Do You Trust God?

February 5, 2014

While thinking about trusting others and yourself, don’t forget there’s a third party to consider. Do you trust the One who is most trustworthy?

The Bible is full of admonitions to trust God. Unfortunately, many of us grow up fearing Him electrical storminstead. I’m not talking about the “awe and reverence” kind of fear that is appropriate, or even the “holy terror” we feel when we realize how vast He is and how small we are. No, many people fear the judgment and wrath of God. They grow up afraid that if they step out of line, even unknowingly, they’ll get struck down with a raging fist.

Where does this fear come from? It’s very common for someone with an angry or abusive father to project that trauma onto Father God and expect pain from Him, as well. Other sources are not so obvious:

  • Sometimes it’s from a family that uses fear to keep the members in line. “God sees everything you do and He will punish you.” But everything I do seems to be wrong, so God must be waiting to catch me.
  • Sometimes it’s even more subtle, when the lesson is “God doesn’t love bad children.” But I know I’m going to do something bad sometimes. I guess that makes me bad.
  • Sometimes it’s simply a fear of the unknown, as when God isn’t mentioned except as a swear word. How can I trust someone I know nothing about?

depressed and questioning

  • Sometimes the fear comes from a prevailing feeling of shame. I’m not worth anything, so I can’t trust Him. He’s too great compared to me.

 

The problem is that the child is not taught about the true nature of God.  Scripture is very clear about this: God is love. John 3:16 is often quoted: “For God so loved the world . . . .” Now, God is just and the only righteous judge (see the series on forgiveness), but He loves us and wants us to trust Him—with everything. We don’t even have to worry about boundaries with Him.the judge's gavel

Not trusting God can take many forms. I think the most common one is what I call, “holding out”. Our attitude is one of trusting God with a few things, but not those that are important to us.

Another lack of trust is shown in the “conditional” attitude. We trust God only to the point that something doesn’t go exactly how we like. Then we remove our trust and try to take care of business ourselves.  We become our own gods.

I remember years ago saying I trusted God, but it wasn’t true. I was afraid of Him. And fear is often the opposite of trust.

 

Part 4 of a 6 part series on trust

Next: how can you trust God?

 

Part 1| Relationship Reliability: Who Do You Trust?

Part 2| Why Did I Ever Trust You?

Part 3| Number One, Looking Out for Same

Part 4| Third Party Trust

Part 5| In God We Trust?

Part 6| Little by Little

 

illustrations courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net