How deep is your trust? Trust is an interesting thing. When I flip a light switch, I trust that light will fill the room. When I put my key in the car ignition, I trust my car will crank. When I set my alarm at night, I trust that it will wake me up at the appropriate time the next day. As human beings, we know what it means to trust in things. But how deep is our trust?
Of those three simple things I mentioned above, our trust was formed by experience. We learn through experience that when we flip a light switch, crank a car, or set an alarm, the desired outcome will almost always occur. But what about those moments that we all have when there is no power in the house, or the car battery is dead, or we accidentally set our alarm clocks for 6pm instead of 6am? These instances tend to change our behavior at some level. We might look around to see if there is any evidence of electricity running through the house. We might look to make sure that we turn lights off in our car to ensure the battery doesn’t conk out on us. Or we might double-check the right time on the clock. The experience of things failing us changes our behaviors, at least for a little while. When that’s the case, our sense of trust shifts; if shifts from trust in the device to trust in ourselves to ensure that we manipulate the device properly. This shift might be subtle, but the effects are dramatic.
We need to consider this aspect of human nature in terms of our trust in God. We believe that all we have to do is ask God and He will provide for our needs according to the plan and purpose He has for our lives. The only problem is we believe we know what’s best. We treat God more like a consultant than the Creator and hope that His will lines up with our own. We often approach trust in God like there’s something we can do to manipulate Him. This, unfortunately, never works, and when it doesn’t, our faith and trust in Him is compromised.
I will admit that there are at least two areas in my life where I have a trust problem. All the lip service in the world cannot change the fact that in these areas of my life, I look at God and wonder when He’s going to sign on to MY plan as opposed to me signing on to His. So this morning as I was spending time in prayer and meditation, both of these issues boiled to the top. As I reflected over them and my trust in Him, I was reminded of how even yesterday, I tried at least one thing to push my agenda upon the circumstances in both cases as opposed to carrying them to the Almighty. This begs the question: how deep is my trust?
As I was praying about the depth of my trust, a scripture passage was given to me that comes from Ephesians. Check this out, “I (Paul) pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3.16-19, NIV, emphasis mine)
When I don’t see things working out the way I want them to, I have the tendency to try doing things on my own. I am not alone … we all do it! But what does this say about the depth of our trust? I’m afraid it says it’s pretty shallow. The scripture says that the power of God’s love is immeasurable. That’s a sizable difference. That’s an eternal difference. It would do us some good to trust God – who we believe only wants the eternal best for us, which is a far cry from what we think we need – more than we trust our own ability to manipulate a circumstance or our God.
So let me ask you again, how deep is your trust?
Of those three simple things I mentioned above, our trust was formed by experience. We learn through experience that when we flip a light switch, crank a car, or set an alarm, the desired outcome will almost always occur. But what about those moments that we all have when there is no power in the house, or the car battery is dead, or we accidentally set our alarm clocks for 6pm instead of 6am? These instances tend to change our behavior at some level. We might look around to see if there is any evidence of electricity running through the house. We might look to make sure that we turn lights off in our car to ensure the battery doesn’t conk out on us. Or we might double-check the right time on the clock. The experience of things failing us changes our behaviors, at least for a little while. When that’s the case, our sense of trust shifts; if shifts from trust in the device to trust in ourselves to ensure that we manipulate the device properly. This shift might be subtle, but the effects are dramatic.
We need to consider this aspect of human nature in terms of our trust in God. We believe that all we have to do is ask God and He will provide for our needs according to the plan and purpose He has for our lives. The only problem is we believe we know what’s best. We treat God more like a consultant than the Creator and hope that His will lines up with our own. We often approach trust in God like there’s something we can do to manipulate Him. This, unfortunately, never works, and when it doesn’t, our faith and trust in Him is compromised.
I will admit that there are at least two areas in my life where I have a trust problem. All the lip service in the world cannot change the fact that in these areas of my life, I look at God and wonder when He’s going to sign on to MY plan as opposed to me signing on to His. So this morning as I was spending time in prayer and meditation, both of these issues boiled to the top. As I reflected over them and my trust in Him, I was reminded of how even yesterday, I tried at least one thing to push my agenda upon the circumstances in both cases as opposed to carrying them to the Almighty. This begs the question: how deep is my trust?
As I was praying about the depth of my trust, a scripture passage was given to me that comes from Ephesians. Check this out, “I (Paul) pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3.16-19, NIV, emphasis mine)
When I don’t see things working out the way I want them to, I have the tendency to try doing things on my own. I am not alone … we all do it! But what does this say about the depth of our trust? I’m afraid it says it’s pretty shallow. The scripture says that the power of God’s love is immeasurable. That’s a sizable difference. That’s an eternal difference. It would do us some good to trust God – who we believe only wants the eternal best for us, which is a far cry from what we think we need – more than we trust our own ability to manipulate a circumstance or our God.
So let me ask you again, how deep is your trust?
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O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.
(St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)
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