“Do you trust me?”
If you’re like me and you spent a large portion of your growing up years in the ‘90s, you’re probably familiar with this iconic line from Disney’s Aladdin.
It comes when Aladdin, pretending to be a prince, is inviting Princess Jasmine to ride his magic carpet. It’s the point where she begins to recognize who he is because he’s asked her that question before.
I recently had those same words impressed upon my heart: “Do you trust me?”
You see, I’ve been dealing with some destructive thought and behavior patterns that God has been telling me need to go.
The problem was — as with any thought and behavior pattern — is that it was there for a reason. It developed over time to protect me from pain. I found myself running into this same pattern consistently when certain circumstances arose.
I’d start to feel pressure on a certain “pain point”, and immediately turn to doing things that would make me feel validated in some way. Proving to myself that I still had value and worth from a worldly perspective when circumstances tried to tell me otherwise.
I knew ultimately these choices were destructive. They flew in the face of finding my identity in Christ. It was just another iteration of the constant striving and proving I’ve done my whole life — and it needed to stop.
But unlike other times where I could tell myself, “Cool it! Life isn’t about having the perfect house, throwing the perfect parties, or being that Pinterest Mom!” This time it meant I had to face the pain.
The soul-wrenching pain I’d been ignoring, avoiding, placating, and stuffing for as long as I could remember. Youch.
And while I knew it would be worth it to walk in obedience, I found myself staring this pain in the face and it scared me to death. It felt like a gaping chasm, and I feared that if I fell into it, I’d never get out.
That’s when the beautiful voice of God impressed that simple question on my heart:
“Do you trust me?”
I was terrified that if I let go of my self-protecting behaviors, that I’d be shoved headlong into this chasm of worthlessness without a rope to climb out of it.
But that’s not the God I serve.
My beloved sisters, we have a loving God. And not just a “give you a quick hug and kiss before you leave the house” kind of loving. The kind of loving that enters the pain before we even get to it and stays by our side as we walk through it.
Instead of leaving me to deal alone with past and current wounds, he invited me to take his path. I just had to trust that his path was better than mine, even if it was harder at first.
But I trust in your unfailing love; My heart rejoices in your salvation. Psalm 13:5
It’s so scary stepping out onto that path. It can seem as foreign as a magic carpet. It’s so different than the ground where I’ve been standing. And yet when I heard his voice asking that question– “Do you trust me?”– I recognized that voice. I’ve heard it before.
And so here I go. Stepping out into that trust, because I know his voice. And I know he’s the only one I can fully trust. Because he who promised is faithful and he’s proven it to me every time.
Questions:
- Do you have an area of your life where God is asking you to trust him more? What does it look like to take that first step of faith into God’s path for you? Read Romans 8 and let it remind you how much God loves you and that he will work for your good.
- Do you have godly people in your life to whom you can confess your weak spots? If so, call them up today and ask them to pray for you and do the same for them.
Amber is a wife to her husband, Steve, and mom to her two children, Ethan and Stella. She grew up as a missionary kid in the Philippines and has a degree in literature from Bethel University. She writes about food and creative endeavors at By Amber’s Hands.