Skip to main content

Trust in God


            The most horrific events of life harmonize the juxtaposition of what it means to trust in God.  Without challenges that threaten our natural desires to trust God, we would not truly know what trust in God really means. 

            Men who thought they fully trusted in God cried out against Jesus as He hung on the cross: He trusts in God.  Let God rescue him now if he wants him (Matthew 27:43).  Indeed everything about how and why and where He was on the cross was demonstrating His complete trust in God. 

            No doubt those who trust in God will continue to be ridiculed and questioned about their foolish faith.  Yet trust in God requires faith in what we cannot see. 

            Trust in God will be required of every soul that seeks to know Him and be set free from the trap of sin.  Trust in God is what is called out of us in order to partake in the hope, joy and peace that He longs to give.

            Romans 15:13 says:  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The action required here is trust in God.  We are not asked to trust in people, trust in money, trust in government, rather the direction is clear—trust in God and you will be filled with hope, joy, peace and the Holy Spirit.

            Why is it so hard to trust in God?  It’s easy to overlook a need to trust in God.  Most of us aren’t even aware that we have stopped trusting in Him.  Julian of Norwich summarizes what utter trust in God really means:

In spite of our poor choices and spiritual blindness in this life our courteous Lord continues to love us. We will bring him the most pleasure if we rejoice with him and in him.

            When the end comes and we are taken for judgment above, we will then clearly understand in God the mysteries that puzzle us now. Not one of us will think to say, Lord, if it had been some other way, all would be well.

            We shall all say in unison, Lord , bless you because it is all the way it is.  It is well.  Now we can honestly see that everything is done as you intended; you planned it before anything was ever made.

            Indeed that is what trust in God is really about.  When I read this quote from Julian of Norwich I am reminded of that moment described in Revelation 16 when the angel has poured the third of the  Seven Bowls of Wrath, all heaven responded:  Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments (Revelation 16:7). 

            Trust in God is most fully experienced in the midst of our greatest heartaches.  It is only in those times that we learn where our trust really lies.

Copyright © 2014.  Deborah R. Newman teatimeforyousoul.com  All Rights Reserved.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

                Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years?   Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me.   For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side.   I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind.   When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8).   I decided through tears that I would go on

Day Nine - Journey's End

    I didn't think I could write today, but do to bad weather we now have extra time at the airport. Today we looked over the model city and I can't believe all I have learned. Some of the excavations since the model was completed reveal differences in what they built in the model. What amazed me was that I could see what wasn't where I expected based on what I experienced. Here is a wide view of the Model City which is 1:5 scale.  It was created by a Jewish man who wanted his son to understand what Jerusalem was once like.  Someone said that if you didn't see Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great, you have never seen a beautiful city.  Do you understand what I mean about how grand this Temple was?            Next we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I learned a lot about the Essenes.  They lived like monks today.  Like Jesus, they were not happy with the way the Temple was being run and they came to the desert to offer truly holy sacrifices, untainted by the mismanage

Not Treating Others as Their Sins Deserve

            Turning the other cheek has become a Christian cliché.   These beautiful and penetrating words of Jesus are minimized when we humans try to apply them without God.   The best we can do to achieve Jesus’ description in our power is repress our anger about the way someone sins against us.   This only serves to make us look stupid to the world, creates ulcers, or causes an unplanned, embarrassing, public explosion of anger.   Jesus spoke these words and many others like them to invoke the spiritual understanding that it is impossible to live out His directions for our lives without Him.   He has no intention of our trying to take His work on in our flesh.             It happens all the time in marriages and other relationships where one person who thinks they need to be a certain way to please God centers his or her relationships around keeping peace.   I don’t believe that kind of turning the other cheek is very pleasing to God.               No, God is inviting us