I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to put our trust in God. It doesn’t mean things will always go our way, nor does it mean a reprieve from all suffering in life.

There have been times in my life when I’ve felt paralyzed with fear and anxiety of the bad things that could happen. I doubted my ability to endure and the fear of what might occur (no matter how likely or unlikely) was crushing.

When I pray and read the scriptures for the last few months I keep coming back to the same question: Is God worthy of trust?

My children ask big questions. It often feels like it’s built into their DNA. They want to know things like how do we know God is good when bad things happen? How do we hear God? How do we know he is listening?

These are questions humanity has been asking for thousands of years. I try to explain the best I can but I in the end I know my explanations are inadequate.

At this age of my life, I’m suddenly realizing how few people really have any idea what they are doing. I’m coming to terms with the fact that the people in my life who I have trusted for advice and wisdom won’t be around forever which means someday (perhaps sooner than I hope) I will have to be that to someone else.

That’s a scary prospect because most days I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Despite all my years of walking with the Lord I’m still, as the apostle Paul says in Philippians 2, working out my salvation with fear and trembling.

I can think the whole issue to death if I’m not careful. Nor do I want to depend on the winds of my changing emotions to guide me. The world around feels so very dark of late and it’s easy to feel like the darkness is winning. I have to keep reminding myself of what is true.

I trust God because I know him to be trustworthy. His peace and provision have seen me through many dark times and sometimes the only thing I can fall back on is who he is:

He is good

He is sovereign

He is loving

He is just

He is merciful

When I saw today’s prompt I immediately thought of the song lyrics below. We serve a great and mighty God who is worthy of our trust and has already defeated the enemy of our souls. The Lord is our strong tower and safety, and the enemy is the one who must flee.

“Lord, we are weak and frail
Helpless in the storm
Surround us with Your angels
Fold us in Your arms
Our cold and ruthless enemy
His pleasure is our harm
Rise up, oh Lord, and he will flee
Before our sovereign God

Hallelujah
Glory be to our great God
Hallelujah
Glory be to our great God “