2020 Lenten Devotional 1: God reaching in new ways

I had intended to take a break for blogging in this season, but in tonight's virtual "Hope for Artists" meeting (via Google Hangouts) I felt God speak to me. It began with this verse:

The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.Psalm 23:1, NLT 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.Psalm 23:1, NASB

Our scripture meditation was the entire psalm, but I stopped dead in my tracks reading the second half of that first verse. I knew that God really wanted me to look at it.

I recalled this morning, our newly-confirmed senior pastor concluded the online devotional (it was on Psalm 46) with having us do this exercise: "God, I trust You for...." or, "God, I trust You to...."

At the time that I saw the video, I resisted participating in the exercise. But tonight, after having taken part in the scripture meditation, I knew immediately what my answer was: "God, I trust You to provide for all my needs." I then continued writing:

I've been in a storm for way longer than this coronavirus epidemic... and God wants me to learn to really depend on Him regardless of the storm, whether it's a pandemic, or whether it's uncertainty around my future or my security (home, work, finances, car, etc). While I've had a lifetime of experiences and reasons not to trust Him -- therapy exposed a lot of those unresolved memories that I'd shoved under a rug -- Jesus is still beckoning me and inviting me. He earnestly wants to show me He is trustworthy and that I can trust Him.

Also, learning to depend on Him only and truly will enable me to walk in obedience to His will instead of my own, or that of the world, or that of others.

So my prayer at this point is and must continue to be: "Jesus, please show me that You really are trustworthy..."