Day 41, April 15

“Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” –Luke 23:46

By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44–46 NLT)

It’s easy to say, “I trust God in every area of my life,” but actually living that trust through the everyday details is not quite so easy. Many of us discover that when the rubber meets the road, we fall back on certain habits or practices in an attempt to exert a modicum of control over our own lives instead of running to God, trusting Him in our circumstances. Not so with Jesus. In the final breaths before His death, His last words expressed His complete trust in the Father, the same level of trust He displayed throughout His life.

We too should display this kind of trust in the everyday details of our lives, especially the difficult and trying times. One way to build this trust in the Almighty into the deep corners of our hearts is to use the scaffolding of prayer. Serving as a reminder of our desire to trust God and of God’s trustworthiness throughout the day, prayer can help to shape our hearts to better reflect the image of Christ in our lives. One prayer you might find helpful comes from 24 Hours that Changed the World by Adam Hamilton: “I commit myself to you, O God. In my living and in my dying, in the good times and in the bad, whatever I am and have, I place in your hands, O God, for your safekeeping.” Pray this prayer in the details of your day today, “when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up” (Deuteronomy 6:7).

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