and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6
This is one of the greatest, most powerful Bible verses for me right now. And, it is a bit difficult to process and follow at times. Trusting the Lord with all our hearts? How do we do that? More importantly, how do we do it fully and effectively?
But, we must. If we are to see the fruits of our labor, we must trust our labor to the Lord. That is not to say that God will just hand things over to us if and when we turn things over to him and trust Him. We still have a part in this. Just as Peter had to step out of the boat onto the water, we must take steps in faith. We are called to trust. We are called to have faith. Faith and trust will work together to glorify God and in doing so will benefit us.
From Casting Crowns' "Voice of Truth": Oh what I would do to have, The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I'm in, Onto the crashing waves, To step out of my comfort zone, To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is, And He's holding out his hand, But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me, Reminding me of all the times I've tried before and failed, The waves they keep on telling me, Time and time again. 'Boy, you'll never win!', "You'll never win", But the voice of truth tells me a different story, And the voice of truth says "Do not be afraid!", And the voice of truth says "This is for My glory", Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth...
In 2003, I did a mission trip to Santiago de Chile. While there, I "received" a Bible verse from a young woman with the spiritual gift of knowledge. It was an interesting experience to go through receiving this verse. I have since found that countless people hold this verse very dear to their hearts. However, it will always and forever have special meaning to me and I am tying it in with some of the writing I am doing now post-divorce.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Reading that renews my faith and reminds me of why I need to trust God. I hope it will do the same for others.
To end this kick-off to our blogging journey of trust, I leave you with this quote:
“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy” - Walter Anderson
Perhaps we can pick up with that quote in a future blog post.
And lastly, a bit of a lullaby to end this late night:
