Trust is a Battle
Who is God to you?
Verse of the Day
‘Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord , the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. ‘
Isaiah 26:4
Today’s Devotional
This verse immediately follows yesterday’s verse: ‘You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.’ It is interesting that we are promised perfect peace with our trust in God, and then Isaiah reminds us why we can trust in God…because of who He is, the Rock Eternal. God is not saying that He HAS all power and majesty, He is saying that He IS all power and majesty. There is nothing more worthy of our trust than God.
I am finding that trust is a battle. I am called to trust God. I am also human. My brain and my emotions contradict this trust I am building in God, almost daily.
I found an interesting statement on one of the commentaries about trust. “The battle for trust in our lives begins in our minds. If we trust the LORD, it will show in our actions, but it will begin in our mind.” So let’s talk about our minds. Mine is crazy. I think about things that are an absolute waste of my mental energy. Sometimes, I KNOW that what I’m thinking about is untrue (or crazy), yet still I let those thoughts roll around in my head. So how do I change that?
Romans 12:2 says that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds. That sounds fantastic! Let’s do that! But…how? Philippians 3:19 tells us that we are not to set our minds on earthly things. My trust and my peace are not renewed and strengthened when I dwell on myself, my problems and the problem people in my life. My trust is strengthened when I focus on God.
If I want to renew my mind and build an immovable trust in God, I need to be willing to go through a mental retraining process. Every time I notice my thoughts are wandering into worry (or anything else unproductive), I have a choice to make. Do nothing, which leaves me in a place fear, stress and worry. Or… say to myself, “Yep, this is hard. But God is good and He loves me. He has helped me so far, He will help me with this.”
In a spirit of transparency, let me tell you that I have to do the above process MANY times each day. As I practice, it gets easier to go to trust faster. But I am also learning to give myself some grace. Renewing my mind to trust in God is a process, not a switch to flip. I also find it helpful to think about how I would describe God, which gives me things to remind myself as I’m redirecting my brain. To me, describing God as the Rock Eternal does not evoke the sentiment I usually need in moments when I need to trust. So I made my own list. God is good, kind, patient, mighty, holy, gentle, loving, joyful, peaceful, and faithful. The more I remind myself of those things, the more I trust Him.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How do you describe God? Who has He shown Himself to be in your life? How do those attributes of God increase your ability to trust Him? Write out a practice mental redirection, then use it today.
For a further practice of written meditation…
Ask God if there is anything He would like to tell you today. Write down whatever He tells you.