“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:25-27
I’ve worked at some places that had “Team Building” exercises. I hated one that came out (and I don’t know if they still do this), but you had to stand with your back to two or four people and just fall backwards and trust that they would catch you. I never trusted the people behind me to catch me. I couldn’t do this exercise.
But in my life I’ve learned to trust the Lord. Now I figure trusting is just about the same as having faith. They go hand in hand. I looked up the differences between trust and faith, and there are differences. According to http://www.differencebetween.com (yes, that’s a real website!) faith is used in the sense of ‘belief’ or ‘devotion’ and the word trust is used in the sense of ‘confidence’ and ‘reliance’. Hummm, do you trust in your faith? Or put another way, do you have confidence in your faith that the Lord will take care of you?
While I was the caregiver for my husband I found that I didn’t have confidence in my faith. Why did my husband get sick? Why did this happen? I was terrified of being a single mom of two teen-aged sons without out a penny to put towards a funeral for my husband if he died. Life just wasn’t supposed to happen this way. But it did.
I read Matthew 6:25-27 and this verse held a whole new meaning for me. I had faith in the Lord, but did I have the confidence that He would take care of my life? At that time, the answer was no. So I started to try to build my confidence in my faith. The Lord helped by opening up my eyes and showing me all the little things in my life that He was taking care of. As my husband got worse, He brought people into our lives to show us that help was out there and they pointed me in the right direction. We had in home aides so I could work and a chair lift so my husband could go up and down the steps. These helps didn’t cost us a penny, but they were priceless. As a result, my confidence got stronger. Today, I know the Lord is looking out for me and has a plan. I just have to listen to Him.
So, if you feel your confidence flagging, remember, God’s got this!! He has your back.
Lutheran Ladies Connection 