Trust . . . again?

I have written about trust before.  In fact, several times.  You're probably beginning to think I have a trust issue.  As a matter of fact, I believe that assessment would be correct, sadly.  As the father of the possessed boy said, "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)  I admit, there are times when an overwhelming fear crawls up my chest and seems to hang there on my heart.  It darkens my thoughts.  It distracts my focus.  It has shaken me to my core, at times.  What could I possibly be afraid of?  Plenty. It really doesn't matter, does it?  I'm afraid of dying, spiders, snakes, big dogs, pitch black, plane crashes, etc.  Anything that could create fear.  I am also afraid of failing.  There, I said it.  Sometimes, I'm petrified of failing.  I'm also afraid of change, of losing my job, of not finding a job, of not being considered worth giving a job to, of being so undervalued that no one would even glance in my direction.  Yep, I'm afraid.

So, you ask, "With all that fear, why did you title and begin this post about trust?"  Well, stop and think about it.  What causes fear?  An absence of trust in God.  It's that same trust that Abraham exhibited when God told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees to go to a land "that I will show you."  Really?  If it was just Abe, no problem.  But, he had a household.  He was married.  He had people, lots of 'em, that he was responsible for.  Pack up and leave?  Where to?  Doesn't matter.  It was a place that God would show him at some point in the future, not even at the point of departure, but sometime in the future.  Abraham would know when he arrived.  Until then, God was asking Abraham to start the journey.  The underlying and most important lesson and actual end result of the journey was that Abraham trusted God. That trust was "counted as righteousness".  Abraham relied on God, trusted Him, and rested in God.  ALL the time?  HA!  Nope, sure didn't.  In fact, Abraham blew it majorly sometimes.  At one point, he flat decided to take his life into his own hand and tried to trust in his own wits.  Wrong move.  You know what happened between Abraham and a king or two.  God says, "Trust ME!"  So, back to the father mentioned above (Mark 9:24).  I can almost hear Abraham in that father's words.  "God, I believe, but only almost. For some reason I keep thinking I can 'do it on my own.'"  Yet, like Abraham, when I do that, I find myself full of fear.  So, "Lord, I believe.  Help my unbelief.  Help me to rest in you!"  Trust Him, folks.  He has proven trustworthy through all of life.  We may not fully see it, but He has never let us down.  Why do we think He will let us down now?  If He has proven true and trustworthy in the past, the best thing you and I can do is just trust Him.  When we live in that trusting relationship with God, our trust will also be "accounted to [us] as righteousness".