Trusting not leaning

While meditating on my favourite scripture on a long walk down the Lancashire canal I decided to speak out each word individually, knowing only the Lord and maybe a passing duck could hear me!

To trust is to believe in and rely on, totally, no half measures and we place all of our faith in Him. When we trust someone else we let go and give them the authority. Anything less than one hundred percent is not trust and we’re keeping some control in reserve for ourselves. So trusting in the Lord is to be with certainty and totality. In the same way it is all our heart, not part of it. All means everything.

When we talk about the Lord, it is the Lord, not any other figure or idol we place our hope in, which may be our job, an ambition or even another person in our lives. If we lean we’re unbalanced and skew, not upright and steady with a solid foundation on which to build our lives. Our own understanding is so limited and short-sighted; as we often discover with the benefit of hindsight. As we open our hearts to the Lord we can see how He leads us in the direction He knows is best and not in the way we, in our limited minds, want to follow. We can truly trust His direction and let go of our own striving and belief that our way is best.

It is in all our ways we acknowledge Him and that’s not just on a Sunday morning in church, or with Christian friends, but in every situation, including the difficult ones. He will make our paths straight, not us, and the distance between the two points is the shortest, saving so much time and effort, and avoiding lengthy detours. Finally notice it is paths (in the plural) so there are many directions our lives can take and different paths to explore, not just one. So if we do stray or come to a dead end, He will lay another path for us that is simply the best way for us to follow for a fulfilled life.

Prayer: Lord I do trust You with all my heart, and I won’t lean on my own understanding. Forgive me when I try to take control myself, and think I can go it alone without You. Lord, I acknowledge You in all of my ways, my thoughts, my words and my deeds. And I know that You will make my paths straight. Thank You, Lord, that Your ways are the right ways, and forgive me when I go off in my own direction. Bring me back every time I stray off the path, and build my faith to trust You, even when things don’t make sense. Amen.