TRUST

Sometimes we encounter a season in our walk with God where He seems present yet our circumstances don't appear to reflect that presence. This is where the rubber meets the road and the question God asks is "Do you trust me?" It can be hard to trust God when a friend dies unexpectedly, a job is lost due to budget cuts, one's child gets inexplicably hurt, or your savings disappear in a stock market crash or bank collapse. All of these things are out of our control and they remove any illusion one has of control. Suppose all those events happen within the span of a few months. Where do you go with your questions?

God whispers, "Do you trust me?" Trusting God is not just merely acknowledging Him to be God despite our circumstances. He calls us into so much more. He wants us to run to Him with our questions, our confusion, our concerns, and still trust His heart towards us. When a number of things have not gone as hoped and you go through a season of loss, where do you go to get answers? We can talk to friends and spouses and receive encouragement and support but not necessarily answers. When Job talked with his friends, they lectured him and said he must have done something to either open the door to calamity or deserve God's punishment. Yet that was not the case. God was working something new in Job and for His kingdom. Numerous prophets in the Old Testament did exactly what God told them yet ended up thrown in prison or exile. The apostle Paul went from prison to shipwreck to prison. Are we to believe those instances are some kind of judgment from God against Paul?

I think not. Instead, these stories detail how God allows challenges to build something more powerful and more significant in the believer. He continues to use seasons of delay, loss, and discouragement to perfect His purposes. In such a season, we are forced to reconcile our false notions of Christianity with reality. Do we think being a Christian will assure us of an easy life? Let's examine that thought - did any of the followers of Jesus really live an easy life? They were stoned, jailed, crucified, persecuted, and hunted. Who would want that kind of life? Do we believe that if we are Christians everyone will like us? The Apostle Paul could not even get along with his own disciples, sending at least one to serve with others and having several quit altogether. Do we believe everything we lay our hands to will be blessed and we will reap riches just because we are believers? Jesus called the rich young ruler to sell everything he owned and follow Him. Yet, despite calling people to a harder life, Christianity spread like a wildfire even while those spreading the message met horrible fates. Why?

Because God was at work – for His kingdom and on behalf of His believers. Old thought systems and strongholds were being torn down so a new system of life could be established. Could it be possible God uses the same principles with us when we encounter hardship? When in the pressed places, we can more easily recognize our brokenness. It also becomes apparent our efforts are insufficient. We need God to work on our behalf and we more readily grant Him access. The challenge now, as then, is to recognize what forces are truly at work. When bad things happen for reasons out of our control, our first enemy is fear. We recognize control is an illusion and where do we turn? Do we turn to God? That is the first step of faith. God whispers, "Do you really trust me?" The next relates to whether we choose to acknowledge God is in charge of our circumstances or if we will fall back on our own understanding. We say we want to walk out on the water like Peter yet many times, like Peter, we fall back on our own understanding and start to sink in the waves. We must choose to keep our focus on God not our circumstances. Fear prowls nearby and growls at our uncertainty. Who will be God here? My own finite understanding or will I loose God to move beyond my limited perceptions? Again, God asks us, "Do you trust me?" And the question goes to the very heart of the matter. Do we REALLY trust God? Do we trust God to do better than what we ask for? Will we really go where He leads or do we want Him to respond in the manner we want and refuse to listen to anything else? When the answer to a healing prayer is 'no', do we still trust God?

The fundamental question God comes to us with is – "Do you trust me?" In our pressed places, we have the opportunity to allow God to reveal and free us from false perceptions and remove strongholds. We simply need to choose who will be God here, - God, fear, or our own understanding. Make no mistake, one of them will rule in this land. Fear will assail you repeatedly to keep you from moving forward in the plans God has for you. Our own flesh will rise up and insist on rational plans for escape from the pressed place. And God will whisper, "Do you trust me?" The whole process is about freeing us to move into the new land. Remember Joshua and Caleb who focused not on the giants in the Promised Land but on what God said. To move into the Promised Land, we have to surrender our earthly perceptions and choose to align ourselves with God more closely. Many times we want the promises of God but refuse to go through the transforming faith walk. The Promised Land is out there but we can only occupy the new place by trusting God.

So when God whispers, "Do you trust me?" He is really calling us into battle. The battle over faith and over the heart of God. Will I walk on in faith, trusting God's plan, despite what the circumstances scream? Will I give in to fear or move forward in spite of it? Shakespeare sums up the battle well in the play Henry V – "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more …"