“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him” (KJV) Nahum 1:7
Have you ever had a chance to stand straight and then fall backward into the arms of a friend who catches you? That was a lesson of trust. I remember the feelings I had. I was reluctant to try this experiment and nervous when I went through with it. I knew it was highly likely my friend was going to catch me as he said he would. But I also knew that sometimes friends can think it’s funny to not catch you! In addition, I knew that if I was to hit the floor I would survive.
When we trust in God we are falling back on Him in a similar manner. The same emotions I described above accompany us as we trust God. It takes quite some courage and can make us feel extremely nervous. We may not question that he would not catch us just to be funny, but we do question whether we are hearing him right when we do trust him. Will he really catch me? Did he really promise that? What happens if I’m not caught? The answers to these questions are not as easy to see as they are in my allegory. We could get hurt.
No matter how we feel inside, as believers we trade our understanding for the truth of the word of God. Only by trying it out do we every see that he is there to catch us. One of those truths is the fact that he says if we pray, we must believe that he is capable of dealing with them, and then treat our prayers like he’s working them out. If something doesn’t work out, we should be surprised because there is a good reason why a prayer was not answered.
Of course we need to pray according to what is acceptable to him. When we do so it keeps our focus on our current responsibilities and relieves stress because we know he is at work in the background. Our faith must be applied for today. God is at work now. If we look only at the future, we miss important steps and opportunities in the here-and-now.
Through trusting and leaning on Him we extend those roots of our relationship that continues to abound. He is your super fortress, impenetrable. In days of trouble He is strong and He is good. Keep the faith. All things are working together for the good of those who love him.
