Trusting God Without Borders
If you haven’t heard the song “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong UNITED, you need to go listen to it. Like REALLY listen to it.
Before I get too far into this post, let me tell you a little backstory. This is one of those instances where I have listened to this song a million times. Whether it be in church, in the car, or in my bedroom. I even sang this song with my cousin in front of my church a few years ago. So, I would say that I am pretty familiar with these lyrics.
But let me tell you something, God can reveal things to you even through a song you’ve heard a million times.
While I was listening to this song a few days ago, these lyrics hit me:
“Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk upon the waters,
Wherever you would call me.
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander,
And my faith will be made stronger,
In the presence of my Savior.”
WOW. Aren’t these words so powerful?
Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
What does this mean? Basically, this is telling us to trust God with everything we have. Not just to trust Him with a part of our life, but instead with every part of our lives. It is easy to trust God when things are going well, but He is calling us to trust Him even in the hardest situations. My word for this year (2021) is trust. I will go deeper into this in a different blog post, but my reasoning behind choosing trust as my word for this year was based on Jeremiah 17:7. It states, “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” I love that this verse says whose CONFIDENCE is in Him. We can trust God in hard situations because we have confidence in who He is. When we trust without borders, that means we trust without limits. When we are anxious, worried, doubtful, or fearful, we are not trusting God without borders. The definition of anxious is “experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.” We become anxious when we stop trusting that God is in control. Therefore, we are limiting what we think God can do. But let me tell you a secret, God is bigger than any problem you will ever face.
Let me walk upon the waters, wherever you would call me
This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Maybe when Jesus called for Peter to walk on the water? Starting in Matthew 14:25, Jesus walks on the water in order to go out to the boat that the disciples were on. When the disciples saw Jesus from a distance, they thought He was a ghost. Peter then said in verse 28, “Lord, if it is You, tell me to come to you on the water.” Jesus told him to “Come.” Then, Peter started walking on the water! Isn’t that crazy? You’re probably thinking wow, Peter had a lot of trust in Jesus to be able to do that. However, the story doesn’t stop here. The wind started to pick up, and Peter got scared. He began to sink and cried out to Jesus to save him. Jesus grabbed his hand and said, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” How many times have we been Peter in this situation? Jesus has placed something on our hearts for us to do, but once our surroundings start to become hard we stop trusting in His plan for us. We sink. We need to ask ourselves the same question Jesus asked Peter, “why did you doubt?” Why are we doubting God’s plan for us? God’s plan for us won’t always be easy and comfortable. In fact, God often pushes us out of our comfort zone. However, we can trust that God will work all things out. Nothing is too big for God to handle. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose”.
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
This one line reveals so much depth as to what is possible with God. We can only do so much on our own. We will see God do amazing things when we are living to glorify Him in everything we do. One time I wrote a blog post and decided to submit it to Live Original, Sadie Robertson Huff’s ministry. Through God’s amazing work my blog post was chosen and I was featured on the Live Original website. Hundreds of people read the blog post, and I just know that God’s hand was on the entire thing. There is no way that I could have reached that many people on my own. This is just one example of how God’s plan for us can exceed all of the expectations that we have placed on our lives. The agenda that we may have for ourselves might not align with the agenda that God has for us. This can go either way. God can blow our expectations out of the water, or what we expected to happen may not happen at all. Yes, that will come with disappointment, but we have to remember that God can see the whole picture. This is where we need to trust without borders. His plan for us might not be exactly what we had envisioned, or even originally wanted. But this is where we need to trust Him and know that His plan for us is unique and perfect.
And my faith will be made stronger, in the presence of my Savior
Read that again. Your faith will not grow stronger by depending on yourself, or even on other people for that matter. Your faith will be made STRONGER in the PRESENCE of your SAVIOR. By meditating on God’s word, and engraving it on your heart, you will become stronger and more equipped to face any situation that may come your way. Your trust in the Lord will grow the more you surround yourself with His truth. You might have heard this verse before, but it is Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” Isn’t that the truth? However, sometimes we look at this verse and forget that while, yes we can absolutely achieve anything with Jesus on our side, this is also talking about while we are going through hard situations. The verse before this, verse 12, states that “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” This is telling us that Jesus will give us the strength we need in ANY situation that we are in. Whether we are fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want, God will be with us through it all.
These lyrics spoke to me in a way that this song hasn’t spoken to me before. It opened my eyes to a new perspective on trusting God. When we trust without borders, He will call us deeper than we could ever imagine. He may call us to situations where we feel uncomfortable, but our faith will be made stronger in the presence of our Savior.
Listen to “Oceans” by Hillsong UNITED here