(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” Solomon, the man who many consider to be the wisest man ever, said that in Proverbs 3:5.

Jesus said trust is being like a child. Remember how it felt when you were learning to swim and you would flail about in the pool – and then when your parent swam over and lifted you up, you relaxed?

How can we trust in God when He is hard to see, feel? If we listen, the closer we will get to Him.

“All your heart…” We can’t hold anything back. If we have done something we know is wrong, we need to ask His forgiveness. And if that wrong involves someone else, we need to seek them out too. We can’t come before God with an unresolved conflict. True, there are exceptions to this. If that person is gone, we can’t find resolution with them. But God can heal that wound, if we ask Him to. It may take a long time for that healing to come – or it may come very quickly. In this day of instant results, we all get impatient waiting. (And the wound may not be healed in the way we expect.)

“Don’t depend on your own understanding.” I come back to swimming. Remember fighting the water? When you learned to let the water hold you up, you were able to glide across the pool. Depending on our own power can be like fighting God. We all go through life feeling like we know the answers. But the more we learn to trust, the better we can live and breathe.

Try relaxing in God’s arms, if you haven’t before. If you have, try actively trusting more today than you did yesterday. You’ll sleep better too.