Thursday, June 25, 2015

Trust In God Therapy



1. No matter what you have known of doubt, fear, or betrayal, you are here today— right where you need to be. Trust the strong thread that ties your life’s moments together. It is spun of Love.

2. Choose to be like a wild daisy or a field sparrow. Greet the dawn, confident that you have all you need to be what you are meant to be. When the day brings storm or drought, bird and flower hold on bravely to life. Simply trust. Trust simply.

3. God wants only the best for you. The path may not be easy, smooth, short, or detour-free. But it will get you where you need to be— with God as your constant companion.

4. Trust tunes you to the wavelength of the music of the universe. Listen… and the harmonies of life will become more apparent to you.

5. Trust stands tall, eyes awake to see, arms extended, hands open to receive the good. Assume the posture of trust.

6. Be welcoming, not wary. Expect gifts, not troubles. Anticipate the many disguises of grace and prepare to recognize them as they appear.

7. You may learn dependence on God by first trusting a friend or a spouse, or sharing the journey of someone else who struggles. Have faith that God will send you the guides you need.

8. Practice awareness of God in times of blessing, so that God’s presence is familiar in times of trouble. Recognize and reverence God’s many manifestations: in nature, in other people, in unexpected places, in unlikely miracles.

9. Practice words of trust: “I believe.” “I am confident.” “I am not afraid.” These bold sentences will build bridges across the crevasses of fear in your mind, heart, and soul.

10. You may learn to rely on God from practicing faith. Or you may grasp the truth of trust as you hang by the fingernails of one hand from a spiritual precipice. Some people, at some times, seem to require more homework. Hang on!

11. Within your body and soul, God has planted seeds of trust. Most people can trust their heart to beat and their lungs to fill. More importantly, everyone can come to know what is good and holy. Let the holiness within you guide your quest for trust in God.

12. Practice the prayer of trust. Lie back on the ground or rest in a chair with your hands held open on your lap. Let your whole body say, “I will allow God’s truth to emerge in my life. I am ready.”

13. Faith expects life to reveal its goodness. Fear dreads the approach of the day. You can feel the effects of fear in your body. Let yourself fall into God’s embrace.

14. You trust the sun and the moon and the tides. You believe that God has a plan for melting day into night, for turning the seasons of the year. Would God fail to have a plan for you?

15. You trust in electricity, plumbing, alarm clocks. You trust traffic lights, bus and plane schedules, the refrigerator and the furnace. All these fail. God is more worthy of your trust than the weather forecaster! Back into trust, if you must.

16. If you can’t begin by believing in God’s love for you, begin by believing that the earth’s surface can support your weight while gravity keeps you from floating off. In the simplest actions, you reveal considerable trust.

17. Trust does not make us immune to trouble. Bad things do happen to trusting people. But it can give us something to hold on to when life is crumbling around us. Hold on, hold fast, hold out!

18. It’s true God works in mysterious ways— but often through natural processes, ordinary people, normal events. Look for things falling into place, truth dawning, healing happening. Believe in everyday miracles!

19. In whom have you placed your trust? Picture God as that person – your grandma, your coach, your kindergarten teacher. Trust God in the ways you trusted that person – bandage your wounds, dry your tears, lead you on new paths. 

 20. Confide one of your doubts or fears to a loved one. Or ask a favor of someone you know. When human beings respond with generosity and goodwill, you get the smallest hint of the good God wants for you.
21. When you visit the valley of the shadows, do not go empty-handed. To face a single terror, you need at least 10 memories of trust honored, of good experienced. Rehearse and store those memories now of the dark times of the future. 

22. Trust can be broken – or bent to the breaking point – by the actions of others. You can despair or you can reaffirm your faith in the basic goodness of people and the power of God to heal all wounds. 

23. Trust is tested by doubt – which can be triggered by pain or betrayal, hardship or loss. In times of doubt, remember past faithfulness and blessings and anticipate new one’s. Know that God can transform trial into triumph. 

24. When roads come to an end, planes crash, babies die, crops fail, or houses burn, God is present. Yet God is not the dead end, the crash, the death, the failure, or the fire.  Look to God to find power in the midst of pain, to turn loss to gain, to make ends into beginnings. 

25. We can have confidence that creation is unfolding according to God’s will, but we can also help to make it so.  Use your special gifts to bring kindness, peace, and healing to a world in need. 

26. Faith means searching for the divine in events that bless us as well as events that try our souls. This is the seesaw truth of trust – to sense God’s hand in both turmoil and tranquility. Hold on tight through the ups and downs of life. 

27. Help God help you. As a proverb says “Call on God, but row away from the rocks.” Do what you need to do. Paddle in the right direction. 

28. Resignation and trust are not twins. Resignation bows under the weight. Trust simply waits. Trust as a child does – with innocence and confidence and anticipation of the good that is to come. 

29. If you decide to rely completely on your own power to work out life’s dilemmas, God will not somehow revoke your heavenly insurance policy. You are always loved dearly. Count on God to be infinitely patient.
30. Trust is not an attitude. Trust acts. Wait in trust, and you wait with hope. Act  in trust, and you open yourself up to divine action and abundance in your life. 

31. A world without trust is unreliable, unruly, and inhospitable. A life without trust is tiny, timid, and tense. Place your hand in God’s, to ensure against a life and a world too narrow for love. 

32. Depending on God isn’t foolishness or fancy. It isn’t laissez-faire or lackadaisical. It requires and creates courage. Be strong!

33. Faith relieves us of the burdens imposed by the past and the future. Trust… and you will find yourself in the present and the presence of God. 

34. Faith requires that we rely on the invisible. What can be seen may appear to fall short of a blessing. Yet grace is as strong as gravity. Rely on the Almighty, and you will find yourself pulled toward heaven as certainly as gravity pulls you toward earth.  

35. Just because you don’t feel serene and enlightened all the time doesn’t mean you’ve flunked Trust-In-God 101. Sometimes feelings lag behind. Go through the motions-walk the walk, talk the talk, pray the prayer until the sense of God-with-you returns. Trust in trust. 

36. Trust is not spiritual equipment to be used only in case of crisis-like a parachute or airbag. Reliance on God is an expression of truth, a set of your soul, a way of life. Trust God whenever…whatever…wherever… forever. 

37. God trusts you. God delights in your desire to strengthen your faith. Every movement of your searching heart is a holy gift. Believe in the quest itself. 

38. God invites , “Trust me!” What will you reply? Could you really say, “Not today,” or “Let me give it some more thought,” or “Why should I?” Or will you simply whisper , “Teach me to trust; I’m afraid, but I place my hand in yours”?