Trust the Heart of God

You never know how God will use the difficult pieces of your story to one day encourage others and glorify Himself.

My husband and I live on the water, so we agreed that our almost two-year-old needed swim lessons. The first day of a two-week intensive swim class, my son started screaming the moment I left him at the edge of the pool. I knew he was in the teacher’s good hands, but my son kept looking my way and crying as if to say, “How could you abandon me?”

It was brutal to watch. My son was perfectly safe, and these lessons were for his good, but he didn’t know or believe any of that.

How often am I like my son in relation to my heavenly Father? What lessons do I need to take away from swim school that can strengthen my own faith? I hope these thoughts encourage you as well.

#1: God is ever-present, even when He doesn’t feel that way.

Although my son could see me, he still cried. He wanted me to pick him up and take him away from this scary situation.

How often do we ask God to take something scary away from us? How often do we cry out, feeling forsaken by him? Just because we can’t “see” God or feel Him near does not negate the truth that He never forsakes His children. Psalm 46:1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (NKJV).

God may not answer our pleas with the immediate relief that we desire, but He never abandons us. Rather, He surrounds us with His presence. “You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me” (Psalm 139:5, NKJV). To hedge is to form a protective boundary. Wherever you are, God is right there with you.

#2: God knows better than we do.

I’m probably not the only one who has struggled with the promise of Psalm 37:4, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart” (NKJV). Do you have a longing for something good, and God has chosen to say “no” to that prayer? You are not alone. 

Are we not delighting in the Lord enough? Are our longings misguided?

Those questions are focusing on the wrong person: ourselves. Recently, I heard a devotional challenge at a baby shower. Quoting Psalm 37:4, the teacher shared that she had trusted God to give her both a boy and a girl, because that was her heart’s desire. Instead, God gave her two boys. What she said struck me: “Later, I realized that God knew my heart’s desires better than I did and that I was made to be a boy mom.” 

I don’t know what your longings are, but God does. My son’s longing the first day of swim class was to escape back into my arms, but that desire wasn’t best for him. Because I cared, I let him cry, knowing he needed to press through the discomfort to develop a valuable skill. So too, we must trust that God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). He knows what is best for us, even when we don’t understand. 

#3: What is hard today won’t be hard forever.

As you can imagine, I dreaded day two of swim school, but my son did surprisingly better. I sat beside him until he became comfortable, and then by the third day, he didn’t need me by his side any more. After the first week, he couldn’t wait to get in the pool.

What are you facing today that seems impossibly hard? God knows what it is, but you can still talk to Him about it. He cares for you (I Peter 5:7). That doesn’t mean He will take the challenge away. As God told the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9a, NKJV). God didn’t take away Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” but rather supplied the grace Paul needed to endure it—and thrive despite it. Paul’s letter has inspired countless believers to hope in God in difficult circumstances. Paul finished verse 9 with these words, “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (NKJV).

You never know how God will use the difficult pieces of your story to one day encourage others and glorify Himself.

My son still has a long way to go with his swimming skills, but he’s made great progress. We moms haven’t “arrived” yet either, but if we learn to trust that the heart of our Father is for us (not against us), we can make great strides in our spiritual swimming lessons as well. 

In what area of your life do you need to trust the heart of God today?