tandem Paragliding. Now, I need to clarify that this is not on my bucket list, so you will never see me actually participating in this event. But we were afforded the amazing opportunity to watch from our hotel window as the participants jumped off the mountain. And we also could watch them land in the field in front of the hotel.
One morning, I was sitting by the River Aare, which runs behind the hotel, and I was just watching in utter fascination at these brave souls who choose to glide through the sky in this manner. As I watched, I noticed something that, to me, had great spiritual applications. It appeared to me that some of the guides offered a more adventurous ride with lots of twist and turns. Others appeared to just prefer a smooth ride, with less twists and turns. The thought that occurred to me was that the ride most likely depended on how comfortable the participant was with their guide, how deep their trust level was. If they trusted their guide to lead them to a safe landing, no matter the twists and turns along the way, they were more likely to lean into their guide and just enjoy the ride. If they were nervous or fearful, their guide responded with a less adventurous ride for them. But ultimately, they all were kept safe, held securely by their guides. Isn’t that a picture of this crazy life we lead?
How much we enjoy the “ride” depends on our trust level in the One who has us in His grip, who determines the number of twists and turns we can tolerate, who promises to never let us go, and guarantees to lead us to a safe landing. TRUST.
These thoughts were reinforced yesterday at Living Hope Presbyterian Church when our guest speaker, retired Pastor Boyce Wilson, spoke on the subject “In God We Trust”. He used a passage of Scripture that I am sure I have read many times. But I saw in in a completely different light yesterday. (Don’t you just love it when that happens????) The passage is Isaiah 33:5-6, but the words that jumped off of the page to me were found in verse 6, “He (the LORD) will be the stability of your times.”
Another way to put it is this: He will be the trustworthiness of your times. No matter the twists and turns. No matter the rate of the descent. No matter what. He will be the stability of your times. You can trust Him, no matter what is going on around you. You can trust Him no matter what is going on within you. I must confess that I have felt very unstable in the 17 months since Jeremy ran ahead of us to heaven. And that has reflected in my life in ways that I am not proud of. That is why this verse hit me between the eyes yesterday.
I think I have been searching for stability in all the wrong places. Oh, how I needed this reminder that He, my Lord, my Savior, my friend, will be the stability of my times. My times are in His hands. The test is, will I believe that? Will my life confirm that I believe that? Not so that I will be made to look good, but so that God will be made to look good. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Will I trust Him this day? The level to which I do that will determine if I am enjoying “the ride” He is taking me on or if I am missing out on the adventure because of fear.
May God help us all to lean into Him, our Guide, and trust Him to lead us to a safe landing.
