Trust in the Lord and Rest in Him  

Last weekend when we changed over to Daylight Savings Time, I faithfully went through the process of adjusting the various clocks in our house. I moved them all forward the appropriate one hour, except for the clock radio situated beside my bed. It is supposed to automatically adjust itself whenever we go through these twice-a-year time changes. I always feel a little uneasiness about going to bed without manually regulating that device. After all, this is the one clock I depend on to wake me up at the proper time. If it doesn’t sound its alarm at the correct moment, it could get my day off to a rough start.

So when I woke up during the night and glanced over to view the time on that clock radio, I realized that it was past the official hour when Daylight Savings Time was supposed to have kicked in. I wondered, “Did my clock switch over?” So I actually crawled out of bed to check the time on my watch which was setting on the nearby dresser. Sure enough, it matched up with the reading on the clock radio. So with that confirmation, I was able to go back to bed and rest peacefully for a while longer, knowing that I would be awakened at the proper time.

As I had a hard time trusting that clock, sometimes we find it difficult to trust the Lord to take care of matters in our lives. He assures us that He’s got it under control, but it’s hard to let go of it ourselves and depend on Him to do what He says. Even when we are trying to patiently wait on Him, we are often guilty of doing it with anxious hearts rather than with the peaceful assurance that our Heavenly Father will come through at the right time and in the right way. We keep wanting to get our hands on it. It’s hard to relinquish control in the first place, but even after we do, it’s so tempting to try to take it back again. However, even if we refuse that temptation, do we wait on the Lord with a sense of quiet confidence or with nervous apprehension?

I’ve always appreciated the way the psalmist encourages us along these lines. He says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass…Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret…” (Psalm 37:5-7). First we’ve got to commit our way to the Lord. Put your situation in God’s hands. Pray and cast your care upon him. Realize your inability to handle it and give it over to God. Secondly, trust Him with it. Know that the Lord who loves you and wants what is best for you will accomplish what needs to be done. Trust that He’ll do it according to His wise timetable and in the way that will be best for all concerned, including you. And then comes what may be the most challenging part – rest in Him. Don’t just wait while nervously watching the clock or the calendar. Don’t fret about if, when, or how God is going to do it. Simply rest and wait. Know that the Lord has got this. Remind yourself of how He has been faithful in the past and how you know you can trust Him yet again today. Ask Him to bless you with a sense of peace and confidence in Him.

Even though I may struggle with trusting a clock to do what it should, I certainly ought to be able to trust God to do what He says. And you can too. Whatever our situation may be today, let’s commit, trust, and rest in Him.