I Trust My God

When our trust is unwavering in Christ no matter what devastation our lives resemble, our desire should be to relinquish control over whatever is ailing our minds and emotions and surrender to God and what His word instructs us to do, “Rejoice always” (1 Thessalonians 5:15 ESV). Rejoice always, even when life feels out of control, when anger is at our fingertips, when our minds are fogged with exhaustion, or grief has made a home in our hearts… Rejoice Always.

No matter what heartache looms like dark clouds, we have much to rejoice about! We have been saved from an eternal death. We have a remarkable, wonderful, glorious Savior who waged the price of our sins resulting in a worldly death, so we can spend eternity living and praising Him. So even on my bad days, I vow to Rejoice Always.

The funny thing is, the more I choose to rejoice the more my trust grows in the Lord.

Every relationship thrives on trust. Our relationship with God should be no different. Trusting Him is the root of an unimaginable, beautiful, and sweet spiritual experiences that flows into every area and season of our lives.

Trust comes easy when we’re on the mountain top. Trust comes easy when our careers are sailing in high gear, when our health is overflowing, when our homes are filled with the laughter of a spouse and children. Trust comes easy when our lives seem to be whole and intact. But we know our lives and fickle emotions can’t reside on the mountain top forever.

What is your first reaction when the mountaintop views begin to shatter, and you feel yourself freefalling to the valley? Where do you put your trust? Do you shake a fist at God? Do you scream in anguish for too long? Do you find yourself sinking in the depths of your own self-pity? We live in a fallen world. We live with potential hurts all around us. Fears have become almost tangible in our lives, waiting to explode as if they were bombs set off to destroy our worlds at any given minute. When the bombs of life detonate—where do you run for cover? Do you turn to your own self-made shields, or do you turn in a sprint to the throne of Jesus?

I hope you answer Jesus to all of these questions. Jesus. He is the answer to everything.

I’ve tried running the other way. I’ve tried “fixing” life my way. I’ve tried putting on a brave face and pretending everything was okay when my heart was shattered to my core. I have faked it until it looked like I was making it for so long. That life is exhausting, and leads to only more exhaustion.

I want Jesus.

End of story.

I want Jesus to penetrate the bad days.

When I say ‘bad days,’ I mean the really bad days. Not the, I-woke-up-a-little-late-kind-of- bad day, or I-spilled-my-coffee-kind-of-bad day, or I-got-a-flat-tire-on-my-way-to-work kind of bad day. I mean the heart-breaking, life changing, kind of bad days. The doctor report comes in and it’s not what you expected. You walk into work after decades of dedication and find a pink slip on your desk. You woke up that morning with your family safe, but go to bed that night with your heart ripped out of your chest because your spouse, child, or parent is no longer on this side of glory. The gut-wrenching, you will NEVER be the same kind of bad days. God is still God over those days too. His sovereignty still reigns supreme when we have absolutely NO strength left of our own to muster up.

His strength is all we need. He will give us the grace to survive the hard days. He will never leave us or forsake us.

Ever.

In reflection of personal trials and spiritual growth with my Jesus—when we enter into a personal relationship with the Lord, our lives and plans become broken. During our repentance, and seeking Him, our lives are absolutely broken for His glory. I recently heard of a story about a small child at a grocery store. The child was playing with a glow stick. An unbroken, non-glowing glow stick. The child was ecstatic over this dull stick of a toy. An older child walks up to the baby and takes the glow stick. The baby becomes inconsolable. The older child breaks the stick. The stick lights up in luminous glowing colors. The young child is now holding the bright glowing stick. But he is still inconsolable. The baby didn’t know the purpose of the stick. The baby was satisfied with the unlighted stick before the brokenness allowed the light to shine.

Isn’t that how our lives look sometimes? Often, we are satisfied and complacent with dull spiritual lives. The Holy Spirit is continuing to prompt us to surrender our lives so He can break us of sin, self-centeredness, and complacency and Christ can be illuminated through us.

What if we were made to be broken for the glory of our Savior?

I have come to learn of the beautiful grace the Lord showers on us when we surrender our brokenness to Him. I have found myself begging God to break my heart for what breaks His. I have learned to praise God during unimaginable earthly pain—all through His strength and the faith He chose to give me. He sustained my earthly being when I had no emotional or spiritual strength left.

They say to write what you know…

What do I know? I know heartache. I know life at its darkest, most earth-shattering time. I know Redemption in the highest form. I know Love. I have known an all-consuming earthly Love. I know an out of this world eternal Love.

This is what I know.

This is what I will write.

This is my story.

I Trust my God, I Trust my God, I Trust my God.