Growing in Trust

I used to think of trusting God as something I had to make myself do. You know how it goes if you have been on this journey with God for any length of time. Life's circumstances become so difficult that you find it hard to see that things will turn out all right. You know God has said that you can trust him, but it is not easy to do that. Right? Isn't that how it goes? Well, what I am discovering is that trust really is more of an outcome than a decision. Everything about my life is in the Father's hands. Everything! Nothing escapes his watchful, loving eyes. As I understand more about his love for me, I naturally trust him more. And, I don't mean "understand" as just an intellectual exercise. The more I experience his love, the more I discover that I am trusting him. Something happens and I am surprised to find that I am not worrying like I used to to. Or, I go through some difficult time and later look back and realize I wasn't as frightened as I had been when that happened earlier in my life. I found that I had been trusting God all along without ever really declaring I was. Trust is just the natural outcome of what I've experienced in my relationship with him.


Does that make sense to you? I remember when my children were small. We played the "jump from the bed into my arms" game that many parents and their kids play. They would jump from the bed and I would catch them. The thing that I noticed is that they never doubted I would catch them. I would take a step back and they would go at it again. Another step. Another catch. They trusted me. They didn't have to tell themselves, "I need to trust Daddy more." Their brother or sister didn't need to say, "Hey, you just need to trust Daddy more." They didn't need that. They just did it. They trusted as a natural outflow of our relationship. I even remember times when they surprised me and jumped to me when I was not looking or ready. It scared me, and I would say, "Whoa, make sure I'm ready before you do that!" But, the thing was, they didn't think twice. They didn't think, "I wonder if Daddy will catch me." They just knew and jumped. Of course, the difference between my heavenly dad and me is that he is always ready, never surprised, always capable. 


I've heard people say to me or others, "Well, you just need to trust God more!" Are they correct? Sure they are. I DO need to trust God. The problem is that you can't trust anymore than you can trust. You can't trust God anymore than your relationship of love will allow you. And, people who say that probably don't understand what trust is all about anyway. Can I take little steps of faith? Absolutely. And, those steps of faith are things God has shown me I can do. He sticks his hand out for me to hold, and I grab it. He says jump, and I jump. 


People are good at turning trust into just another religious act, a formula for getting God to do things. There are a number of problems with this approach to God, but the main issue is a lack of understanding about the nature of God. He is our Father, Jesus taught us, our Abba, our Papa, or Daddy, as we would put it in our culture today. As his children, we live in a love relationship with our Father. When the New Testament writers speak of our relationship with God as Father, they picture us as children who call God our Abba, our Papa. Children just trust their daddy. They learn from early experience that their papa does what is best for them. 


So, trust, in this best sense of the word, is not a choice. It is an outcome. It is the fruit of my ever growing confidence in Father's love for me.


One of the other truths about this journey of trust with God I am learning is that Jesus is the one who grows our trust. HE does it! We cooperate. He does it. (... and even when we don't cooperate, he still is the one who does it.) Jesus is the author of our faith and also the one who perfects it, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it. He allows certain circumstances in my life that lead me to trust. He saves my bacon over and over again. He shows me that he loves me by graciously loving me through tough stuff. God is always at work wooing us, teaching us, growing us.


There's something else about this trust thing I am learning. It comes to my understanding from Matthew's gospel, chapter 6. Jesus said this:

"If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers-- most of which are never even seen--don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving. People who don't know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."

What pops out at me from this passage is the part about relaxing and not being preoccupied with getting. I am discovering that God wants to free us from being obsessed with getting. He wants us to not be preoccupied trying to get from him so that we can simply live in the reality of what he gives. Do we ask? Of course, we do. He just wants us to be content with what he provides. He knows best. And, as I learn the Scriptures, I begin to see how God works, how he does things. I watch Jesus as he watched his Father. He was never in a hurry. He was never worried. Never anxious about the next meal, paycheck, or opportunity. And, he taught us to do the same. This is great freedom, my friends! Great freedom!


I hope you are enjoying growing in trust!