One of the Hardest Things…

Through my walk with Christ, I have found that one of the hardest things in having a relationship with Jesus is complete and total trust in Him. Oh, it is so easy to trust Jesus when life is going great, but the very second something bad happens, that “trust” quickly fades away. That makes me wonder if that “trust” during the good times was really an honest and genuine trust in the first place. Trust is defined as a person on whom or thing on which one relies; confident expectation of something; hope. So, trusting Jesus is placing my entire being in His hands, no matter what! It is a hope and a confidence that He will provide for me and take care of me through the good and the bad. It is a reassurance that He will never leave me or forsake me. It is the promise that He will love me even when I have fallen and He will help me get up again. The journey of trusting God is so exciting, but it can be scary because we are losing the “me” and becoming “His.” Have you ever played the “trust” game? When you stand in front of your partner and just fall into their arms–trusting that they will catch you? It is the very same thing with Jesus. We cannot be fully trusting Jesus until we allow ourselves to completely fall into His arms. He WILL catch you. He won’t let you fall–but that requires trust! Believe me, this is hard! I still work through trusting Him every single day. But you know what? This is a daily process. No one can ever be perfect. As humans, it is natural to want to be in control and have “my plans”, “my dreams”, “my goals”, and “my schedule.” It is not natural for a warm-blooded teenager to say, “Oh, what am I doing this weekend? Well, actually I am volunteering at my church’s missions project on Saturday and then Sunday morning I am going to church and then helping in the nursery and then Sunday night I am leading my youth group’s worship band.” Nope, most of the time (and I am guilty of this too!) the average teen sounds more like this: “This weekend I am hanging out with my friends at the movies, then on Saturday I am going to this great party and the Sunday I will have to do mounds of homework!” Now, does trusting God mean that we have to be serving Him every second of every day? Not necessarily! Trusting Jesus means that we give Him our agendas and plans and let Him guide and direct us. So maybe He will guide you to your church’s nursery or missions project or maybe He will guide you to simply hanging out with your family (that IS a lot of fun–you should try it sometime!). Today in church we talked about God’s presence in our lives. The very first step to experiencing God’s presence is to “exchange our ways for His ways.” Hello!!!! We have to die to ourselves and be made new in Jesus Christ!!! Next we have to “express the truth about our relationship with God.” Ok, so where are you in this whole trusting thing? Be honest–rate yourself on a scale of one to ten and then start working on it! But remember, this is a daily process! Lastly, to experience God’s presence in our life, we need to “enthusiastically praise and worship God!” One of the best ways to stay in tune with Jesus is to sing worship songs and be in a continual conversation with Him throughout the day.