Every step on a Lenten journey is a step of trust. During this season we engage with difficult themes like repentance, humility, self-examination, surrender, and many more. Giving ourselves over to this work requires complete trust: trust in the One who both walks with us and waits for us at the journey’s end. As the Spirit does deep work in us, we find that things rise to the surface that we’d just as soon ignore—places of resistance, fear, doubt, and sin that have yet to be fully brought to the cross. It is not pleasant, but it is also not optional.
And it is often difficult.
Sometimes as we wrestle with these realities, it is good to simply stop and declare that God is trustworthy and faithful. He can be trusted with the broken parts of us, because he is the only one who can take them and transform them for our good and his glory. He has done so in the past, he will do so now, and he will continue to do so all the days of our lives. Today we join our voices with the Psalmist:
Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”
—Psalm 91:1-2 (NIV)
This moment is all about declaring the trustworthiness and faithfulness of God.
Jesus, I trust in your love
Oh Lord, I trust in you
Jesus, I trust in your love
Oh Lord, I trust in you
Read the rest of the lyrics here.
Questions for Reflection
1) As we enter the second half of our Lenten journey, how is your “trust factor?” How has God met you in this time? What difficult things is he revealing? Spend some time declaring your trust that the work he is doing in you is good even as it is hard.
2) The song for today names several things that can get in the way of trust:
—belief that we can’t be loved
—fear that we’re not good enough
—false security in our own strength or wisdom
—fear that trusting God will cause us difficulty or even leave us destitute
—resistance to child-like dependence on God
—belief that life has no worth
—suspicion of God’s words to us
—fear of the future
—anger or guilt over the pastDo you resonate with any of these? For the ones that speak to a truth in your own life, spend some time in trusting confession and prayer, asking God to transform you, hold you, and sustain you as you are honest before him.
3) Read and reflect on this verse. Let it lead you into prayerful worship and gratitude:
“Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense;
he has become my salvation.”
—Isaiah 12:2 (NIV)