Radical Trust

Radical Trust

Daniel 3:17 “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, oh king, may he save us!  But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”

Radical Trust is something that was new to me when I attended a conference in March 2011.  Well, I had seen radical trust in action many times, but I don’t think I had ever heard it called that.  I was instantly in love with the phrase.  I loved the idea of having Radical Trust in our God.  I really enjoyed learning about that concept over the weekend.  The speaker, Anne Trufant, asked us, “Do you trust God?”  Not, do you trust in God, but do you trust God?  Do you truly trust what he says to you, what he tells you?  It was a different way to look at it.  Do I trust all the things that God tells me when I read the bible?  Do I trust that he is saying those things to me?  Do I trust God?  I definitely took some time to ponder that and to pray with that thought.  After that retreat, I started to pray for radical trust a lot more often.  I also tried to implement radical trust in my life.  It’s not just about saying, “Of course I trust God,” it's about truly believing that with your whole being.  Wouldn’t it be great if when we got a bill that we did not have the money to pay, we could say and truly believe, "God’s got this."  "I don’t need to worry because He’s got this."  What about when we see that our kids are doing something that we know is wrong, and we can see all the ways they can get hurt if they continue down that path?  Can we truly say, "God’s got this," and not worry about it?  Ever since this retreat, I have prayed so many times for radical trust because, in my experience, it does not come overnight.  And it is not always universal. Over the years I have found myself having radical trust in one area, but then not in another.  However, every day, I see the benefits in my life of praying for radical trust.  I am much better about radical trust now.  I have a supernatural trust that all will be ok.  I do not tend to feel stressed out about the future because I know that God is in charge and I am not.  Why should I worry when he is the one in control?  

I enjoy reading books about radical trust because every example I read strengthens my trust a little more.  So, I thought I would give you a few examples.  One from the bible is about our friend Peter. Matthew 14:26-31  “When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. “It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear.  At once, [Jesus] spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”  Peter said to him in reply, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  He said, “Come.” Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw how [strong] the wind was, he became frightened, and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!”  Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”  Peter had radical trust!  He did not think twice before stepping out of the boat onto the unsteady water, which was blowing strongly.  Peter was able to walk on water for a few steps.  So what happened to Peter’s trust?  He took his eyes off Jesus.  He took his eyes off Jesus and looked around at the sea and the wind and became afraid.  

The next two examples I have heard from people close to me.  My mom and dad had 11 children.  My mom stayed home with the kids, and my dad worked.  He had a good job, but money was always tight because of the number of kids in our family.  One day my parents’ friends had to go out unexpectedly.  They asked my parents to watch their kids.  They had 10 kids.  My parents said, “Yes, of course we will.“  Then they thought about how they were going to feed all those 21 children when they did not have any food in the house.  They had a radical trust, and they prayed to God, trusting that he would come through.  They trusted even though they did not have any idea how he was going to show up or come through for them.  A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.  It was a neighbor with bags of groceries.  The neighbor’s father had just moved into their house unexpectedly, and they had nowhere to put the food from the dad’s house as they had just gone shopping.  So my parents gratefully accepted the food.  They looked through and noticed that there was some pasta and sauce in the bags.  They then thought if they just had meat, they could feed everyone spaghetti.  A few minutes later there was another knock at the door.  A different neighbor had a cooler full of meat.  They had just gone hunting and stocked their freezer and fridge with all the meat they could hold, and they did not know what to do with what was left.  Again my parents gratefully accepted it.  Then they immediately thanked God for providing for them as he always does.  Another time a friend was sitting in her car.  She was at the store trying to buy groceries for the week.  She had three small children.  Her daughter was with her.  The store had not opened yet, and they were the only people in the parking lot.  As she made her list of what she needed, she realized she did not have enough money to buy all the necessities.  She prayed to God at that moment, “God, if I just had an extra $50, I could buy all I needed for the week.”  At that moment, her daughter saw something fly past the car on the ground of the parking lot.  Before her mom could tell her not to, she jumped out of the car to get it.  She got back in the car and gave it to her mom.  It was a $50 bill.  

 When reading a few articles about radical trust online, one of them talked about how radical trust is trusting God even when he doesn’t come through.  This is probably the hardest thing to do.  If you are always seeing ways that God is coming through, it is easier to have radical trust.  I think it may be easier for me to have radical trust because I have seen and heard so many examples of how people have trusted and God has shown up in big ways.  But what about if you have a lot of examples of when he has not shown up?  Can you have radical trust when you want a family and don’t have one, lost your job, prayed for your loved one to be healed, and they died or been given a life-threatening diagnosis?  That is when it is even harder to have trust.  Our friends from the bible, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, give us an outstanding example of how they had radical trust when all seemed lost.  Daniel 3:17 “If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, oh king, may he save us!  But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”  Imagine the trust they must have had to say that to the King in the face of death. 

 I read about a practical way to grow in radical trust from an article from Laura Fleetwood. (Click here for article)  She said as soon as a fearful thought enters her mind, she takes it captive and hands it over to Christ.  She literally, in her mind, snatches it and gives it to Jesus and says I trust you, Jesus.  It looks something like this…

Snatch…hand it over…I trust in you, Jesus.  Snatch…hand it over…I trust in you, Jesus.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could all do this a little more often and have a little less stress and worry in our lives?  My challenge to you is to practice turning your worries and your scary thoughts over to Jesus and let him handle them.  After all, he is the almighty one, not us.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we want to have radical trust in you. We want to believe that you can do anything. We want to have the faith of Peter when he first got out of the boat. We want to have faith like Daniel in the lion’s den. Lord, we know you can do all things with our minds; help us to know it with our mind, body, and soul. Help us to know it deep in our hearts. Lord, help us to take captive our thoughts and redirect them to you. Help us not to take our eyes off of you. We are so grateful to you, for all, you do for us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I want to let you all know that I have started sending out a daily email called Today’s Word from the Lord. This email will have one of the words of prophecy that was received from a member of my prayer group during one of our meetings. My prayer is that in sharing these Words from the Lord, we will all start to recognize how the Lord talks to us and then we will start to see Him talking to us in our own lives. My other prayer is that if you can recognize the Lord’s voice, then you will also be able to recognize when it is not the Lord’s voice talking to you. I pray you will hear the enemy start talking and realize it is not God talking and stop listening. If you would like to receive this daily email, you can sign up using the link in the show notes, or you can send me an email at [email protected]. If your email mailbox is full and you don’t want to get any more emails, no worries. I will be reading the Word from the Lord at the end of each podcast, as I was doing last month. I look forward to meeting you here again on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word From The Lord was Received in October 2023 by a member of the Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group during one of our meetings. For more information about the prayer group or these words, please email [email protected]. “My children, I come daily to give you this peace. I am giving it to you, but you must be willing to receive it. Receive it in your mind, your heart, and your entire being. Peace has to start with you, my children. If you do not have peace, you cannot share it with others. You cannot give what you do not have, my children. So seek more of my peace. Receive the peace that I wish so very much to give you, my children. It is a gift that I give to you, so learn to accept it graciously.”

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