How do we bring this all together? Trusting God is a choice we make every day—and every day, that trust is under threat. It has mortal enemies: fear, anxiety, skepticism, doubt, self-sufficiency, unbelief, to name just a few.

What are the major threats in your life to trust?

The Scriptures give us many examples of people who struggled with whether or not to trust God. We remember so many psalms that describe the fear, anxiety, and concerns of their authors as they faced the challenges of their day. We read the stories of Abraham waiting beyond human hope for a child, Moses at the burning bush, Israel at the Red Sea, Job demanding a court date with God, Elijah in deep despair and wishing for death, Peter sitting around a fire listening to a rooster crow and knowing what he had done, and Paul asking for a disability to be removed. They all faced the same question: “Will I trust God with this? Can He handle it?”

Many of us can relate to the psalmist’s heartfelt words in Psalm 42:11: “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me?” And just as often, we find ourselves pausing to regroup, urging ourselves to continue with hope: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God.”

When I read this verse I almost sense a gritting of teeth as the psalmist makes his choice to trust God. “…I will yet…” gives the impression that he is not quite at the point of praising Him!

We don’t have to be all the way to perfect trust to repeat the psalmist’s words. We don’t to wait for our feelings to catch up to our faith. We can be like the father who came to Jesus for the healing of his son. We can say that we believe, and at the same time beg Him to change any residue of unbelief to trust. He “gets it.” He understands the struggle.

Fear is a major trust-buster. We have plenty of Biblical examples of that. Men of great faith often failed at trust when fear overwhelmed their better sense. David is one of those. 1 Samuel 21:10-15 describes an incident in his life where fear replaced faith. On the run from Saul, David ends up in Gath. But fearing that the king of Gath will pay too much heed to his reputation as a mighty warrior and seek his life, David pretends to be insane. He hopes that this will make him appear to be a lesser threat to Achish. Verse 12 says, “David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath.” In that moment in time, David forgot that God had promised him a throne, and not an ignominious death at the hands of a foreign king. We might wonder what the difference was between the two situations: between running from Saul and wanting to escape Achish.

Trusting God does not mean that we do not take whatever measures we can to avoid trouble. In David’s case, he avoided Saul knowing that at some point God would do whatever was needed to remove Saul from the throne promised to him. But in Achish’s case, David let fear override his confidence that God would protect him. Fear intensified the degree of threat and influenced how David responded to that threat. We can see a difference in the “nobility” of David’s response to Saul, and the embarrassment associated with his response to Achish. He would write these words from Psalm 23:4, words which have been of comfort to many facing danger and death: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me…”

But if fear is a faith-buster, so the reverse is true: When we choose to trust, faith forces fear to move to the back.

Describe a time when faith overcame your fear.

We are reminded that our focus needs to always be on the One in Whom we have placed our faith. We cannot count on lesser gods. We can only count on the true, living, Almighty One who makes promises He always keeps. He never changes, His love for us is constant, and His desire is our well-being.

Psalm 16:8 tells us, “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” We often experience what Peter did when he asked the Lord to allow him to walk on the waves of the Sea of Galilee.^[i] Everything was going well until Peter took his eyes off the Lord. He realized, from his very human standpoint, just how precarious his situation was. It was then he began to sink under those waves. Life is like that—precarious. All the more reason to keep our eyes on Jesus, who commands every aspect of our lives.

Quoting Deuteronomy 31:6 and Psalm 118:6, 7, the writer to the Hebrews confirms in Hebrews 13:5, 6: “‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?’” Notice how often these verses address the problem of fear through the application of faith.

The third fruit of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22 is peace. When we choose to trust God, peace is the result. Trust and peace go together hand in hand, and are joined in the promise made by Jesus in His last discourse with His disciples before the cross. He said: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Paul echoes this as he writes to the church in Philippi. He says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”^[i] It is beyond us to explain how it is possible for a believer’s world to descend into chaos and for that believer to remain at peace through it all. That defies the “fight or flight” mentality of the rest of the world. But peace is the result of a person’s confidence in an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful God. God promises that He will keep in perfect peace that one whose mind is focussed on Him.^[ii]

Fear is often the first and most immediate of responses when trouble comes our way. Quick action is required to push it back before it possesses every part of our being and either paralyzes us or prompts us to make rash decisions. Psalm 56:3, 4 reminds us, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” The psalmist then goes on to list all the evils that those mortals can do. But he ends his psalm by confirming what he has already said: “…I know that God is for me. In God, whose works I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?”^[i]

One of the most beautiful passages of Scripture is found in Psalm 34. It takes us back to David and to that incident with the king of Gath. At some point David realized that his faith in God had bent the knee before his fear of man. He returns to that confidence in God that usually marked his journey. He writes in verse 4, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Our faith fails, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. We can renew our commitment to trust and to not be afraid. We can do as David, and many others, did: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.”^[ii]

Are you experiencing some failure of faith in your life? Confess it before the Lord and renew your commitment to trust.

In the midst of his suffering Job could not see God. The heavens were silent. Still Job believed that God had carved out the path ahead and that at the end of the journey everything would be fine. His task was to follow closely so that he would not step off that divinely designed path. He writes in Job 23:8-11, “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside.”

Job wasn’t the only one who had times when it seemed impossible to sense the presence of God in any of the events taking place. The prophet writes in Isaiah 45:15, “Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Saviour of Israel.” But if in the darkness of the moment you and I don’t feel His presence, we must remember that our feelings are treacherous. God has spoken, is speaking, is present. The prophet goes on to say, “For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness, I have not said to Jacob’s descendants, “Seek me in vain.” I, the Lord, speak the truth; I declare what is right.”

We have His Word. We have evidence of Him all around us. WE ARE evidence of His presence. We have to choose to believe that and embrace it even when we don’t feel it.

Titus 1:2 reminds us that, “God, who does not lie, promised…” We choose to believe that. We choose to believe that when (not if) what is described in Isaiah 43:1-2 happens, God will do what He promises. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

We need to understand the context of such a promise. Obviously, the prophet is not saying that difficult circumstances will never happen. Israel was about to be taken into exile and God was not going to prevent that from happening. When we look further down the passage, we see another promise given to us in verses 5, 6. The biggest fear of the Israelites was to be taken into captivity and assimilated into the cultures of the nations who were their captors. They feared losing who they were. The promise in verses 5, 6 is God’s covenant with them that this will not happen. Yes, they will go into exile. They will be there for a long time, But they will not lose  their identity as His children, His chosen people. Hence the graphic picture in verses 1, 2 of the water and rivers and fires of defeat, destruction, and exile. God is with them and none of the circumstances and experiences of their captivity, as represented by these waters and fires, will separate them from their God.

This is very similar to the promise we have in Paul’s letter to the Romans where he writes that nothing can separate us from our Saviour—not trouble, struggles, persecution, being hungry or naked, being in danger or threatened with death. No, not even death itself, or life, and whatever it may throw at us; nor angels, demons, present circumstances, future uncertainties, powers spiritual, political, ecclesiastical, financial; being high or low on anyone’s totem pole; or anything else can take us from Him.^[iii]

These promises were never meant to be looked at as escape clauses from difficult times—if they were they would make no sense. They imply that we will have hard times and things will happen that could hurt us in many ways. We know, as Job says: “…Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards.”^[iv]

But we have the assurance that no matter what happens the believer is never separated from the One in Whom that believer has placed his or her confidence. We will never lose our belonging, our identity as children of God, our position as heirs and joint-heirs with Christ, and the inheritors of a heavenly kingdom which will never end. We never lose His presence with us and in us.

Comments?

Peter wrote his epistles to those who had been scattered throughout the world because of persecution. He wrote to encourage them not to give up, not to lose their confidence or their faith because of their circumstances. He called on them to persevere, to continue to trust God. He knew how they were feeling and how treacherous those feelings would be. He summed up the reason why they should trust God: “…because he cares for you.”^[v] We are invited to trust Someone who cares for us, to choose to place our confidence in His goodness, His justice, His sovereignty, to “…call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour me” as the psalmist says in Psalm 50:15. “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” he writes in Psalm 16:6. And in Psalm 34:4 we see yet another critical truth, “I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Notice that the claim is not that God will necessarily deliver him from what he fears, but that God will deliver him from the fears themselves.

We honour Him when we trust Him. The psalmist was not delusional when he said life was secure and pleasant. He simply wasn’t looking at the circumstances. He was looking beyond them. That look beyond to focus on what we are in Christ, what we have in Him, and what awaits us because of Him, reminds us again that these “present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…”^[vi]

Notice, “…the glory that will be revealed IN us.” We think about heaven and all the beauty we can imagine. That will be glorious. We think about being in the presence of Jesus. That will be glorious. But what can you imagine YOU will be like when you leave this “vestibule” of earth for the “living room” of heaven? What will be glorious about that?

We can trust a sovereign God, a God of all, and a God over all. Ecclesiastes 7:13, 14 reminds us again, “Consider what God has done: who can straighten what he has made crooked? When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other…”

What advice can you draw from these few lines?

Be happy when things are good. When things are seemingly not so good: TRUST. You know that you are safe because of your intimate connection with the One in charge—a connection that cannot be severed because Jesus guaranteed it through His sacrifice on the cross.

And a final word from Proverbs 18:10-11, “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

We really can trust Him.

^[i] Psalm 56:9-11

^[ii] Psalm 34:8, 9

^[iii] Romans 8:35-39

^[iv] Job 5:7

^[v] 1 Peter 5:7

^[vi] Romans 8:18

^[i] Philippians 4:6, 7

^[ii] Isaiah 26:3

^[i] Matthew 14:22-33

(From A Question of Trust, © Lynda Schultz, 2021, ISBN: 979-8-7420-5863-2)

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