Learning to Trust

Psalm 25:1-2
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
O my God, in You I trust

I spent more time reflecting on this passage this weekend at the retreat we (Wellspring) hosted. These two lines have become my prayer, daily prayer, for almost two years now. Has it made a difference in my life?

I cannot really quantify that answer very well, but this I know, I do a lot more running to God when life presents difficulties. Even when things are going well I still find myself drawn to this prayer of surrender.  In this short little prayer I am confessing I don’t really control much, and that only God can be trusted. I know I have no way of making life always work out the way I want. I can’t trust my soul to this world or to the circumstances of life…even if they are good and pleasant circumstances. If I did, I am sure to be in a bigger mess than I already am.

As I prepared to lead and teach on these two verses something emerged: trust seems to be the opposite side of worry. Worry is this unsuccessful way of trying to control circumstances. 

Trust in God is letting go of worry. Worry seems to be the way to control situations. However, worry does not add one thing to life; it takes away; it robs of life.

Worry is a tight fisted life; trust is open handed. Worry says it is mine; trust says it is God’s, a gift for me to enjoy not control. Worry is angry when something I think I should control or keep is taken away; trust is knowing that God gives better than I can imagine and so I can have peace in all situations.

Trust sees the good; worry and fear sees that this will all turn out badly.

But trust is not magic. It takes surrender.  Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane had to let go of control and His desire for another way, and surrender to the Father’s will.

Brenning Manning writes of trust: “The splendor of a human heart that trusts and is loved unconditionally gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom. Trust is our gift back to God, and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it.” {From Manning’s discussion of his book Ruthless Trust)

Manning also stated something important about trust in difficult times: “The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust—not only for all the gifts that I receive from God, but gratitude for all the suffering. Because in that purifying experience, suffering has often been the shortest path to intimacy with God. I’d also add that biblical trust grows out of love. My trust in God flows out of the experience of his loving me, day in and day out, whether the day is stormy or fair, whether I’m sick or in good health, whether I’m in a state of grace or disgrace. He comes to me where I live and loves me as I am. “

So I keep praying this…until I see Him face to face and the struggles of this life fade away in the glory of His presence.  I keep working on surrender and trust in a God who loves.

Blessings, Scott for Wellspring © copyright 2009

Simple Trust

 

Lord, my heart is not proud;

my eyes are not haughty.

I don’t concern myself with matters too great

or too awesome for me to grasp.

Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself,

Like a weaned child who no longer cries

for its mother’s milk.

Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, put your hope in the Lord-now and always.  Psalm 131

When are we most likely to be in trouble in our walk of faith?  Usually it is when we strike out on our own, confident that we know the way, the how, the why and we start running.    We are involved in great things and we pursue them with abandon.  We feel invincible and unstoppable, so who better to trust than ourselves.  This is what our world recognizes and cheers.  This is a place of pride and selfish ambition.

But this Psalm, Psalm 131, is about as far away from what the world values as any prayer could be.   When our confession is “Lord, my heart is not proud”, we are in the place to listen to God’s voice.  When we can “calm and quiet” our hearts from our own strivings, stop the running and wait upon God, we are in a place of expectancy.  When all of the “important” matters which we struggle with, to figure and sort and manipulate, fall away from our thoughts and in their place we seek God, we are in a place of peace.   

Truly, this is a place of simple trust in God, that His ways are better and wiser than ours and that there is hope in Him.    Accepting this has been for me like a cool drink of water on a long dusty hike.  My longings are satisfied more and more in God and not those things of the world that try to catch my eyes.  But my move in this direction was not easy.  It was accompanied by the many pains which accompany moving from trusting only yourself to trusting God. 

Truly this place is good.  Matter of fact it is better than anything else in the world.  It is like the young child resting in the loving care of a parent.   That is the way it should be between us and our Heavenly Father.  It takes trust to stay there.  It is a daily submission that is worked out in the midst of our daily struggles.  It is not some one time deal that once you attain some measure of trust, you can relax and say I have it made now.  It isn’t easy to cling to humility each and every day, but peace and joy and contentment start there.

Put your hope in the Lord, now and always.  This simple trust will do a great work in your life. 

Scott for Wellspring Copyright 2008

Praying the Psalms

 

Praying the Psalms

A Wellspring Mini-Retreat

Join Wellspring Ministry on 3 different occasions through the summer to commune with God in nearby mountain settings.  These retreats will be times of learning the prayer language God has given us to draw near to Him.  In our times together, we will share teaching on praying the Psalms, moving to an extended time of solitude to pray the Psalms, and lifting the Psalms in prayer as a community.

Dates:

June 7, 2008 – Hike to Bierstadt Lake (RMNP)  (Introduction to the Psalms as Prayers) 8:30 at the parking lot in RMNP with hike concluding early afternoon

July 12, 2008 – Heil Valley Ranch (Praying the Psalms I) 8:30-11:30 AM

August 9, 2008 – Lily Lake, So. of Estes Park (Praying the Psalms II) 8:30-11:30 AM

(Meet in the main parking lots for each, for Bierstadt meet in the Bear Lake shuttle parking lot in RMNP)

 

 

 

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.  Ps 63:1-4

 

For information contact Dave  or Scott, at Wellspring Ministry  Http://wellspring1.wordpress.com