Trust: week THREE class discussion summary

Hi ladies! 
With our third and final class discussion on What is Trust?, so many beautiful lines of thought began to finally come together for me! I truly felt as if all of the pearls and pathways had started to weave themselves into a golden thread that I was beginning to recognize and see. How did everyone else feel? If you can put it into words, go ahead and post what touched you most through these sessions on Trust!
Here is my summary:
As we moved our discussion from Fear and into Trust, I think it became basically clear that at the end of the day, a decision has to be made: each one of us, for each and every situation (good and "bad"), needs make our own choice to continue to fear...or to begin to trust.  But we also talked about how the process of learning to walk out of fear and into Trust is just that: a process--sometimes merely a perspective change that empowers us to take that single difficult step into absolute belief, that scary leap of faith into confidence in something hoped for but not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1)... Rarely, it comes as a sudden lightning-bolt paradigm-shifting blow that literally catapults us into something/someplace we probably knew in our hearts all along but refused to see or accept with our minds... But most often, it is a life-long process of searching, with a gradual awareness leading to acknowledgment (however reluctant) and eventual acceptance, while all along the journeying the HolySpirit is beckoning us, inviting us to grow in a relationship proven over and over and over again to be true and dependable, finally leading to willing wide-open-ness for God-ushered (not 'man'-handled) inner transformation and confident trust in all that is, well, HIM.

wow...writing it down sure does emphasize the "process" part, doesn't it!

I loved how Lorraine bridged our thoughts about Fear and Faith...how often comes the realization that fear isn't so much the absence of our faith as it is the forgetting the Who and What of our faith! And in that process of "remembering", we have to honestly ask ourselves: Who IS the God of my faith? What are His attributes--the ones He has shown me to be trustworthy, mercy-filled and ever-lasting, as well as the ones He has shown, if not directly to me, then through the stories and lives of others?
And, if, in remembering/knowing/experiencing the true God of my faith, I still find myself choosing to NOT believe/trust in Him, then who or what am I choosing to believe in...instead?

As Franciscan friar and American spiritualist writer Richard Rohr so poignantly wrote:
"You will never turn your will and your life over to any other kind of God except a loving and merciful One. Why would you? But now that you know, why would you not?" 

Which landed us squarely on the questions of deep self-reflection for ANY circumstance:
Who IS this God that I declare...the One I say I believe in? Can He truly be trusted? 
What are His attributes? His words? Can they truly be trusted?

and as one of my teachers used to ask us:
Is it possible that God could be trying to BE something for me through this circumstance that He couldn't be for me until now? 

And then, once we have answered those questions, a choice needs be made...to stumble around in fear. Or take that hard leap of faith...into Trust.

Eileen F shared something she had been told: that Fear is a Lack of Love.  I really needed to think about that one for a moment--but immediately two verses were recalled to my mind:

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails...

And suddenly it hit me that for every moment of fear that I could recall, it was the direct result of me standing in something NOT of love:  Impatience (wanting MY timing instead of right timing, wanting desperately to see/prove the effectiveness of MY words, MY ideas, MY plans, MY mis-understanding), wrong intent (that driving self regard hiding under the guise of "well-intent", desire for attention or laud not yet attained, seeking the control of lives that were never mine to control), pride (afraid of being embarrassed, ratted out for being "wrong" or not good enough, or just plain "meh"), jealousy (for things I couldn't have/do/perform; and the fear that I am not able to withstand the testing for approval given to others; being less able, unable, or even dismissed as barely able to walk the standards set by others), living and reacting out of hurt-filled past experiences and long records of being wronged, mis-placed trust, loss of hope, weakness, unable to see Truth...we get the picture.

if Fear = Lack of love

and if God = Love

then Fear = lack of...  (but NOT through His choice...rather, through mine.)

We talked about how, when we know the true nature of the true God within us, only then we can begin to recognize and maybe even acknowledge the true nature of our selves--and of each other. We talked about how, in God's great love for us, He gave us the incredibly powerful gift of "free will". In fact, whatever and whomever we choose to allow to sit in the throne room of our inner sanctum becomes the nature with which we will approach our every circumstance. As Mandy so well said, "I may not be able to change my circumstance, but I have been given the free will to choose how I feel about it...how I react to it...who I choose to trust through it."  I was struck by the next most obvious thought: it is "I" that therefore makes the choice from which consequences will come forth...not God's fault, not "my brother's" fault, not anyone else's fault but my own.  

When the God I give myself over to is the ALL-knowing (and yet still ALL-loving) and mercy-filled God of all that is right and Truth, then it becomes SO much easier to trust Him with my life and my circumstances. And not because I have to, but because I want to.  Why would I not??

But to Trust Him, we need to know Him.  To know Him is to know His Word, His words, His nature and His promise that is...HIM.  

At the beginning of our class, Eileen F shared a song and recounted the pathways on which the Holy Spirit took her these past weeks, bringing us to a foundational stone that is a powerful key in our journey in Trust: In order to be able to walk in Trust in God no matter the circumstance, we must be able--and willing--to stand steadfastly and unwaveringly upon the promise of God that says:

"I will never betray your trust in Me." 

So DO I believe in that promise? Can I remember to remember HIS Truth and not the deceptions fed to me by the world?

One of the new verses she brought up reminded me of the immense calm and confidence that overflows my heart and soul when I DO "remember to remember" Him and the Truths that HE speaks into me:

Isaiah 49:15-16 
“Can a woman forget her nursing child
And have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.
“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.

As promised, here are the lyrics to the song:

Honestly

Honestly I believe in you
Do you trust in me
Patiently I will stand by you
I will stand beside you faithfully

And through the years
I will be a friend
For always and forever

Call on me and I'll be there for you
I'm a friend who always will be true
And I love you can't you see
That I can say I love you
Honestly yes

Call on me and I'll be there for you
I'm a friend who always will be true
And I love you can't you see
That I love you
Honestly

I will never betray your trust in me
And I love you can't you see
That I can say I love you
Honestly

(Songwriters: Jim McCormick/Adam Reilly/Mike Krompass)

Ok, one last pearl from Sue Reilly (who joined us last minute when she got kicked out by the carpet cleaners--and kicked over to us by the HolySpirit!!):

FEAR:  False Evidence Appearing Real

Selah on that one for a good moment, ladies!

Next on the agenda:  DEFINING HOPE!!