Trust - a dirty word?

When you think about trusting someone, what comes to mind? What makes a person trustworthy? Is it because you have known them a long time or because of them proving themselves to be reliable? Is reliable the same as trustworthy? Trust seems to be one of the most difficult things for us to do as human beings. Multiple times in the Bible we read the phrase, "Trust in the Lord." Easier said than done! I especially like "Trust in the Lord and do not be afraid" (wish sarcasm had its own font!!) The word 'trust' is used 103 times in the Bible -- sensing a theme! It literally means 'trust in; to have confidence, be confident; to be bold; to be secure.'

I like the thought of security. I like to know what is going to happen. My human nature tends to default to believing that I trust the Lord with everything, and then me trying to figure it all out and make it happen through my own abilities. Not that I don't mean well but I can easily slip from being in a position of trusting God and walking in submission to His purposes for me, and moving into my own agenda and control of the situation. Let's just clear something up with regard to that even dirtier word, submission -- the best picture I ever learned of what submission really looks like is 'to lean into.' When we lean into God and cooperate with Him, the task is easier and we have His power available and enabling us to do anything.

So why is it so hard to trust? Why do I struggle with staying in a place of submission to God's will and leaning into Him? It would appear that my human nature wants to be in control of what is going on and to know what is going to happen next. Trusting God means walking in darkness with a flashlight beam's worth of light shining at your feet. God knows where we are going and what the next step entails. So why can't I just trust Him with that and just walk? It would seem that we truly cannot fathom our God or understand His ways. We lack an eternal perspective and cannot begin to comprehend what God is doing and why.

I was praying 'not my will but Yours' -- that's what sparked all this T-word stuff. Can I trust the Lord no matter what, for the working out of His eternal purposes? Jesus prayed that same prayer and submitted Himself fully to the will of the Father in order to accomplish God's ultimate and eternal purpose of salvation for us. Yet Jesus was fully human and fully God. I can't imagine the internal distress and conflict that must have been for Him! To know that He had to fight His human will and allow people to abuse, traumatize  and murder Him without exercising His Divine Identity and Power. Talk about self-control! Especially in light of our human nature default to want to take control. Jesus so easily could have said, "How dare you punch the Son of God!" Lightning bolt = pile of smokin' ash. "Forget it God, I am NOT going to stand for this!" Dramatic roar, slow motion tearing off of the sarcastic purple cloak and the abusers running in terror.

He didn't. He felt it. He asked God to take this suffering away from Him and to accomplish His purposes in some other way. He pleaded in prayer with the Father to the point where blood secreted out of His sweat glands, a medical phenomenon that is seen rarely at points of extreme stress. Jesus chose to trust His Father with the plan. He leaned into God's purposes for salvation & redemption, and allowed God to work through Him to accomplish His eternal purposes.

Will we? Will we choose to trust God's heart and love for us, even if we don't know what the next steps are? I am trying to lean into God and trust Him more and more fully with my life. I'm trying to do that without being afraid and you know what I'm finding in the midst of that? I'm finding God's peace. Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."