Trust should be my response to God’s love. In becoming a believer, I had to trust God’s greatest demonstration of love. I had to believe that the death of Jesus was an acceptable payment before God for my sin, that it was a freegift God wanted to give to me, and I had to open my own heart and life to receive it. Trust opens my heart to God. I trusted Him at salvation, and the answers that life demands require that I continue to trust Him. I need to allow God to love me in all the circumstances of my life. That’s “trust.”
The act of trusting can be paralleled to the admonitions moms once gave when teaching a child to cross the street. “Stop. Look. And, listen.” To trust God I must first be still, stop trying to control, and quit my own self-determined, self-protective, or self-energized endeavors. When I am still, I can consciously look in God’s direction, and then listen as He speaks, leads, reminds, challenges, encourages, or simply wraps His arms around me. Listening requires a response. If it is clear what I am to do, or decide, or receive, then trust responds accordingly. If it is not clear, then I simply wait, just as the child wanting to cross the street should do, and I continue to stop, look, and listen, knowing that my Father God has everything under control and He will provide in His time and in His way.
To say it again, allowing God to love me is trust. The resources are there. God is there. As I look to God, allowing Him to love me, He will meet me in the circumstances of my life. The listing of the resources of God is as lengthy and varied as the possible life situations I could be involved in. Nothing can separate me from His love, and He will uniquely meet my need as I let go of other things and simply choose to trust.
One of my favorite passages in Scripture is 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. It brims with trust and reality. The “treasure” spoken of in verse 7 is within me and yet I am described as a very earthy, vulnerable, and breakable jar of clay. How then do I find that “treasure”? The “treasure” is realized when I accept that I am a “jar of clay,” because then and only then, can I experience the all-surpassing power of God! What a beautiful, incomprehensible exchange! (2 Corinthians 12:9 really says the same thing!) But, experiencing God’s power doesn’t bring a worry-free ease. That’s where trust dances with reality! I can, and will be, hard-pressed, but I will not be crushed. I can, and will be, perplexed, but I will not fall victim to despair. God’s power is at work! And, His good is being accomplished in my life, and I have the privilege of showing the power of God to others!
– Bev
(Related Bible reading: 1 Peter 5:7; 2 Corinthians 4:7-10; 2 Corinthians 12:9
