Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Learning to Trust

I had a great conversation with a teller at the bank yesterday.

Honestly, I don't even remember how we got started, but he was asking me questions about God and my faith - and the Holy Spirit just took over.
Early on, "R" asked me about how a person can keep the faith in the midst of struggles. And later, he pressed me for a more complete answer. He wondered, How can a person trust God to get them through difficult times?
At that point I think I leaned on the counter to get a little closer to him. And I told R I think it's important to remember what God has brought you through in the past. I believe there is a lot of value in recalling His faithfulness, so you can have confidence for your present circumstances.
Then I looked into his beautiful brown eyes and said, "It seems to me, we have a choice. We can either keep pushing God away and not trusting Him - which will likely result in Him allowing more difficult circumstances into our lives so we have more chances to learn to trust - OR, we can surrender. We can say, 'OK, God. I can't do this on my own. I'm going to trust You to take me through it.'"
That is the way God worked in me to build my trust. I remember it was mostly in hind-sight that I recognized the succession of events in my life which had shown me how trustworthy God is.
Yes. I'm a slow learner.
And at that point, it was rather undeniable. My God had been faithful through big things and small ones. Something in me (I think it must have been the Holy Spirit!) had me completely convinced I could trust Him with all my future needs, too. And so I came to the place of surrender, where I made the decision to trust Him. No matter what.

Before I left the bank, I promised R I was going to be praying for him. And I am. I am asking God to convince R of His love for him, and to help R come to that place of surrender. The place where he will know God is completely trustworthy and faithful.

How about you? How has God been teaching you to trust? Is there any way I can be praying for you today?

Karen

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