Trust

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matt. 6:26-27

I always thought worrying was what my grandmother did about safe driving or the dangers of women exercising (yes, a generational thing) or what was happening with the family down the street or the minister at their tiny church. But I’ve come to know worry as something that masquerades as “responsibility”, “stewardship” and “wise planning”. The assumption of these imposters of spiritual maturity is that my future health, peace and well-being rests in my decision making. Tomorrow’s doom or delight rests in my management of today. Hmmm…and yikes!

Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place,…What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Job 38:3-4, 12, 19, 24-27, 33-34

Oh how quickly I forget that I am not remotely in control of my future or my present. And oh how quickly I forget that my lack of control doesn’t mean it is not being controlled by my Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer and loving Heavenly Father. Not worrying, or scheming, or searching my brain for the perfect right solution is actually an act of faith. Do I believe that tomorrow will be just fine because of His control or am I trusting more in my attempts at omniscience and omnipotence?

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matt. 6:31-34

If the righteousness of Jesus is the basis for God’s blessings, it is not my perfect decision making, wise planning, responsible foresight or perfect stewardship. If I believe my own righteousness is sufficient and worthy of His favor, I do not actually need Jesus or His work on my behalf. He asks me to trust His completed work on my behalf which He is working out in me and promises to complete in me. He asks me to trust His perfect decision making, His wise plans and purposes, His foresight and His perfect control over all things, even the very spot to which the waves are allowed to creep and commanded to stop. No door He opens can be shut, even by my stupidity, carelessness or cluelessness. No door He shuts can be opened, even by my greatest efforts, brilliant problem solving or most ingenuitive creatitvity.

He has given me today and not asked me to fake some kind of pseudo-spiritual maturity of self-reliance for tomorrow’s management. I can trust myself and my own understanding or I can trust that He is who He says is, does what He claims to have done and to continually do and will never be less than a perfectly good, loving Father to me in all things. Oh may I rest in His provision for tomorrow, His plans for tomorrow, His management of even today and find peace in place of striving.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13