You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIVUK
Our entire society is based on trust. We trust the postman to deliver our post. We trust bus and train drivers and pilots to get us from A to B. If we drive our own vehicles, we trust manufacturers to make a vehicle that will work safely. In fact, even our entire financial systems are based on trust, whether electronic or cash. And I'm not even talking about blockchains here. Even banknotes themselves are nothing more than promissory notes.
So we are prepared to trust complete strangers, often people we do not know, whose intentions we are not aware of, in countries we have never visited, and whose language we do not speak, to make goods that we rely on, often for our very existence. And that is not a problem for us.
But some of us have a huge problem trusting God. Even One who sacrifices Himself on the Cross to save us. Even One who has defeated our most deadly enemy - death itself. Even One who makes promises like this:
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28 NIVUK
But we can trust a stranger from thousands of miles away.
Does anyone see the irony?
Each part of this verse builds on the other. God keeps us safe, giving us an eternal future beyond our imagination so that whatever happens to us, we win. God gives us a double measure of peace - peace squared - because of that promise of eventual victory. This peace causes us to have a steadfast mind in times of trouble, and the thing that under-girds them all is our trust in God. No trust means no steadfast mind. No steadfast mind means no peace. No peace means no safety. It means waking in the middle of the night in cold sweats and a blind panic. It means not getting the rest we need to stay healthy. It means becoming vulnerable to the very thing that scares us.
It means being caught in an unhealthy cycle that can only lead in one direction. Many of us can remember the days before 9/11, when travel by plane was considered safe and there were few, if any, security checks. Now we have to turn up two to three hours early for inconvenient security checks, but we tolerate it because we want to be safe. All of us have accepted without question - I hope - the curtailing of our personal freedoms because we want to be safe.
Let me tell you something else you need to accept to be safe: that there is a God who loves you, Who cares for you, Who sent His Son to die for you, Who has beaten death for you, and who can be trusted one hundred percent to see you through this crisis. Blind optimism will not do it. Faith in the indomitable human spirit will not do it. Trust in human nature will not do it. All of these things will let you down. Only God can see you through. Only God will see you through.
We have to make a decision. And it's black and white. There are no shades of grey. We either trust God or we don't. My prayer is that you will trust Him. The opposite is simply not worth contemplating.
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