Daily Abiding

Over the summer, I was reading Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. If you don’t know Brene Brown,
she is a leading researcher on what vulnerability and shame mean and how to apply that to
“daring leadership.” There was a chapter where she redefined what trustworthy means, and
honestly, I had to take a step back after reading that chapter to see if I was really trusting God as
much as I was saying it. She defined trustworthy as “worthy of holding the things closest to our
heart.” It means that you can give the things you value to someone else, and they will take care
of those things. It means you are confident that person will hold and value the things as much as you do.

God exists more than just as a safety net, and trusting God runs deeper than in the big life
decisions. Imagine if we only ever talked to God about the decisions that were life-altering?
We would talk to him maybe five times in our lifetime, and that is not a relationship.
God is after a relationship, not a moment when we’re desperate for an answer. The trust that we
have in him should extend more than just to the big plays in life. It should extend to the
inconsequential moments that don’t seem to matter. It matters that we trust God with these parts.
God doesn’t just show up in the big moments. God cares about the daily moments because He
cares about doing life with you.

Trusting God looks like living in a heart posture that is ready to receive from Him and respond to
Him at any moment. You don’t have to be in a big, life-altering crossroads decision to need God
in your life. Needing God is just a byproduct of being human. Life is so much more fun when we
realize that we can’t do life by ourselves. Even if we could, why would we want to? We have a
heavenly Father that wants to be engaged in our life. His heart is always turned toward us, ready
to respond to our needs, however small or little. The crazy thing is we were never meant to do
life alone, God never wanted that pressure on us. His burden is light and His yoke is easy.

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,
neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in
me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man
does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered,
thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever
you will, and it shall be done for you. By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit,
and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my
love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s
commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in
you, and that your joy may be full.” - John 15:4-11

At the beginning of the year, I had never been so convinced that I needed to read a specific scripture every day than I was with that passage. It was the most humble place I have ever been taken to by God. I read it every morning before Wesley, and it simply postured my heart differently
toward God and what He was doing throughout the day. Trusting God in your daily walk is as
much an aspect of surrender and humility as trusting Him with the big, life-altering decisions.
The key to trust is intimacy and humility. The only way to get humility is through intimacy. The
only way to get intimacy is through surrender. Surrender is hard and risky. When you lay
everything down, God may ask you to leave it there. God has your best intentions at heart and He has the best in store for you. God will catch you, He is the safest person to fall into. We can’t do
anything without God, and that is the best gift God could have given us. Dependence on Him for
everything allows us to take a deep breath in. God fills in the gaps. It isn’t all on us. We have a
good Father who is always for us and never disappointed.

Author | Cristina Rosiles