Choosing Faith Again And Again Until Trust Grows Sturdy

"I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.” - Psalm 40:1

Yesterday we talked about the moment fear first knocks at the door. But there's another reality we have to be honest about: sometimes fear doesn't leave after one good decision. You choose faith on Monday, and by Tuesday afternoon the same worry is back, knocking just as loudly as before. You'd hoped one act of trust would settle the matter for good. Instead, you find yourself standing at the same door, facing the same fear, having to make the same choice all over again.

This can be discouraging if you're expecting faith to work like a switch you flip once. But that's not how it works on a long road. Faith is less like a single decision and more like a path you keep choosing, step after step, day after day. The psalmist says he waited patiently — and the Hebrew behind that phrase carries the sense of waiting and waiting and waiting some more. This wasn't a quick fix. He cried out, and then he held on, and then he kept holding on, until the Lord inclined toward him. Lingering fear doesn't mean your faith has failed. It often means you're in exactly the kind of season where trust gets built.

Picture a traveler crossing a wide stretch of wilderness, where the same dry terrain stretches on for days. The fear of running low, of being lost, of never reaching the other side doesn't disappear after the first morning of trusting God for provision. It returns each day — and so the choice to trust must be made each day, too. But here's the quiet miracle: every time the traveler chooses faith again, the choosing gets a little more familiar. The muscle of trust grows stronger through repetition, not through a single heroic moment. What feels like exhausting repetition is actually the very process God uses to make your faith sturdy enough to carry you the whole distance.

So if fear is still here today — if it came back overnight and met you again this morning — you haven't done anything wrong. You're simply being invited to choose faith one more time. And then tomorrow, you'll be invited to choose it again. Each choice matters. Each one strengthens the next. The God who heard the psalmist's cry didn't grow tired of being turned to, and He doesn't grow tired of you returning to Him either. The lingering of your fear is not a sign of His distance. It's the very ground on which a deeper, more durable trust is being formed — one faithful choice at a time.

Prayer
Father, your Word reminds me that waiting patiently is part of the journey, and that turning to You again and again isn't weakness — it's how You build a faith sturdy enough to carry me the whole way. So today I choose You again. And if fear returns tomorrow, give me the grace to choose You then, too. Thank You that You never tire of hearing my cry, never grow weary of me returning, and are using even this lingering fear to make my trust deeper and stronger. I'm staying on this road with You, one choice at a time. Amen.