What was supposed to be a family day at the beach quickly turned to tragedy. Louisa and her husband had taken their four year old daughter for a picnic on the beach in Long Island, New York. Most accounts say when Mr. Stead heard the cries for help, he sprang into action to rescue a boy drowning in the Atlantic. Sadly, the undercurrent pulled Mr. Stead down where he drowned.
After the death of her husband, Louisa and their daughter, Lily, had no one to turn to. She had immigrated from England when she was only twenty-one. In the late 1800’s, widows did not receive death benefits to help care for their children. She had no one to turn to but the Lord. As food was quickly running out, she desperately prayed for the Lord to meet her and Lily’s needs. One evening she heard a knock on her door and to her amazement, someone had left groceries with an anonymous envelope filled with cash. So overwhelmed by God’s provision, she sat down and penned the timeless words, “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.”
Proverbs 3:5 says we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Why do you suppose God wants this type of heart trust? I think it’s because faith is an emotional journey. It’s one thing to trust in God with your intellect. It’s another thing to trust Him with all your heart. It means we sometimes feel vulnerable. We sometimes feel let down. Yet there it is, in the pages of scripture, an open invitation to be vulnerable with God to put our heart on the line.
Of course there is always the temptation to revert back from the realm of faith into the realm of reason and logic. So right after the instruction to trust in the Lord with all our heart is the warning to not lean upon our own understanding. Perhaps what you are facing you cannot make sense of. Circumstances may be beyond your control and the answers may be beyond your understanding. Friends, it is a perfect scenario to trust in Jesus.
As our faith continues to grow, may we be able to say as Louisa Stead wrote, “I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee, Precious Jesus, Savior friend. And I know that Thou art with me, wilt be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him! How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er! Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! O for grace to trust Him more!”
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