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But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. (Psalm 13:5)
Every team building exercise involves trust falls. You stand on a platform and fall back, praying that the sea of team members catch your helpless body that is quickly descending toward the ground. Trust.
There is immediate relief that happens when you feel hands and arms grabbing your back to stop your fall. Sometimes you would do similar trust falls with siblings and they would enjoy catching you as close to the ground as possible just to make sure that you trust them, and partly just to freak you out.
When falling, we resist the urge to put our foot back and stop our fall or we look coyly over our shoulder to make sure that our trustworthy partners are there.
There’s a video on YouTube that is guaranteed to get a few laughs. It is a girl and her sister doing a trust fall and you can hear the dad in the background saying, “Close your eyes and fall.” This adorable little girl who has never done or seen a trust fall mistakenly falls face forward.
Sometimes we are as silly as this little girl. Without much instruction and guidance, we can fall face forward with no one to catch us. We are almost guaranteed to mess things up or fall on our face if we try to chart our own course or plan our own way.
But what happens when we allow God’s guidance and instruction in our lives? We are able to trust in his unfailing love.
Why is it so difficult for us to trust? Do we trust in ourselves more or are we just terrified of not knowing what God has in store for our lives?
We are reluctant to obeying God because we don’t trust Him. We can’t take that fall. We will always be hesitant and untrusting of God and if He will catch us. Trust is difficult for us because it involves us giving something up. Giving up power, control and safety; things we relinquish when we put our trust in something other than ourselves.
Just look at how broken humanity is. We constantly fail, stumble and let other people down. But God’s love is unfailing. His perfect, flawless and absolute love is something that when we trust it, it will never fail us.
Overcoming distrust is not easy to do. But when we put our confidence in God, we don’t have to worry in times of trial. The imagery depicted in the verses found in Jeremiah 17 says that even when heat and drought comes to this tree, it still is green and produces fruit. That when we fully put our reluctance aside and our confidence rests in God, we will be like the tree and become fruitful in hard times.
May the God of power and unfailing love give you the strength and courage to overcome fears of trust. And let our trust in God during the good times and the bad be reflective of His glory and the salvation that is found in Jesus Christ.
