Trust in the Lord - Part 2

Learning to trust in the Lord is a journey. No matter what age we are, we are all on that journey, sometimes we just don't realise it.

On Thursday morning around one thirty, our youngest daughter, seven years old, reminded me that she too is on that journey. Here is the story ....

Just after midnight, early Thursday morning, she is coughing and crying out. I go to comfort her and give her a cuddle. She says to me in a small voice,

'Mummy, I need to say sorry to God for not trusting Him with the bus ride home.'

'Yes', I respond, 'that is a good idea. And then receive His forgiveness, and ask Him to help you keep learning to trust Him more.'

You see, over a week ago our daughter started getting concerned about an upcoming day when she would have to catch the bus home from school by herself. Her older brother and sisters would be elsewhere that day and would not be catching the bus home. And whats-more, most of their friends wouldn't be on the bus because it was school camp week for the older students. She desperately wanted Daddy to pick her up from school on that afternoon. But Daddy said no, she had to get the bus home.

In one of the moments of anxious tears I told her God would have a plan for that bus ride. I recounted a story of a few years ago when her older sister was anxious about going by herself to a kids program at a different church. However, when she arrived at the kids program, even though it was a different city, one of the young adults from our church was volunteering there. Our youngest daughter listened, but still wasn't convinced all would be okay.

On the Wednesday afternoon of the bus ride home, Ken phoned me to say there was a little girl who walked off the bus with a big smile. God had provided not one, but two, friends on the bus that afternoon.

And so her level of trust in God had increased. And importantly she recognised in herself how it felt to not trust God and worry about a situation that He had already sorted out for her. She was starting to understand that worrying served no helpful purpose in her life.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and green and tomorrow is tossed into the furnace, will He not much more surely clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry and be anxious, saying, What are we going to have to eat? or What are we going to have to drink? or, What are we going to have to wear? Matthew 6:30-31 AMP

Further more, our conversation in those early hours of the morning (really designed for sleep), provided a teaching opportunity on asking for forgiveness and God's willingness to forgive us for everything.

If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action]. 1 John 1:9 AMP

 

I was able to remind her that we have the responsibility to accept God's forgiveness, knowing that that does not keep a list of our sins.

Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him. Romans 4:8 AMP

And that next time when a situation arises bringing with it the temptation to worry, she can remember back to this event, and trust that God will have it sorted. She had moved a step forward on that journey of learning how of trust God more.

What time I am afraid, I will have confidence in and put my trust and reliance in You. Psalm 56:3 AMP 

In my last post, we thought about a vulnerable area in our lives where trusting God is a bit more difficult. So the question for today is, over these past few days, has there been an opportunity for you move to that next level of trusting God? If so, what has that meant for you and your relationship with your Heavenly Father?

I love you, fervently and devotedly, O Lord, my Strength. The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God is keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower. Psalm 18:1-2 AMP