As I was listening in church on Mother’s Day, the pastor was reminiscing about a time when his daughter was very young. They took a walk in a different part of the neighborhood than they were wont to visit, and the father wondered if his daughter had any anxieties about being in a new place. He asked her as much and she replied, “No, Daddy. I trust you!”
I’ve been known to trust members of my family to make decisions for me, because I know they will always choose something good. That got me to thinking, how easily do we trust God? Are we so quick to give God control over our lives, or do we shrink back in a corner, holding onto our “rights” as tightly as we can, not willing to relinquish our decisions to our Heavenly Father?
I heard it explained like this and it’s so true. “Knowing leads to trusting.” The more we know someone, and the more time we have to discern their character, the more our trust in them grows. We don’t normally walk up to a complete stranger and pour out our hearts, spilling before them our deepest aspirations, hurts, and desires. Why? We don’t know enough about them to discern if they are worthy of our trust. At the same time, we ARE probably quick to share our hearts with those we know and love, because we’ve spent enough time with them to know we can trust them. How does this apply to our relationship with God? The more we know Him, Who He is, His attributes, and His character, the more we will trust Him! Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” The word “faith” used in that verse is translated from the Greek word “pistis”, which means “persuasion”. That said, when we hear the Word of God, the Lord begins to persuade us that He is worth trusting and, therefore, grows our faith in Him. I love the following quote by Gabriel Cleator and it perfectly illustrates this, “Fall in love with the Word of God, and you’ll fall in love with the God of the Word.”
If your faith (and trust) in God is lacking, I challenge you to ask the Lord to give you a desire to know Him, and commit to reading some from His Word every day.
He offers us this promise in Jeremiah 29:13:
“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”
Also, James 4:8a:
“Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
What are you waiting for?
