DEEP TRUST
Daily Scripture Readings
Monday: Proverbs 3:5-6
Tuesday: Isaiah 26:1-8
Wednesday: Psalm 56
Thursday: Psalm 13
Friday: Psalm 37:1-11
Saturday: Psalm 40:1-5
Sunday: Psalm 40:6-17
Opening Prayer
Kind Father, Is there ever a bad time to trust you? Lord, show us how we can trust in you more. Stir in us, your people, a hunger to seek you and to draw near to you in this season of change. Lord, let us not be satisfied with anything short of you and what you have for us.
In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN
DEVOTION:
Have you ever seen a sailboat in person? Or better yet, gotten to ride on a sailing vessel? It’s a majestic experience–the bigger the boat, the better. There’s something remarkable and inspiring about the wind propelling a massive ship through the water.
In grade school, I remember my teacher pulled out a globe and discussed tradewinds and major wind currents across the globe. She showed where winds consistently blew and in what direction and where they didn’t–the doldrums. The doldrums were the last places sailors wished to end up–there was no wind! In dreadful cases where ships would find themselves in these spaces, the crew would have to get out oars and literally row themselves back into the wind currents.
Consider the spiritual parallels with this analogy. Seasons of change–like the times we are in as a church right now–can become times in our lives where we begin to drift. In that drifting we feel disconnected, separate from God, and from the wind of His Spirit. It’s a dreadful place. The sails have gone up, and it feels like the oars are the only way out. Can you relate? Are you in the doldrums?
As I sit with the Lord and pray for our church family, the word that keeps coming to my mind is trust. In all of the upheaval and change God is inviting us to trust Him–to draw near to Him instead of drifting away. The beauty and promise of the Kingdom is this: unlike the worldly doldrums–no one is that far from God. Even if you feel like you’ve drifted, or feel distant from God–He’s near. In fact, now is the time for each of us to trust God anew, deeper, and to unfurl our sails of faith with expectation that God will provide a wind like we’ve never seen before.
Friends, we need that wind. We need God’s redemptive, transforming presence at work in our lives, church and community. We need God to heal. We need God to help us work through the grief and transition of this season and lead us faithfully into the next. Guess what? God wants to do just that, and He is inviting us to trust Him. It’s time to trust God, to draw near to Him, to seek Him deeply, expectantly, to put up the oars and let down the sails.
Pray and ask God to show you how you can trust Him in this season, and what areas of your life you need to trust Him most.