Preparation

The question is: Do you know how to trust?

Do you trust your spouse not to cheat on you regardless of temptations?

Do you trust your best friend to not reveal your secrets?

Do you trust your boss to do what he promises?

Do you trust your manager to have your back?

Do you trust your teammates to carry their share of the load and to resist hogging more than their share of the credit?

Do you trust the CEO to live the inspirational messages he has posted on the walls?

Do you trust God, or are you just hanging around people who do?

Trust is not as simple as it seems. It's the compilation of information and experience squeezed through the filter of the heart. It's personal and invisible and indispensable. For some of us it's easy and second-nature. For others, it's excruciatingly difficult and foreboding.

You may have a friend who finds it almost impossible to trust ... why is that?

I know a woman who seems invincible on the outside, but just touch her and she'll flinch. She has dark painful secrets and she trusts no one. She talks about trust. She likes the sound of the word, but her life has been filled with so much betrayal, that her "truster" — her willingness to trust — is broken. She is alone and isolated even when the party is raging. Oh, she knows how to pretend trust, but it's all surface — smoke and mirrors.

Is she one of those hopeless people who fall through the cracks regardless of what we do?

Is she destined to be a victim?

Can we fix her brokenness? NO!

Teach her? NO!

Save her? NO!

Show her trust? YES!

And pray for a miracle? YES!

In fact, God is working on this right now. She is becoming a walking billboard for the power of the Holy Spirit — she is a miracle. As the Apostle John put it, "If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything" (1 John 3:20 TNIV). This heart-work is a supernatural "God thing."

This kind of heart surgery is beyond us. There are no step by step fix-it plans. Trust is simply believing God is big enough to keep his promise of never leaving us alone or hopeless.

So are you ready to turn loose — ready to let God be God. He knows exactly what to do. This is God at HIS best!

His Spirit makes it possible.
Inspiration

I know it's a children's movie, but it makes the point with extreme clarity. The movie is Disney's "Aladdin."

The young street-urchin-turned-prince is trying to woo his way into Princess Jasmine's heart. She is standing outside of her palace bedroom on the balcony when Aladdin swoops in out of nowhere, tries to smooth talk her, and essentially fails.

Jasmine rejects the poor guy and tells him to leave. Then, Aladdin walks straight off the balcony, apparently plunging to his death.

Jasmine is stunned. She calls out for him to come back. Miraculously, Aladdin pops his head back up over the balcony wall and takes Jasmine by surprise.

She doesn't understand. What she sees doesn't fit with her past experience. Aladdin holds out his hand and asks her a single question, "Do you trust me?" Then, in a moment of curiosity and a little blindness, Jasmine reaches for Aladdin's hand, and then steps over the balcony wall.

She doesn't fall or step onto a secret ledge. She finds herself and Aladdin standing on the magic carpet ... and away they go. Her life has been changed forever.

Motivation

This "trust thing" is a miracle from God. His Spirit makes it possible. We're not made to understand it; just live it. Trust God and life will never be the same.

Don't just talk about it or debate it. Be the miracle!

And to help you along this trusting journey, memorize this blessing:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13 NIV).