A lot of things have not gone the way I hoped or expected this week, and I found myself frustrated and stressed. Usually when I have those emotions, it’s because I have decided I need to control a situation and I’m realizing that I can’t. I was talking to God about all of it, pouring out my worries, my fears and my feelings with all of it. His response has been similar with many things recently—Do you trust me?
I realize that often I don’t. Trust can actually be a sacrifice, as I’m laying down my plans, my way, my time and my illusion of control in order to receive His peace. What I want is an answer, a solution. But often what He invites me into is placing all of my cares in His hands as He tenderly cares for me. This is trust.
What He began to show me this week is how trusting is part of worship. It is saying that He is God and I am not. It is saying that I trust Him to be who He says He is, and to empower me to be who He made me to be as well. As we walk forward in sorting through the practical problems, we do it together. He never abandons me to just figure it out on my own. I do have to lay down my own way of doing things, though, for the better way He has.
This can be scary, but it can also be freeing and allow me to not be mastered by my fear. When I can give up the way I wanted things to go, the thing that I thought would be good, the place that I wanted God to work—I can receive the invitation to go deeper with Him. It means I want Him more than the situation to work out my way. I want relationship with Jesus more than comfort or what I think is safety. True safety is found in trusting Him to walk me through no matter the circumstance.
Whatever is going on this week with you, I pray that you will accept God’s invitation to make the sacrifice of trust as your worship, and reap the rewards of deepening relationship with Jesus as a result.
Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? To surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. Romans 12:1