I'm reading the book Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning, and I've been struck by what the author says trust is and isn't.
What trust isn't:
Trust isn't understanding what God is doing: "Though Job is beset by suffering and loss on every side, his trust endures even when understanding fails."
Trust isn't a natural response in the face of suffering: "In the midst of the ruins. ... The trusting disciple, often through clenched teeth, says, in effect, God is still trustworthy."
Trust isn't trying to control a situation: "When taking control becomes our routine response to troubled relationships and worrisome problems, God is not our co-pilot; he's not even aboard."
Trust isn't having clarity: "Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God. Fear of the unknown path stretching ahead of us destroys childlike trust in the Father's active goodness and unrestricted love."
What trust is:
Trust is confidence in a loving God, not in outcomes: "Only trust makes evil endurable—trust not because God has offered proof, but because God has shown his face."
Trust is learned through trials: "The basic premise of biblical trust is the conviction that God wants us to grow, to unfold, and to experience fullness of life. However, this kind of trust is acquired only gradually and most often through a series of crises and trials."
Trust is waiting well: "In the face of a pressing need for answers and solutions to life's problems—answers that are not quickly forthcoming—trust in the Wisdom and Power who is Jesus Christ knows how to wait."
Trust is the marriage of faith and hope: "Faith + Hope = Trust."
Trust is certainty in our good and loving God: "The quiet certitude of the believer translates simply as, 'I know that I know that I know,' however dimly and through a glass darkly."
Psalm 13 gives us a picture of trust. David is in the midst of a crisis, and he begs God to hear his cry for help. Can you just imagine how David felt? He had been anointed as king of Israel when he was just a teenager, and now he was a desert fugitive.
David's life was full of uncertainty and confusion and chaos, and yet he still chose to put his trust in the Lord. He said, "In your committed love I have trusted: O let my heart delight in your salvation; let me indeed sing to Yahweh because he is sure to deal fully with me" (vv. 5-6, emphasis added).
One commentator said about these verses: "Trust brings delight even when nothing had actually yet changed."
I think of the story of Hannah in the temple, pouring her out out to the Lord in agony because she couldn't conceive. When Eli the priest saw her, he said to her: "Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him" (1 Samuel 1:17). After Hannah's encounter with Eli, she "went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad" (v. 18). Hannah's circumstances hadn't changed, but her trust in the Lord was renewed, and that changed her.
I'm trusting God for something right now, and the hardest part is keeping my focus off of the outcome I want and keeping it on God Himself — the all-wise, all-knowing Giver of good gifts. He's not a genie in a bottle I go to when I need something; He's my loving Father who knows exactly what's good for me. When I start to grasp the length and height and depth and width of God's love for me, trust grows because I know He has my absolute best interest at heart.
For all of us who are trusting God for something, let this be our prayer to the Lord: "In your committed love I have trusted: O let my heart delight in your salvation; let me indeed sing to Yahweh because he is sure to deal fully with me" (Ps. 13:5-6).
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