Bloody-Knuckled Faith

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“You just need to trust God . . .” my well-meaning friend remarked.  

It was meant to be a life-line for me to grab hold of but it felt more like a brick battering my injured soul.  I was drowning.  Drowning in a storm that threatened to overtake me and the last thing I wanted to hear was another platitude.   

It was true . . . I did need to trust my Savior.  So why did it hurt so much to hear?  It wasn’t because I didn’t want my friend to speak truth to me.  It was in the assumption that this was the easiest thing in the world to do.

Trusting God is anything but easy! 

I think trusting God is a lot like rock climbing.  Your knuckles get battered and bruised as you make your way up the rock, refusing to look down, holding on with all your strength.   

The Psalmist David understood what it meant to cling to the God, his ROCK in the storm.  The LORD is my ROCK, my fortress and my savior; my God is my ROCK in whom I find protection.  He is my shield, the power that saves me and my place of safety.  Psalm 18.2

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Trusting God is ROCK climbing.  It takes patience as we look for crevices to place our feet and hands.  Some parts of the ROCK have natural clefts to rest in, other parts are sheer and daunting.  It takes everything in us sometimes just to hold on.  We find ourselves pounding the ROCK in anger, longing to reach the summit where we can throw ourselves down and rest.

A follower of Jesus gets bloody knuckles from climbing and clinging but they refuse to let go. 

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge!  How impossible it is for us to understand His decisions and His ways!  Romans 11.33 

God’s ways are not our ways . . . We may not ever understand why He allows the things He does but if we KNOW our God we can cling to Him in spite of our circumstances.  He's big enough to handle our hurt and anger. 

 

We will discover that He is our fortress where we will not be moved.   

Trusting God is never easy.  Clinging to the ROCK in the storms of life is hard.  BUT only there will we find our true rest and place of safety.   

I cling to you; your strong right hand holds me securely.  Psalm 63.8