Trusting Jesus - that is all!

I have written on trust before. Slowly but surely I find myself learning that God is in charge. And this is a good thing. Those words used to strike fear in my heart. "God...in charge? But I don't know if His plans are good. I don't really think He even likes me." I would quote verses to myself about His plans to prosper me and to give me hope, but I couldn't get the knowledge down deep. It stayed on the very surface.

Today? I am still scared. But it is different. More just nervous, I think. I don't know how things are going to work out, but I trust the One Who is at work.

Simplistic? Perhaps it seems that way, but in reality there is a deep acceptance that must take place before one can truly trust Jesus. I think when we say we "trust Jesus" we are making a statement of surrender and commitment. We are accepting the grace He is offering and stepping forward in obedience. "I trust You" says to me that I accept Christ as Lord, that I don't have to know all the answers and that I believe that He will work in me...in my life...what is best.

I think the hardest thing may be remembering that what is best does not necessarily mean that which is easiest. And that is when fear starts knocking at the door again. That is (or should be) the time that I draw all the closer to Christ. I am learning about the perfect peace that passes all understanding...that peace is based on (and rests in) Christ alone. The peace is truly unexplainable. It is not ignoring things or burying my head in the sand. It is not found in denying reality. Neither is it superstition. It is leaning on God and letting Him draw me nearer to Him as I walk in the way He leads me.

I certainly don't know all the ins and outs about trust, and what I do know has been learned over the course of a very painful journey. I do know, though, that I long to continue on the path in which God is leading me. I have found this to be true: He is faithful and trustworthy - my life could not be in better hands.

The following quote is one of the most powerfully stated quotes on trust I have read. Enjoy!

"The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise." — Brennan Manning (Ruthless Trust: The Ragamuffin's Path to God)