Do You Trust Me????

Each of my daughter’s had a favorite Disney Movie when they were little, Cinderella was the youngest’s and Beauty and The Beast was the middle daughter’s favorite.  My oldest daughter loved Aladdin.  In our home when a Disney Movie was released, it would be played over and over and over again.  So this scene in Aladdin is very familiar to me even today …

Aladdin rides the magic carpet up to Jasmine’s safe, guarded porch and asks her to take a ride on the magic carpet with him and she asks him if it is safe.  “Do you trust me?” Aladdin asks Jasmine.  And Jasmine must decide, does she stay where she is safe and in charge or does she take a risk and climb aboard a carpet that does not have security anywhere and allow herself to experience the ride of her life.  “Do you trust me?” – Aladdin asks it twice that night and has actually has asked it before in the market place.

Do you trust me?

This is one of the main questions that God continues to ask me every day – “Do you trust me??”  “Do you really believe that I am God and I have everything under my control?”  Everything - our financial future, my daughters’ futures (including their future husbands), my health, my husband’s career, our relationships and friendships?  Do I really believe that God has all of my problems and concerns under His control and can be trusted to redeem it all for His glory?

As I gave this devotion for MOPS several years ago, I asked the Moms if they realized that they had been asking this same question to their children ever since they were born – “Do you trust me as your Mom to know when the best time is for you to go to bed, or to eat or that allowing Doctors to stick and prod you with strange instruments is actually for your good?”  Most pre-schoolers woke up with no idea of what you had planned for them today – but they trusted you.  They allowed you to dress them, place them in car-seats and to drive to unknown places – all because they trust you.  They know that you love them and they can trust you even if it seems unsure or it may even hurt.

Abraham learned that God can be trusted when God asked him to sacrifice his son Issac -  God was truely asking Abraham “do you trust me?’   Genesis 22:1-14  Abraham trusted God to provide - he even told his servants that “we will come back” (verse 5) and he told Issac that “God would provide the sacrifice” (verse 8).  God was asking Abraham, “Do you trust that I love this son of yours more than you do and I can be trusted with his life?”  Translated into our lives today this might be: do you trust me enough to believe that I gave you the right child to parent, to provide when there is not enough, or to redeem a past even if it is a filled with shameful behavior or you fill in the blank?  Do you trust me?

Abraham learned again that God can be trusted not only with his son’s life, but also his dreams and hopes for the future.  Jasmine learned that by trusting Aladdin she could experience a world she would have never seen  — A Whole New World (smile and sing along if you know the words).   I honestly believe that God is asking me, along with you to trust Him.  No matter what we think, no matter what our past has held, no matter our current circumstances – trust Him. We are not in control – God is and by allowing ourselves to set out on His journey we are able to experience a life that allow us to grow and stretch and to be used in ways we never thought possible.

 What is God asking you and I to trust Him with today?  Do we really think that we have any control over it in any way?  What would it feel like to really have faith to get on that carpet ride with God?   If we are willing to climb on the carpet,  God will take us for the ride of our lives – but first we have to trust enough to climb on and trust.

“Do you trust me?” God asks – “Do you really believe that I know what is best for your life even if it means hard, but amazing times full or ups and downs?”

It is actually the only way to live – allowing ourselves to fully trust God - the only one completely worthy to be trusted.    So climb aboard and bring your camera – you are in for an amazing new world.  And someday when you look back and remember – your life stories will be full of incredible ways God has been faithful.  He can be trusted.

But as for me, I trust in you, Lord…Psalm 55:23