I Got You

I went rock climbing with my adventurous and fearless friends one afternoon. Sounds dangerous, huh? Well, we were climbing at an indoor (safe) and air conditioned (comfy) facility. There is still an element of danger and fear since, at points, you are dangling in mid-air by a rope. There is a system in place that is, well, idiot proof for which my friend, Laura, was very thankful. Her life was in my hands since I was her "belayer". To belay simply means to cause to stop or to secure by keeping the slack out of the rope. If they fall, they won't fall far. You are their human anchor. Laura took her first tentative step on the wall. Before she took her other foot off the ground, she looked over her shoulder suspiciously with a face that said, "I'm trusting HER with my life?" I said, with a force behind it that apparently sounded assuring, "I got you." And up she went like a pro! She never looked back. That's trust!

I've realized recently that I have difficulty trusting in God's goodness. I'm afraid He will drop me or those that I love. What if I don't check on my son before I go to bed? What if my husband didn't mean "til death do us part?" What if the other driver veers into my lane? What if we can't pay our bills in this economy? Why did God not punish the person who hurt me? Why did I have a car accident? Why does my child have asthma? There's a song by Elvis that goes like this, "We can't go on together with suspicious minds." Questioning=Crazy-making! I call it being "hyper-vigilant" with a flair for attention to detail. Others, who aren't in awe of my ability to run the world, call it controlling...fearful. Honestly, we can't control much in our life-not even ourselves sometimes. If I have to go to the bathroom then I have to go. You can only hold it for so long and it needs to be sooner rather than later. Since we don't have control, we have to learn to trust God. He is our anchor. Some of us don't have a concept of trust because the person that was supposed to love, protect and care for us "dropped us" accidentally or intentionally.

 My thought life represent an internal struggle between fear and faith. Trusting God looks like this: My daughter has not called me back in an hour. I can assume she's busy and God is taking care of her. Fear says she's lying somewhere bleeding in a ditch, possibly in a coma...SILLY :)  but even sillier is that I have no peace until I hear from her. Trust means that because a friend doesn't return an email the same day that I rest knowing that I am always loved perfectly by my Father in heaven. Fear questions, "Why won't she email me back? Now, let me dissect our last conversation." If my day goes poorly then trust allows me to know that I am still loved and cherished. Fear implies that I am out of His will and need to work harder to "be good."

Does all this internal drama sound like child-like faith to you? or rest? It is distracting and steals a lot of my day and my peace. This is my life and these are my struggles but what area do you need to lay at His feet...and leave there? Your children, worry, making things happen in your own strength? If it's not faith, hope, or love then it's not God.

"Deuteronomy 1:29-33 I tried to relieve your fears: "Don't be terrified of them. God, your God, is leading the way; he's fighting for you. You saw with your own eyes what he did for you in Egypt; you saw what he did in the wilderness, how God, your God, carried you as a father carries his child, carried you the whole way until you arrived here. But now that you're here, you won't trust God, your God—this same God who goes ahead of you in your travels to scout out a place to pitch camp, a fire by night and a cloud by day to show you the way to go.   Those are God's words. Jennifer's interpretation, "I got you. I won't let you fall." Wayne Jacobsen's book "He Loves Me!" uses an example that he calls "Daisy Petal Christianity." We pick, petal by petal, saying "I got a raise. He loves me....I let my anger get the best of me. He loves me not!" We need a real and deep revelation of the Father's love to know that "He loves me all the way, all the time because that is what He is like." ~Graham Cooke.

He knows we're screwed up. If you read this and identify with it then don't allow the enemy to twist things. We can't change ourselves but Jesus can transform us! He died for you to feel His love. His great sacrifice on the cross still speaks over you saying "O what love. No greater love. Grace, how can it be? That in my sin, YES, EVEN THEN He shed His blood for me." (O The Blood by Gateway Worship) Ask Him to do it for you and I'm asking God to impart to us all a new, fresh and REAL revelation of the Father's love...His love might come through a smile from a stranger, a rainbow, your favorite song on the radio....so extend your faith and be looking for it!

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

HE'S GOT YOU!


 A free download of Wayne Jacoben's book called "He Loves Me!" can be found by clicking on the first edition, free copy here: http://www.lifestream.org/waynes-books.php?bid=5 If you want to listen to a song that inspired the title then follow the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=psIfrJ210Ds