It’s important to start somewhere and build from there
How do you build trust? When you have been mistreated or when you’ve been betrayed?
I knew the power of thunderstorms. I had even watched a funnel cloud take out part of a car dealership down the hill from my parent’s house.
We lived about twenty miles from Gainesville. The city of the deadliest disaster ever recorded in Georgia. In 1936 over 200 people died, and over 750 homes were destroyed by a tornado. Believe me; we know the story.
But this storm, I want to tell you about because of the lessons I learned that day. Lessons that helped me view thunderstorms and life storms differently.
When I think back, this is when I started to trust God.
It wasn’t that I didn’t know Him and love Him. This was when I started to put things in His hands and leave them there.
A storm was brewing, and it looked bad, especially for mobile home dwellers like us. We lived in North Georgia in a park with roughly one hundred mobile homes.
It wasn’t long after I was introduced to the Holy Spirit that this storm came. It was my sister-in-law, my two young sons, and me, and as I was preparing lunch, we heard the sirens. I grab some quilts, pillows, and my bible and call the three to join me in the hallway. It seemed to be the safest place.
As we tried to make ourselves comfortable, I found the scripture I had recently read. It was Psalms 91, “The Soul that Dwells in God is Secure.”
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, And from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be your shield and buckler. Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night; Nor of the arrow that flieth by day; Nor of the pestilence that walketh in darkness; Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at your side, And ten thousand at thy right hand; But it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold And see the reward of the wicked.
Because thou hast made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, To keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, Lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shall tread upon the lion and the adder: The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, And shew him My salvation. (Psalms 91 KJV)
I read the chapter fast and started praying. Asking the Lord to protect us and letting Him know we were placing our trust in Him.
Because of the storm, the day had turned dark, and the wind was making so much noise we could hardly hear each other speak. We sang some loud songs. Songs the boys had been learning. The sirens stopped, and we stood up from the floor.
I went to look out a window, and I could see people coming out of their mobile homes. All the people in the park were safe. A small tornado damaged some property in our neighborhood, taking out a couple of carports and porch roofs.
I came away that day forever changed.
After that day, my sister-in-law was less afraid as she was introduced to Psalms 91. I had learned to trust Him in the wind and rain storms, and my trust grew from there.
I am sorry to say that we moved, and I drifted away from church and God. With my marriage falling apart, I went back to church. Meanwhile, I tried to salvage the marriage. I trusted my husband when I should have been trusting God because the husband betrayed me again.
God pulled me close.
He started to walk me through the healing journey from the abuse I had suffered. I would learn and heal, then drift back into my old victim mindset. It was work, a lot of prayer, study, and learning how to trust day by day.
It took years for me to build the trust I would need for my next storm—the one I didn’t see coming.
The big C word hit me in 2003. But, I had the capacity to experience the peace of God throughout the whole ordeal. From the first phone call, “They spotted something suspicious on your back MRI. It’s a growth in your left kidney, and we are pretty sure it’s cancer.”
We met the specialist on Monday, and I had surgery on Thursday of the same week. All God, all the glory. God set it all up. He showed up and showed out as if to say, look what I can do.
Some people with less faith would call it all coincidental, but I know differently. I worshipped so deeply that I could not find human words to express my gratitude. That’s when the Spirit takes the wheel, and you are along for the ride. I was home with the Lord for the next four weeks, and we had a glorious time!
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. (Romans 8: 26 NIV)
Everyone needs to experience the presence of God at least once in their life.
To get to know Him that way.
Can you surrender your time and attention to show Him your gratitude for Him being in your life?
Science has proved that gratitude opens up the communication circuits in our brains. The ones between God and you!
Yes, as Psalms 100 says;
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; is mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. (Psalms 100: 4–5 KJV)
It’s how He created us, to be in a community and for a relationship with Him. Let your gratitude open up those circuits and experience the peace and joy He has waiting for you. Learn to trust Him in the small storms, and develop your trust muscle.
