Trusting God for the Next Five Minutes

In a world that seems to be spinning out of control, can God be trusted? And if you’re having trouble trusting Him for the next year, can you trust Him for the next five minutes?

For years, I struggled with anxiety attacks while working as a corporate executive in New York City. My position required extensive travel to destinations from Mexico City to London, Caracas to Canada, and to cities across the United States. My desire to be in control, including control of my surroundings, produced bouts of severe anxiety. Alone in an unfamiliar hotel room, waves of fear would engulf me late at night as I fought to maintain calm.

In Psalm 56:3-4, the psalmist made a choice. In the midst of frightening circumstances, he declared, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid.”

I finally asked myself one question. If the God of the universe is trustworthy enough for me to place my eternal soul in His hands, how could I not trust Him for the next five minutes? And the five minutes after that? And then the five minutes after that?

Over a period of several months, I chose to follow the psalmist’s example. I committed to trusting God in my anxious moments, often in five-minute increments. The anxiety attacks diminished, and finally disappeared, as I intentionally rested in the realization that the God of creation can be trusted for eternity and for today.

It’s so easy to allow our world and our individual circumstances dictate our level of peace and trust in God. But God is bigger than our circumstances. He is El Elyon, the Most High God. While some things are beyond my limited ability to manage, nothing is too big for Him to handle.

The critical question boils down to this: Will I trust Him?

How do you handle times of fear or anxiety?

*Adapted from Daily Reflections on the Names of God by Ava Pennington.