Trust: One of God’s Best Gifts to Us
My husband and I got deeply invested in a TV series during the pandemic. For awhile it felt like a lifeline to the outside world. Every night we would cue an episode and get lost in the story. And then I would try to discuss it for an hour while he tried to go to sleep.
No matter the genre, it is story that keeps us going. We simply have to know what is going to happen to these characters. Their ups and downs stoke our curiosity.
Will they make it through disaster? Will life pan out as they hoped?
These plots grab us and don’t let go because they mirror the pining in our own minds.
Will we make it through? Can we trust that good will win? What is the ending to our own stories?
Trust feels hard.
It takes time to develop.
Yet it’s easily broken.
We go through life trying to find safe people and spaces in which we can lean heavily, even in painful times, and find that they will support us and hold us up.
Repeatedly in scripture, God tells us to put our trust in Him only.
Something in us rebels, pushes back. It’s too difficult. It feels intangible and just out of reach. We want Him to leave us with our worry a little longer because at least it feels like something is being done about it.
Have you ever considered that trust is actually God’s gift to us and not the other way around?
He’s not saying, Just give me the trust and take a big chance on me in case it works out.
He’s saying, Trust is actually my gift to you, you who so desperately crave safety and surety and a sense of place. I have given you the safest place to rest in my presence. I created trust after all. I have given you the ability to always feel safe in me. Freely receive it.
Trust is something we get to do. This paradigm shift unlocks hope in us. We don’t have to wait for the good next season to come in order to feel good again. We don’t have to wonder if good will win anymore. It always wins in the end. Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4: 16,17).
If you are thinking, “these troubles are neither light nor momentary,” consider what that means about eternity. God is not calloused to our pain. How great must eternity with God be for Him to consider these troubles light and momentary?
Hold on and keep trusting. Remind yourself of this—God is here for you now, and good is going to win in the end.
Scripture for meditation
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that for outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:16, 17
Discussion & journal prompts
What is currently weighing down your mind?
What is keeping you from fully trusting in God with this thing or person?
Take a moment to pray over and bless that situation or person and ask God to help you give it over for Him to solve and carry for you.
Share your thoughts on this devotion and discussion questions or request prayer in the Dawn app, located in Resources > Community.
