Trusting God
In
quietness and trust is your strength.
Isaiah
30:15 (NIV)
One of the greatest challenges I’ve faced in raising a
special-needs child is learning not to worry about his future. I struggle with
the tendency to live in self-reliance mode, believing somehow that I am the one
responsible for my child’s well-being. While it is true that God has entrusted
this child into my care for a while, and I am responsible for his physical,
educational, financial and emotional welfare, there are certain things far
beyond my abilities. I won’t always be around to provide, to help, to guide and
instruct him. I can’t physically be with him 24/7. And I can’t control what his
future will be. I can take certain steps to prepare him for the work force and the
possibility of living in a semi-independent living facility, but the truth of
the matter is that one day, God will call me home.
Stephen Mann expressed it well when he tweeted, “Anxiety
comes when we look at our circumstances and then look at our ability, but faith
comes when we look at our circumstance and then at God’s ability.”[1]
So,
how do I release that voice of doubt that keeps nagging at my brain, saying
“What’s going to happen to him when you’re gone?” I bring it to the foot of the
cross and leave it there. Permanently. I refuse to pick it up again and again,
like a travel-worn backpack I lug around wherever I go.
Look at the entire verse in Isaiah 30:15. This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy
One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness
and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
In their stubbornness,
the Israelites continued to refuse God’s help, relying instead on Egypt and
their swift horses. While they could have placed their trust in God, which
would have resulted in rest, quietness, and strength, they chose to rely on
their tactics and strategies which ultimately led them to defeat and bondage.
God loves my special-needs child so much more than I ever
can, and He will take care of him. He wants me to place my complete trust in
Him, for it only then that my soul can find true rest.
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