Welcome! In this post we’ll dive a bit into how our trusting God affects our everyday life.
So here’s the thing: many of us don’t trust God. But if we don’t learn to trust God, we’ll never gain a firm foundation for our Christian faith. We’ll always be unsure if He sees us as loved and accepted and important. (He does.)
If we view God as a genie, that’s not trust. If we view God as a grumpy guy we have to butter up, that’s not trust. If we merely hope when we pray, that’s not trust. So how do we learn to trust God, even when it feels like He doesn’t exist? We can start with deciding that we can take His Word as truth.
By reading the Bible, and choosing to believe what it says about how God sees us, we can begin to trust that He really is our loving, caring creator.
In What Do We Trust?
When you think about it, we sure do trust a lot of man-made things that can fail us at any moment. Our cars, for example, and other high-tech transporters such as trains and airplanes. Think about the latter for a second. We willingly put ourselves in a metal can that hurtles through the sky at 500+ mph, at a commercial cruising altitude of 35,000 feet! That’s a long fall to the ground if the wing snaps or the engine fails!
We put our trust in stop lights. And stop signs. And the blinking “Walk” sign at crosswalks. We trust that the bank will return our money to us when we want it. The bank, itself, trusts us to pay off our credit cards and house loans. That trust isn’t always rewarded.
Too, we trust our well-being — if not our very lives — to other people. Every time we step into a new relationship, we open ourselves up to potential joy and chest-crushing pain. Even when we open our arms to offer a hug, we expose our hearts to rejection.
Some of us trust in philosophies so bizarre that they require not only our blind faith, but our total dismissal of reality. Critics like to say that Christians do both, but their claims lack truth. Christianity isn’t bogus; it’s based on vetted historical facts, and the very real personage of Jesus.
Lastly, most of us put a TON of trust in ourselves. We’ve been influenced by society to believe that our individual fates are entirely due to our own efforts. Say what?!
In God We Trust?
Have you ever looked at a United States coin or bill and wondered, “Why does it say “In God We Trust’?”
Though this motto currently remains on our national currency, I think we can all agree it’s now a minority view. Some are lobbying to have the statement removed, as it is a tangible reminder that the U.S. once respectfully acknowledged God. Will the replacement text be “In Ourselves We Trust”?
Primarily through our increasingly secular media and educational systems, we’ve been conditioned away from trusting God and toward trusting in the inherent power of humanity. We have no idea just how immoral we’ve become. As I overheard one person put it, “We don’t even know what immorality is anymore.” #ouch #truth
Many people simply can’t stand a biblical standard of morality, because it stops them from feeling good about their habits and behaviors. They believe it’s perfectly acceptable to blame God for what they think should be different in the world, and to use their view as justification for rejecting Him. Hold up! Do we seriously believe we have the right to judge and condemn God?
God Is Trustworthy
Friends, are you as tired as I am of the hamster wheel that society tells us to keep racing on to achieve our “best life”? In our frenetic chasing of power and wealth and popularity, we lose sight of our real purpose. We’re not here to amass the most toys, Facebook likes, and YouTube views. We’re here to live full lives made wonderful and satisfying through our focus of honoring God and serving others.
The Bible shares, in great detail, how we are to correctly view and respond to life. It tells us who we are! It teaches us how to love. It tells us how to forgive, and why it’s critical that we do so. It instructs us on how to deal with disappointment and failure and setbacks. And it assures us that God continues to pursue us to have a personal relationship with Him. How mind-blowing is it that the Creator of the universe wants us to know and love and trust Him?
The very planet itself, as Sean McDowell points out, shouts, “God is real! See Him in the details!”
Sure, we can live by a lower standard than God wishes for us — but we only shortchange ourselves. Give God the chance to show you that trusting Him is worth it. You can start to develop that trust by opening His Word.
Take the 30-day Proverbs Challenge
Instead of firing up Facebook first thing tomorrow morning, jump on over to the YouVersion app. It will take you just a few minutes to read the wealth of wise tips in the 31 Proverbs. Read a Proverb a day. Here’s one of my favorites.
Double Dare: post a favorite verse on Facebook. You’re going to be known for something, right? Why not for being wise?
Catch up: The introductory post to this series. Last week’s post: Is the Bible Fact or Fiction?
