Trust

 

 “Trust in the LORD and do good;

Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Delight yourself in the LORD;

And He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Psalm 37:3-4

As I read through many blogs on Monday, I noticed a popular theme was summarizing 2011 & 2012 into one word.  Trust seemed to be a most common word used for 2012.

So, what does it mean to trust?

For me, trusting in the Lord is easier to do the older I get. Is that true with you? I look back and realize that when I was younger, trusting the Lord was harder to do because I wanted to do more things on my own, I refused to look back on the Lord’s track-record on Trust in both His word and in my own life, and I didn’t really know what it meant to fully trust someone, especially the Lord.

But God slowly began to reveal things to me….and usually He revealed things through trials.

The first trial? My wedding day….

In 1988, my then boyfriend had just graduated from Marine Corps boot camp. We were young (21 years old) and engaged to be married that next year. But later that summer, my fiancé received orders to ship out overseas for 6 mos. So, he asked me a question that would change our lives, test our faith, and show us what trusting the Lord was all about. He asked me, “Do you want to get married before I go or when I get back in February 1989?”

Hmmm….I already had my dress. It was being altered. I had already booked the church and the reception hall as well as the photographer. So, getting married before he left was a possibility. However, it meant planning a wedding in 2 weeks as opposed to almost a year. What would a sensible young woman do?

Hint: I wasn’t a sensible young woman.

I told my fiancé that I absolutely had to have my dress. And if it wasn’t ready yet, we’d wait. If it was ready, I would go ahead and see if the church was available and so on.

I prayed to the Lord and left everything in His hands. Well, the dress was ready and the church was available!

So, my husband and I got married two weeks after his phone call telling me he would be sent overseas. And one week after our wedding, he was shipped out. I was now a Marine wife. “Welcome to the Marine Corps, Mrs. Douthitt!”

My husband would go overseas again in 1990, but this time his tour was extended from 6 mos to 11 mos thanks to Saddam Hussein (That’s another story I’ll share in another post…). By the time he came home in March of 1991, I knew what it meant to trust in the Lord. I now had a record of His faithfulness that I could cling too when times were hard. And times would definitely be hard on us our first ten years of marriage! Financial struggles, moving back to our home state, finding jobs, buying houses, my high risk pregnancy, and more financial struggles took its toll.

All of these hard times just added to the record of the Lord’s faithfulness.  I had more and more evidence of how He does hear our prayers, knows our hearts, and answers our calls of anguish. And not only in my own life, but in the lives of other women around me. 

I suppose that is why I can trust in the Lord now more than when I was younger.  I long to do good…to dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness to my Lord and Savior. And I have seen Him turn the desires of my wicked heart into the desires of His pure heart.

So, for 2012, what is my advice to you?  Delight yourself in the Lord…let go and TRUST Him. He has proven time and time again that He is trustworthy! And watch the desires of your heart for 2012 change into His pure desires for your life.

Hang on! Because it’s a great ride!

Your turn:  What evidence do you have in your life of God’s trustworthiness? Do you find yourself struggling to let go and really trust Him with your desires? Why?

Blessings,

Ruth