Trust in the Lord

When God first began speaking to me about studying what the Bible had to say about trust it came with a scene from a movie that I hadn’t watched or thought about in a long time. The scene was from Disney’s Aladdin where Aladdin, dressed in his royal garb stretches out his hand to the princess Jasmine and says, “Do you trust me?” Aladdin standing on the magical flying carpet, Jasmine, safe and sound on the solid palace balcony. “Do you trust me?” God has asked me this several times over the last few months, stretching out his hand and inviting me into more than I could ever have hoped for or imagined possible.

When I raise my hands that way in a worship service I often feel like a small child with her arms raised to be held by a loving parent. It is only a trusting heart that can so surrender: arms open, heart exposed, hands not grasping anything or hiding something behind the back. “Here I am God! I know you love me and trust you with this life!” Proverbs 3:4-5 says: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Let’s break down these verses to see what we can learn about trust.

TRUST: The Hebrew word that we translate as trust carries the meanings of taking refuge, trust, being confident or sure, bold, secure, careless. With these meanings in mind we are told that we can and must trust, take refuge, be confident, bold, secure, sure and careless in the Lord…I was a bit surprised to find careless in this definition, but as I thought about what trust is it made sense. I try to swim laps at our local pool a couple times each week. Once in a while there are some families enjoying an afternoon swim. I love watching the children jumping off the diving board to their parents below – carefree and unafraid. I did not learn to swim until my last year of college at 22 years old. The water was until then, and sometimes is still, a terrifying place for me to be. So I watch in awe as these children fearlessly, carelessly jump from so high into water so deep without any thought of fear because mom and dad are right there watching over them. We can live our day to day life with that sort of trust in God. Dive in to the things He is leading you into – he will not forget you, abandon you, or leave you on your own to try to figure it out!

Psalm 9:10 promises that “those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD have never forsaken those who seek you.” (italics mine)  If you are having a hard time trusting God in any area of your life it may be that you have not yet learned His Name. Let me give you a quick list of some of the names of God we find throughout the Bible:

• ELOHIM – creator, preserver, transcendent, mighty and strong
• EL SHADDAI –  God Almighty or God All Sufficient
• ADONAI – master, Lord
• YAHWEH – The covenant name of God. From the verb “to be”: The Self-Existent One, I AM WHO I AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE
• JEHOVAH – Lord
• JEHOVAH-JIREH – The Lord will Provide
• JEHOVAH-ROPHE – The Lord Who Heals
• JEHOVAH-NISSI – The Lord Our Banner
• JEHOVAH-M’KADDESH – The Lord Who Sanctifies; To make whole, set apart for holiness.
• JEHOVAH-SHALOM – The Lord Our Peace (“Shalom” translated “peace” 170 times means: whole, finished, fulfilled, perfected. Shalom means that kind of peace that results from being a whole person in right relationship to God and to one’s fellow man.
• JEHOVAH-TSIDKENU – The Lord Our Righteousness
• JEHOVAH-ROHI – The Lord our Shepherd
• JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH – iThe Lord is There
• JEHOVAH-SABAOTH – The Lord of Hosts, the commander of the angelic host and the armies of God
• EL ELYON – Most High

I hope that you have had a personal encounter with God in which He was able to show you personally a part of His nature in such a way that gave you hope and confidence in Him! For me God has shown me continually that He is not only faithful, but He is faithfulness. He is the very substance and beginning of it in such a way that it is not separate from Him.

Continued in: With All Your Heart