“Help.”

I don’t even remember who I was talking to, but I suspect it was my editor, Christy.  However, I do remember the answer.  “Okay. What’s up?”

Everyone needs friends like this!!!

“I’ve done contentment and acceptance, in the Journey of Dreams Series, but I realized I don’t have a deliberate theme that evokes an obvious change in people’s lives.”

Of course, she wanted a whole rundown of everything I knew I was putting into the book.

Of course.

By the time I finished, we’d already thrown out a couple of options. Still, we’d both latched onto the idea of trust.  It just fit Madison and her needs best.

That led me to the obvious question.  “Okay, so how do we see a lack of trust physically manifest in someone’s life?  In Prairie, they age. In Highlands, they go blind.  I’m not doing deaf. Just sayin’.”

Thankfully, she didn’t try to talk me out of it.  This is Christy (I think), and if she wants to talk me into or out of something, it’s like she’s E.F. Hutton (and there I just showed my age. For you whippersnappers, see the video below to understand.

After throwing out everything from becoming crippled (you know, by fear instead of trust) to gallstones (because, bitterness… and so forth), we hit it.

I just needed to learn more about trust.  What it is, how I can use it, what the Bible says about it.

Let’s face it.  When people think of Bible verses on trust, they think of Proverbs 3:5-6.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

I wanted more.  So, I dug deeper, and this is what I found.

Note: links are affiliate links that may provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

3 Unexpected Ways Learning to Trust Will Change Your Life

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?”

As I studied this verse, I saw one thing I hadn’t noticed before.  It’s a cycle.  First, I’m afraid. So, I put my trust in the only One who can truly protect me. I trust the Word of the Lord and praise Him. At that point, I’ve put my trust there, so I won’t be afraid now.

It just comes full circle.  Fear leads to trust, which leads to the Word, which leads to more trust, which prevents the next fear.  It’s a picture of using the Word to drive out the lies that we tell ourselves.  All those things we fear?  It’s nothing compared to what the wrath of God will do to those who reject Him.

So, in the grand scheme of things, “What can man do?  My God is bigger than that.”  I did not expect to see a progression laid out for me like that.  Now when those little fears creep in (you know, like today and my doctor’s appointment.  Wanna know what I’m afraid of?  You can laugh already. Trust me, I am.  Whatever he’s going to say is going to delay the writing I have planned.

*sits back until everyone gets done with their inner-jogging workouts.*

Anyway, when those things happen, I discovered that I can look at where I am and how I’m responding and see my growth. How cool is that?

That brought a new verse that seemed to build on it.

Psalm 37: 4-5

Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.

Verse four jumped out at me when I looked up verse five.  After all, it’s the “theme verse” of the entire Journey of Dreams series!

So, with that in mind, I really looked at “Commit your way to the Lord.”    I dug deep.  I was astounded by what I found. The Hebrew word we translate to “commit” means to “roll or roll away.”  I did not start singing when the “Roll Is Called up Yonder!” Wrong roll, people! Okay, that’s a lie I totally did.

But it says to “roll away…” and then the word for way is “a road, a course of life, mode of action.”  So, roll away your course of life or the kind of action you take…

And then we get to trust (after obviously acknowledging that we do this to GOD).  Trust means, “to trust, be confident or sure.”  So, now this reads:

Roll away your course of life or the kind of action you take to the Lord and be confident and sure that…”

“He will do it.”  Seriously.  The word means, “Do or make it.”  Now… to really drill this down into Chautona’s uneducated translationishness we get…

As you go down the course of life or take certain kinds of actions, roll them to the Lord (or roll all the fears and lacks of trust away from you) and be confident and sure that He will do for you what He needs to do.”

And seriously, do we want any more or less than just that?

I had no clue that this verse had such cool pictures that went with it. Not only that, it fits beautifully with the preceding verse, because with all this that he says he’ll do here? Yeah. This is what happens when we “delight” ourselves in Him.  This becomes the desire of our hearts. We desire Him to direct those paths that Solomon talks about in Proverbs 3:6.

I can’t seem to get this verse out of my head.  Every time I think about trust now, I think, “I just need to roll that over to the Lord. I can be confident He’ll take care of it for me or He’ll show me what He wants me to do to take care of it.”

In other words, my mom was right again.  Shocker.  When she says, “Chautona, God’s got this.”  It’s not flippant. It’s just succinct and a kick in the butler to stop trying to do God’s job for Him. He’s better at it than I could ever be, right?

Psalm 9:10

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.”

This one threw me for a loop.  Do you see what it says?  “Those who know Your name.”  Period.  Those people will… do what?  “Trust You.”  Period.  Exclamation point. It’s kind of like, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) It’s pretty simple.  And yet, it’s not.

The same is true of this one. And like the first one we looked at, Psalm 56:3-4, there’s a cycle. We know God’s name and it produces faith in us (Faith comes by hearing—Romans 10:17).  We put our trust in Him (through repentance—Acts 2:38). And He will never leave or forsake us (reiterated for us from the Old Testament in Hebrews 13:5).

If the Lord never leaves us or forsakes us, if we know His name, we’ll put our trust in Him. And He will not… do you see it?

Over and over, God shows us His amazing love that, even among our ficklenesses and weaknesses, He never leaves.  We do. We walk away.  The things in this life weigh us down and we become like Peter… catching sight of the waves and taking our eyes off Jesus.

But He’s always there.  In the waves with us.  Holding out His hand, being that beautiful picture of endless forgiveness—forgiving us “seventy times seven.”  Times seven quadrillion.  And then some.

Yeah.  Just seeing it like that.  Changed my life.  You know why?

Because I now trust in something else.  I trust that forgiveness, that constancy, that, “I love you no matter what, you silly little girl” thing that I see in these words. I had head knowledge before.  Now my heart gets it, too.

I can’t wait to put this in Seaside.

And guess what?  Seaside is one of this year’s releases. Squeee!

Freebie Friday was an easy pick this week for obvious reasons.

Highlands.  It’s free through Tuesday. See why it’s such a dear book to my heart.  And with all that’s going on in this word right now, I think maybe it’s a timely one. Our ideas of imperfections can be beautiful testimonies of God’s amazing grace.  But you’ll have to read it to see why I say that.