Where Is Our Trust?

I have just had the pleasure of my grandson staying with me for a few days, but how to entertain a twelve-year old on his own? We did a cookery course together – guess who did most of the washing-up! – but on another day I took him to the climbing centre nearby. We thought he had been booked in to go climbing, but it turned out that he was to abseil down the highest indoor drop in the UK.

The instructor dressed him in all the necessary equipment and carefully explained how it all worked. All the way through, he kept emphasising that it was perfectly safe, even though it might seem scary dropping off such a high platform. My grandson would first go off a lower drop as a practice and then have a couple of goes at the higher drop. He did the first two drops perfectly, and I was invited to watch him have a second go at the big one. I marvelled when, on listening to the instructor, he walked backwards to the edge of the platform and leaned out over the drop with just his toes on the platform, and then carefully lowered himself to the ground. I asked him afterwards how he’d felt and his reply struck me: “Well, it was a bit scary, but Mark had explained how to do it, that it might feel scary, but that actually it was perfectly safe, so I trusted him, and it was fun.”

God tells us so often to trust Him in all things. In the first chapter of Joshua, for example, the Israelites would have to conquer the different tribes living in the Promised Land, so it wasn’t going to be easy for them, but the Lord gives Joshua the promise that He will be with them. In the same way, He doesn’t promise us that He will be a ‘bridge over troubled waters’, but He will be a ‘life-jacket’ as we go through them. Jesus warns us that ‘in this world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33). And the Amplified version adds, ‘I have deprived it (the world) of power to harm you and have conquered it for you’. He knows that we will face difficulties in this world, but with Him beside us, we can overcome them.

Like my grandson, we need to believe the Instructor’s words to us, and trust Him to see us through the difficulties. (Incidentally, my grandson enjoyed his time so much, that he stayed on for a climbing session!)

Prayer: Dear Father, everything seems too big for me to handle at the moment, and yet I hear You calling out through Your Word, “Trust Me.” It’s hard. Please forgive me when I look away from You and just see the problems. I know that You are with me, because You tell me so. Please help me to know that in my heart, not just in my head. Thank You, Lord, Amen.