Entrust…

“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will He not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:42)

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about a particular word: entrust. The dictionary says that to entrust is to “hand over for safekeeping”. I encountered this word some time ago, but in pondering it anew, I realize how useful a word it is for me right now.

I’m aware that I’m “supposed” to trust God about any and every situation which troubles me if I am a true believer, a “real Christian”. I certainly believe with my mind that our good God and Father will, in his infinite love and wisdom, do always and only what is best in every situation. At times though, I am aware of unsettled feelings, especially in the face of a loved one’s suffering.

The word “entrust” has helped me enormously. People say, “Just trust God!”, and of course they’re correct. But sometimes I don’t exactly feel like that’s what’s happening. Entrust, though, is a verb, not a state of being; it’s active. And no matter what I might be feeling, it’s something I can do – perhaps over and over, true – but it feels more active, less helpless.

When a friend or loved one is in a bad situation and I really can’t materially do anything to help, reminding myself that I actually am doing something helps a lot. I’m handing them over to the One who is most trustworthy for His loving and wise care of them! Who better could I entrust them to? For He is the One who sees the whole thing from beginning to end, the One whose loving purposes will ultimately prevail, and the One who can do infinitely more and better for them than I ever could. If I reframe the process of entrusting my loved ones’ suffering and struggles to God in prayer as actual evidence of my trust in Him (instead of what I do when I can’t do anything else), I don’t feel quite so deficient, nor so helpless.

More than anything else, I want to truly say and truly mean: Jesus, I trust in you! God sees my heart, and He hears its cry, and his grace will help me to do my part as I intercede in love for those whom He loves far more than I do.