In the Hard Places of Life

I have trust issues.  Perhaps it is my personality or past experiences?  Whatever the cause, I don't often trust people with serious situations.  Oftentimes, I take them on myself because I prefer to be self reliant.  I'm sure there will be a few heads nodding in agreement here.


When I realized our family would be moving, I had to trust God for our outcome.  Placing one foot in front of the other and hoping there would be enough light to show  us the best next step.  It was excruciating for a control freak like me.  In my defense, I was much more accepting of our circumstances than I would have been in my younger days.  Time tends to show God's faithfulness and goodness in the hard places of life.  Those hard moments help cement God can be trusted.


Several months before Jake's job loss a Psalm showed up in one of my devotional readings:

He will cover you with his feathers.

He will shelter you with his wings.

His faithful promises are your armor and protection.

Psalm 91:4

At the time the battle imagery really resonated with me.  I wrote it down, highlighted it, and tucked it away for another day.  After Jake's job loss the same scripture surfaced again on Facebook.  Then again on Pinterest, until finally there was a beautiful devotion written by Proverbs 31 Ministries around the time of my grandfather-in-law's death.  The repetition hit me; God was trying to tell me he would be all our family needed in the coming months, weeks, and days.  I'm sorry I didn't hear this truth sooner and it took so many visual reminders to "get it."

The covering with feathers and sheltering by wings should have made more sense to me.  We raise chickens and a particular hen loves to place herself on the nest with the eggs.  Once, I removed her from the nest to collect eggs and she returned, gently pecked my hand, and used her beak to carefully roll these eggs back under her wings and belly.  She knew the eggs needed to be covered and sheltered to have a fighting chance. 

God whispers the same thing to us in this Psalm.  He will cover and shelter you with the care of a mother.  He is faithful to carry out his promises, so that our hearts and minds are protected from the enemy.  The enemy longs to see you distrust God, feeling hopeless and overwhelmed by your circumstances.  Satan rejoices over the moments where your loneliness could consume you completely.  Even when we can't see in the darkness and fumble with our decisions and choices, there is a loving God who wants to care for you in your difficulty.  My prayer and hope is that each day we can learn to love and rely on him more as we look back and see his promises are good.