Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust is a scary thing because it is a giving up of control. We exercise trust all the time. When I drive through an intersection, I have to trust that the other cars are stopping for a red light. I have no control over them, I must trust them. When I get on an airplane, I exercise trust in the pilots to fly the airplane to my destination. I don’t understand all the physics of drag and lift, but I give up control over my life and entrust it to those who are flying the plane.
Proverbs 3:5-6 are verses that many Christians learn at an early age. There’s good reason for this. It contains wonderful truths about God. But, it is still a scary passage. It calls us to trust God. Not just trust him with your daily activities, or finances, or relationships. But, to trust him with all your heart. This is an invitation to entrust everything we are to God. All our hopes, dreams, emotions, and desires. All our relationships, vocation, and resources. All our time. God wants to be in control of it all.
Giving up control is scary, and yet incredibly liberating. When I trust God with everything, I am trusting someone who is all-knowing and all-wise. There are many things about this life that I simply don’t understand. But, I can go to a God who is worthy of my trust and who is capable of having complete control. God has shown himself faithful time and time again. In the good and the bad, God has been gracious and merciful. And if I am really struggling to trust God, I have to remind myself of what he has done for me in Jesus Christ.
The life and work of Jesus show me that God can be trusted. I sometimes marvel, did God really send Jesus to live, die, and rise again…for me? When I remember that the answer is yes, that changes everything. God did this for me when I was still his enemy! What amazing love. If he would do this for me before I ever accepted him, how much more can I trust him now with all my heart? If God has done the greatest thing for my life, how will he not also take care of the lesser things in my life (Romans 8:32)?
A God who would do all this is a God you can trust. You can give him complete control.
