Trust-steps

"Trust in Him at all times, O people; 
pour out your heart before Him; 
God is a refuge for us." 

-Psalm 62:8

During one of my home church's Christmas Eve services, at the children's time, our children's minister was coaching the kids circled around her at the front of the sanctuary to recount the details of the beloved story of Jesus Christ's birth. When they got to the part where angels appear to the shepherds, the children's minister asked the kids, "And what did the angel say to the shepherds? Does anyone remember?" Without hesitating, one kid (probably around 5 years old) spoke up, shouting at the top of her lungs in an energetic voice: "DON'T BE AFRAID!!!" Everyone in the congregation, including me, laughed at the girl's enthusiastic response. But the impact of those strong words has stayed with me. 

I was given a copy of the devotion, Jesus Calling, by Sarah Young, which is tied in my mind with My Utmost for His Highest (by Oswald Chambers) for the best devotional I've come across thus far. Anyway, in the December 29 entry of Jesus Calling, it talks about the need to be consistent in trusting God, and even uses the phrase "tiny trust-steps" to communicate the importance of small acts of trust in God during the course of daily life. God has kept bringing that phrase, "trust-steps," to mind. Growing up in the Church, I've heard lots of emphases on trusting God for the "big steps," like choosing friends, a college and a major, a spouse, a job, a move, etc. But on the importance of tiny trust-steps, those day to day decisions to trust God in the "small stuff" I've heard very little. But it seems to me that the "small stuff" is what quickly piles up, unnoticed until it becomes a wall that blocks my gaze on the Lord, on others, on the world. Before I know it, I'm assuming self-sufficiency instead of resting in the sufficiency of God's grace; I'm living for myself instead of dying to self and rising with Christ; I'm working hard to earn identity instead of abiding in the deep knowledge of my identity as God's beloved. 

So, for the perfectionist in me who battles with anxiety over the daily struggles of trying to do everything right and always coming way short of that, God's message of trust-steps is exactly what I need to hear. But even more importantly, it's exactly what I need to remember. Taking daily trust-steps means: knowing God, believing in God, believing God, and choosing to live out that belief by moving daily in trust-steps. "Trust in Him at all times, O people," says the Psalmist. At all times... 

Easier said than done, says sarcastic-me. "DON'T BE AFRAID," the little girl from Christmas Eve shouts in my heart.

"Don't be afraid," whispers God. "Trust in Me. Take a trust-step, Beloved. And another. And then another..." 

Soundtrack for this post: "Yours" (Steven Curtis Chapman) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNMClVv88oc