TRUST - IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE

I'm writing for Five Minute Friday and this week's prompt word is SIMPLE.  

We need to be simple, childlike in our trust of the Father.   We need to come and just rest in His arms, even as adults, because there's so much we don't know, can't know, can't control, can't manage.   We need to rest in His power and strength when we are at a loss to know what to do next.    We need to get quiet in His presence and just wait on Him, for Him, to do what only He can do.   

https://www.ibelieve.com/faith/amazing-lessons-in-the-parable-of-the-lost-sheep.html

Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul, Like a weaned child with his mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Ps 131:2

But to come in a simple, trusting, childlike way, is not simple at all.   In fact, it's often incredibly difficult and frightening, depending on your childhood experiences.  

I've learnt through this healing journey I've been on, and through reading and hearing the stories of others on similar journeys, that a broken heart is the biggest barrier to a simple trust in Him.  

A baby, a young child, has a simple trust in the parent.  It doesn't know its own needs necessarily, though it knows to communicate in some way that it is needy.    As the child gets older, that trust is either cemented or gradually, and sometimes suddenly, eroded.   The ideal is that as the child enters adolescence and adulthood, that their simple trust in the parents gradually becomes a simple trust in God, even in the all the bigger and more complicated issues of the adult life.   

For so many of us, that ability to develop a simple trust in Him simply hasn't happened, and for good reason.  Not because God isn't good, but because we learnt, early on, that simple trust isn't wise, isn't safe, isn't possible.   We've become locked into a very lonely place because our hearts have been broken by rejection, abuse of various kinds, neglect, conditional love.    We are brought low, emotionally, even if our life appears on the surface to be functional.   

Like a straying sheep who is determined to make its own way, because it's had to or decided it's a better option, we often find ourselves in harm's way - in addiction to many different things or substances, in dysfunctional and damaging relationships, in depression and despair.   Brought low, needing help.   

The Lord protects the simple (childlike); I was brought low [humbled and discouraged], and He saved me.  Ps 116:6

He really does protect the simple, the childlike, but He finds it hard to do that when they keep self-sabotaging and rejecting His love and care.   But He pursues us, again and again.   The last verse of Psalm 23 says His goodness and mercy shall follow me.   The Hebrew word is actually radaph and it means to pursue.   His love doesn't meekly follow us - it pursues us.  

We need to let Him love us, nurture us, heal us.   We need to trust Him, but it's pretty darn hard to get back to a simple, childlike trust in a God we don't know or understand, even if we've grown up in church.   

Whether it was our mother who broke our hearts, or our father, or both, people from abusive backgrounds are often left with a very dim view of anyone in charge, and plenty of reasons why a simple trust is bordering on stupidity.    We may even give verbal assent to trusting God, sing about it, teach it, preach it, write about it, but struggle with actually trusting Him to protect, provide, counsel, help, heal.   I've seen it in my own life and in the lives of many others.   

I've had to let Him deal with layer upon layer of mistrust and negative beliefs that have made it very difficult for me to simply trust Him.   And He has pursued me, again and again, as He works to restore that simple trust in Him.   He is persistent in His desire for me to be able to trust Him, with a simple, childlike trust.   His goodness and mercy surely has pursued me.   

And again and again, He brings me back to Psalm 62, which He gave me at the beginning of this healing journey, nearly two years ago.   

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.

He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense;

I shall not be moved.

In God is my salvation and my glory;

The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

Trust in Him at all times, you people;

Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah  Ps 62:5-8

This song is a good reminder of the best place to be - resting in His presence.   

O my God You are my strength and my song

And when I'm in Your presence

Though I'm weak, You're always strong

I just want to be where You are

In Your dwelling place forever

Take me to the place where You are

'Cause I just want to be

I just want to be with You