By: Rachael Starrett
“Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7-8
Have you ever played Mad Libs? You fill in the blanks of a story with nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. My kids would write in the silliest words and laugh so hard they couldn’t even get through reading it. The fun of the game was found in the surprising ways the stories would play out.
Sometimes life is like a Mad Libs story. We’re handed scenarios full of blanks and given the choice of what to fill those blanks with. We could choose words of faith and hope or words of fear and worry that evoke the worst case scenarios.
As I grow in my relationship with God, one of the areas we continually work on is trust. I used to pride myself on being ultra independent. The idea of needing to rely on God, or even other people, was scary. I thought it meant that I was weak and setting myself up to be hurt or disappointed. My instinct was to protect myself, but I realized I was actually stunting my faith, denying God the opportunity to show me He was trustworthy.
Paul puts it beautifully in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 when he writes, “And he said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
It takes strength to look your situation in the face and believe there is a way through it. Even when you can’t see it yet. Even when you don’t understand.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 is such a great picture of what trust in the Lord looks like. “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
I often find myself saying, “God, I don’t know what you’re doing yet, but I trust you.” It’s a prayer that acknowledges there is a problem, but makes room for Him to demonstrate His power.
When we go through hard things, we want a way out. We want an escape. But the promise of God is that He gives us an anchor to weather the storm. A root system that can keep us grounded. A foundation that cannot be shaken.
Trusting God will provide, protect, and work all things together for our good, even when things don’t look so good, is hard. It requires a conscious choice. Do we really believe that God is who He says he is? If the answer is yes, let’s choose to fill in the blanks with His goodness!