Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders….

I love the popular worship song line from  Oceans, ” Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. ”

It is so fun to sing that line and belt it out.

Not just from my lips but longing to belt it out with a prayer from my soul.

I don’t know about you, but really if I were honest while I was singing this happy tune— there are some “buts” around my borders.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders but will you give me a sign that it will all turn out perfectly the way I have planned in my mind, please?

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders but I am feeling a bit afraid here God and so I am going to say that but stay here in THESE borders 

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders as long as I will not experience any pain, rejection, or failure along the way God.

Recently I have been reading my old prayer journals before bed.  I have years and years of these, and I hope you will promise me if I die before you do, you will burn them pretty please.

These journals are how I pray, how I pour out my heart through my penned prayers to God.

I have been re-reading back to 2011 and 2012 when I was graduating with my second Masters degree in counseling.  I had a big dream to start a ministry called Coming Alive.  I wanted to step in with my trust without borders.

And what a journey it has been.  An incredible one that has taken me to 8 different countries to minister at over 80 Women’s conferences since I started.  I say all that only to say, wow, God’s borders have been more than I could ask or imagine.  It’s all been Him doing the impossible.

But to be honest there are still times when I want a sign.

I want to know where God is leading next.  What He is doing behind the scenes? Will I sink or swim, or float?

I remember when I took lifeguard training class.  Yup, I was a lifeguard once.  They realized pretty quick I should only stay in the shallow water.  Regardless, I loved my whistle and lifeguard chair.

At the pool I worked at, you had to pass a swim test to go into the deep waters.  Being able to pass this test was the sign that you were ready to cross the great divide– the bubbly looking floating stringy thing that separated the shallow from the deep.

The borders were not there to keep the swimmers from having fun.  There was water there for all the people swimming.  Water to splash around in, dunk your friends in, see how long you can hold your breath underwater in.

In the shallow and the deep.

But the borders were for the swimmers safety. They needed to pass the test so the lifeguards knew the swimmers were confident enough to swim in the deep.

The borders were protection.

Part of my asking the Spirit to lead me where my trust is without borders is to trust the borders He has placed around me, for my protection. (click to tweet)

He knows when I am ready for the deep.

He knows when it is best for me to rest in the shallows.

He knows when you are ready for the deep. When you are ready for the shallows.  He knows when we need to go from one to the other and back again.

He has the whole pool but knows exactly the best for us.

And  in the deep or the shallow, like the lifeguard , He is watching out for us.  Ready to rescue us because He delights in us ( Psalms 18).  In fact, He has rescued us.

Again and again and again.

So we can wade in the shallows protected by the guard of our lives.

We can dive in the deep protected by the guard of our lives.

We can trust the borders.

I have been reading in Joshua.  The Israelites are finally ready. They are leaving their wilderness wanderings to the promised land dwelling.

After they cross the Jordan, they have a hard time dispersing to the borders God has set out for them.  I imagine it felt scary, maybe strange. They had been dreaming of the promised land so long, could they really settle in it?

In fact in Joshua 18:3, Joshua finally says, ” How long will you put off going on in to take the possession of the Land the Lord has given you?”

The tribes were each given different borders specific to them.  But they had to go settle in them, move toward them, live in them.

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders– shallow or deep.

How has the Lord called you to places of deeper trust?

Ps:  linking with the delightful Suzie Eller for #livefreeThursday. Be sure to pop by her place.  She has a new online Bible study launching with FREE videos on her newest book Come with Me, which fits this theme very well.  Please check it out.