A few weeks back, I was flying home from a business trip in
Boston. Side-note: I love everything about flying. Once seated, my eyes are
glued to the window. I swear people think that I’m a first-time flyer. I’m just
so fascinated by God's creation! Anyway, during this flight, we came upon the most intense
turbulence that I had ever experienced. Was I scared? No. I actually like a little
bit of turbulence; it keeps things exciting. However, this was so bad that the
flight just wasn’t enjoyable anymore. So I prayed. ‘God, You have the power to
control these winds. Tell them to stop.’ “Tell
your heart to trust Me.”
My immediate response was to feel offended. I mean, it’s not
like I didn’t trust Him; I just wanted to look out the window without banging
my face into it. Was I really asking too much? After I had gotten over myself,
I started thinking about what God had said. Instead of just saying “Trust Me”, God
shared an important truth: trusting God has little to do with the
way that I feel and has everything to do with the choice that I make. Too
often, I get caught up in the way that I feel about something and I interpret
that feeling into a degree of trust. But the reality is that trusting God is
always a choice. It’s a choice that must be made daily; a choice that I have to
remind myself to make daily. And you know? This realization brought me much
freedom. I experience His presence and His peace, but I rarely, “feel” like I
trust Him. And that’s okay. I should trust Him regardless of the way that I
feel. “Tell your heart to trust Me.”
Every time I struggle with trusting God, I think about Jesus
and Peter walking on water. I tend to focus on the middle of the story, the
part where Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus and begins to sink. As this
imagery has great value, I urge you to look past his sinking and focus on 2 other
points. First of all, one of the greatest parts of this story is not that he
sank, but that he stepped out of the boat. In fact, he told Jesus to call him
out of the boat. That takes tremendous faith. Can you image? There’s a storm
raging around you and Jesus tells you to step out into the storm. It’s not like
Jesus calmed the waves before He told Peter to come. Storms are part of life.
Some pass quickly and others linger and cause great devastation. As a
Christian, you aren’t promised a stormless life, but you are promised an umbrella.
We don’t have to be fearful in the storm because we have been given peace,
peace that passes all understanding. I believe this means that 1) the peace we’re
given is so great that it cannot be explained by human rationale and 2) the
peace we’re given is so powerful that it covers all that is un-explainable.
And the second point is this: even in the midst of the
storm, in the midst of doubt, in the midst of despair, Peter was not alone. Jesus
never calls you into a storm by yourself. In fact, He was already in the storm
waiting to walk Peter through it. He knows you can’t handle it alone. He is ALWAYS
with you. And in the moments when you feel like you’re drowning, He is there to
pull you out. He won’t let you sink.
I can’t pretend to know what you are facing today. But God
does. And no matter how hopeless the situation might feel, God has not lost
control. You may have lost control, but it probably wasn’t yours to hold anyway.
The reality is that your feelings don’t dictate the truth of Who God is. Remind
yourself of Who God is and what He has done for you. He will not fail you or
make a mistake. He is “I AM”, the Beginning and the End, the Breath of Life,
the Author and Finisher of your faith. He is good. He is faithful. He is ever
present. When the wind blows and the earth quakes, tell your heart to trust
Him. He has the power to calm the water, but even if He doesn’t and the storm
rages on, you are safe. YOU. ARE. SAFE.
Regardless of where you find yourself today, God is still
God and His love remains. “Many waters cannot quench love. Rivers cannot sweep
it away.” (Song of Solomon 8:7) Storms can’t diminish the love that He has for
you. Instead, they provide opportunities to encounter new depths of His love. It's not about the storm; it's about Jesus and the immeasurable love that He has for YOU.
“Tell your heart to trust Me.”
