I think our most fundamental issue with God is our ability to trust in Him. Our righteousness, our relationship is defined by our faith and faith is a product of belief and trust. Often I find people “believe” in the facts or the evidence or existence of God but don’t trust. They don’t trust in Him. In this spirit filled balloon ride of discovery the ultimate purpose is to bring us all to a place of complete trust in Him. This is the very thing that the devil ruined in the garden. Before a bad fruit meal we lived in complete trust. There was no other way. Then the serpent cast doubt by deceit and we stopped trusting just long enough to take in the poison of self-reliance. We stepped into a world of DIY. Now over time this has become our paradigm. Apart from a relationship with our Father in heaven, our groom for eternity and our Paraclete we only know the do it yourself lifestyle. Maybe we are blessed with loved ones and relationships that create a network of support so the burden of life is shared by others. Maybe we are blessed with an amazing encourager that sees the positive side of things and brings joy in times of sorrow. Maybe we are blessed with material things so we don’t live in need but in prosperity. Maybe our lives in our DIY lifestyle are pretty good and maybe not. Still it is all meaningless without trust in Him.
For some of us it takes a long time to trust. Maybe we have been taught that God is mean and angry and is judging everything we do. Maybe we have seen Him as the scary Mother Superior with a ruler ready to smack us when we get it wrong. Maybe we have been taught that God is indifferent or nonexistent and this life is what we make of it. Maybe we were taught that God loves but our experience is filled with pain and we can’t reconcile a loving God with the pain in our lives. All of those portraits of God are lies or distortions of truth and there are many more out there that all lead to the same conclusion, God is not one to be trusted. It is the same lie as in the garden when the devil said “did God really say?”
Maybe we have been betrayed or stabbed in the back or abandoned and we have no capacity for trust. Maybe we trusted someone we loved very much and they died, left us or turned out to be selfish and not worthy of trust. Maybe we have idolized someone in authority and then they made a huge error in judgment and our view of authority figures is so distorted that authority repulses us. Maybe we have been wrongly accused or unfairly treated for an alleged infraction and we no longer trust the system or mankind in general. All of these and so many more are lies born out of experience that damage our trust mechanism and drive us further into our DIY lifestyle. It is the same lie as in the garden when Adam and Eve hid in the bushes in shame.
God is trustworthy. You can trust Him. Listen, I can’t “prove that to you.” My words will not convince you that God is the loving God I describe. I can’t make the most persuasive argument ever conceived and move you from one location to another. Only God can prove it to you. My job is to plant some seed that makes you question your current location. If you are standing in a place of understanding that doesn’t include the revelation of a good God who is trustworthy then I challenge that maybe you don’t know everything. Maybe there is something outside your current reality that absolutely reveals a loving God and creates a hunger to “know Him” in a relationship.
I do believe that if you are reading this post then God has brought you here. He is the great evangelist. The Holy Spirit is always at work to bring us greater clarity of who He is. God says that He desires that all of us would be made whole, delivered from bondage and reconciled to a good and loving God in an eternal relationship. That is pretty awesome. I have complete and total trust that in these words are a power unto salvation, a good news message that is filled with His goodness that leads to a mind changing event. Here are a couple of verses to chew on.
1 Cor 1:9 God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (AMP)
That is pretty clear. What about how trusting in Him, believing in a good God and His trustworthiness leads to miraculous intervention in our lives? Here is an example you may be familiar with.
Heb 11:11 Because of faith also Sarah herself received physical power to conceive a child, even when she was long past the age for it, because she considered [God] Who had given her the promise to be reliable and trustworthy and true to His word. (AMP)
If you are stuck in a DIY mindset let me tell you God will absolutely meet you exactly where you are and prove His trustworthiness. The cross is the first stop on the road to revelation of His goodness. Check this out:
Matt 19:23 As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God’s kingdom? Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.” 25 The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?” 26 Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.” (The Message)
Maybe you are one of those who have a healthy view of God in general but can’t see Him loving you that much. Maybe you are the weak link in the chain that leads you to a DIY lifestyle. Maybe your view of God doesn’t allow for Him to overlook your own junk. Well…
Eph 2:1-6 It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. (The Message)
Heavenly places!!! How about that? That is where you are now in Christ Jesus. You are outside all the junk. You are outside all the law bondage. You are outside all the sin garbage. You are seated in the Heavenly places in Jesus in the beloved as a child of God. Wow! That sounds pretty trustworthy on His part. But if you still doubt, it is OK. He meets you in your unbelief.
Mark 9: 23 And Jesus said, [You say to Me], If You can do anything? [Why,] all things can be (are possible) to him who believes! 24 At once the father of the boy gave [an eager, piercing, inarticulate] cry with tears, and he said, Lord, I believe! [Constantly] help my weakness of faith! (AMP)
It isn’t our believing in our DIY life but believing in Him and He provides the grounds for believing. Any real relationship, any relationship built on trust requires mutual assurance of trust. He wants to show you. He wants you to trust Him. He wants to build a trustworthy relationship. You don’t have to go to church, or get down on your knees, or clasp your hands, or go to your bedroom, or go to your prayer closet, or find a friend to pray with, or wait on His presence, or be covered with liquid love, or be warm with His embrace, or feel His touch, or read your Bible or anything else. All those things are good and when He touches you it is awesome but it is not trust building. He can only build trust by meeting you where you are not where you think He is. What did the father of the epileptic boy do? He “gave an eager, piercing, inarticulate cry with tears.” Tell Him you want to trust Him. Tell Him you don’t know how. Be honest with your Abba Father. He will reveal Himself as trustworthy. If you are reading this post then I trust Him enough to know He is speaking to you!
Yay God!
Lance
alancetotheheart 