I have always struggled with fear and as I am diving into what God has to say about trust to me this new year, I am starting to see that my fear stems partially from lack of trust. Yet, it is so clear throughout the Bible that I need not fear because God has randsomed me. What does it mean to be ransomed? It means that God made a payment (Jesus on the cross, dying for our sins) so that we could be released from ‘prison’ (the prison of sin) and reap the rewards of freedom (freedom on earth and eternal freedom in heaven). So, if we have been freed from all of this, why is it so difficult to trust? Because, we have started believing the lies of the enemy: How can you trust God when He allows bad things to happen, not just once, but over and over again? How can you trust God when it says in the Bible that He is good, but things sure don’t feel good right now? How can you trust that God is in control? Just look at our world. It’s chaos. Soon these questions and the lies or half-truths we have come to know as the answers, leave us with little trust.

Do you trust people you don’t know well? Probably not. Why? Because you don’t know them. You don’t know their character. It’s no different with God. If we don’t know Him well and don’t know His character, how can we trust Him? To know God, we have to dig into His Word. By digging into His Word, we are also building up our weaponry against the lies of the enemy.  The effort it takes to do this, takes commitment and boy are we good at coming up with excuses not to get to know God: We are busy. It’s hard to read the Bible and understand it. It takes time we don’t have. I get my spiritual food from listening to worship music. I prefer devotionals. I get what I need at Church.  But if we bypass these lies and dig in regularly,  we will get to know God and His character better. Our minds and hearts will fill with His truths and promises and our trust will grow.

God knows us and trusts us because He knows us. He calls us by name. We are His. We can trust Him.