All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
The things we trust in
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (NLT) -Psalm 20:7 Think about it, we board a plane, get served hot meals, and surf the internet all while cruising at an altitude of 30,000 feet traveling at a speed of 600 miles per hour. Most of us, nonchalantly put our faith in the airplane and crew that we will have a safe landing. Against all those obstacles, why do we find it harder to entrust our lives to God?
The question is interesting and has me wondering what the answer is. Especially in light of the struggle I had with trust and I'm sure most everyone has had to an extent.
After many things I went through growing up, it damaged my ability to trust. And yet...I love flying. Always have. Or we ride in a car while another drives. We trust many things throughout the day to humans...the ones who've hurt us somewhere at some point. Whether it's one you trusted ending a relationship or letting you down in not keeping a promise...whatever the reason. But we'll walk away from our hurt and board a plane or have someone drive us home while we're in a haze of tears.
So with all that, why is God harder to trust? Even Christians falter in it at times but unbelievers still refuse to trust God while trusting mankind which proves itself untrustworthy time and again.
I wonder...is it because we're prone to blame? We always want a scapegoat. We point our finger at another before we'll accept blame. When someone hurts us, we can point our finger at them.
But who do we blame when we've done it ourselves or when we feel someone could have done something?
If we can trust a pilot we don't know, is there a way we can reach a complete trust in the God we do know without ever doubting or having even a moment of fear or worry?
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Hey Sis,
God is harder to trust because He is not perceive by our natural senses, specially if we are yet to be in Christ. In a fallen state unless God manifest himself to the blind person, that person is not in a position to see God.
We however see God, but we still have a fallen body that wars against the Spirit and gets in the way. We are to put it to death and walk by the Spirit/love, faith, hope and not by sight .
The greatest weapon to destroy unbelief and build up belief, trust and unwavering mind towards him is cultivated Primarily through abiding in his will, His Word.
1 cor. 11When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.12For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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Bev - Your comment made me smile and give a hearty hallelujah!!
Amen and Amen - my/our redeemer lives and He is the FAITHFUL ONE OF ISRAEL.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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I collect pennies. It's the only way I'm able to give my own two cents now and then.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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Yet with the analogy of flying isn't that exactly what we're doing?...trusting man and things? Trusting the pilot had enough sleep and the aircraft has been well maintained? I can understand you saying you find Him easier to trust. But has that always been true? I think trust is something that growsn like faith. But the first time I ever boarded a plane, I didn't even think about what if we crash. I was just so looking forward to it, doing something I always wanted...flying. I didn’t grow trust from experience, but I didn't even think about it.
Maybe it's not trust there? Maybe the "thrill" of flying just overrode any possible thoughts of fear? Just rummaging around the cobwebs of my mind as I found it an interesting question.
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If you don't remember having issues trusting Him, I take it you were saved at an early age and/or never had your ability to trust damaged as a child. Many come to God later and they're broken and need healing. It took me awhile to learn to trust but He worked it in me. Yet the whole time, I kept getting on those planes without even thinking I might not make my destination.
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You shouldn't say these things to Bev. I'm sure she has encountered just as many, or perhaps more, of the hurts that are experienced in this life. I know you don't mean it this way, but when it's said this way, it sounds like being judgmental of those who have healthier relationships with God and it hurts them just as much as it hurts those who are feeling like they are being judged for having a damaged relationship with God. We are all interdependent. 1 Cor 12:26. I don't see that the amount of hurts we have suffered is the deciding factor of how much we are able to trust because some have suffered more but still trust a lot while others have suffered less (if suffering can even be measured since it appears to be subjective and based on many things, such as level of sensitivity in the individual, etceteras) but trust little, if at all.
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I love both Seek and you :)
In Hebrews 11 we see people suffering immensely (especially in verses 35-39) and yet their faith in God is immense, too, and commendable. I think trust in God grows as we grow in knowing God, not knowing about Him but knowing Him personally.
I understand not being able to trust due to thinking someone is not trustworthy. An individual who has continuously hurt us probably can't be trusted not to hurt us, or can be trusted to hurt us :) Still, the deciding factor is "knowing" the person, not the amount of hurt that has been caused by the person.
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I wasn't meaning it as insulting in any way. But actually as envious. My pastor has thanked God many times that he was raised in a good Christian home and knew God at an early age He knows not everyone does.
I'm sure Bev has faced hurts like anyone but trust in God was perhaps instilled early on that the hurts didn't steal away that trust.
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He has never given me any reason not to trust Him
He hadn't me either, but many others gave me enough reason to trust that I couldn't trust anyone that by the time I realized the way I'd lived my life was selfish and insensitive and not at all who I wanted to be inside and asked for God to change that, He had to go to work on getting me to trust Him first cause I pretty much believed no one cared enough and if they said they did, it was only so they could get close enough to hurt you.
I was in and out of church as a kid because of my grandparents. And the church I'd at times attended with them was strict Pentecostal so I got a lot of wrong ideas about religion. Then my mom was saved when I was 13, and still needing to do some growing at that point, she jumped right into that religion she too had been taught and I saw it as being hypocritical to the point that I wanted nothing to do with religion.
By the time I turned to God, I hated myself and felt I was just unlovable. Why else did everyone who claimed to love you speak one thing and do another? Or say it just so they could gain your confidence to do things they knew were wrong and didn't care?
Things like this is what makes it so difficult for some people to get out questioning if they're saved, if they're loved, believing God loves them or wants what's best for them. And it makes it even harder when once saved, some well meaning Christians say things that do more harm. I'm not ashamed to admit I literally begged God to show me the truth on some issues. I didn't want to do the wrong thing, but I also didn't want to be doing what religion taught was right out of a guilt feeling.
Just as an example...paying tithes. I was taught God would only prosper you if you faithfully paid 10% of your gross income in tithes to the church. Some older Christians still hold to this. But when I came to Christ (or I should say He sent someone to come and get me - another story), I came with all the same bills and debts and barely able to survive that I had before I came to Him. But being taught this on tithes, I tried to pay anyway. Even when I had to decide between rent and tithes, I paid tithes. Then ended up in a jam on rent and had to borrow from 2 sources to get it paid. I would let daycare rack up for weeks while making sure tithes got paid. I finally had to realize I couldn't do it, and if tithing was what God expected of me, then He was going to have to show me how because I wasn't "getting it". I still hear messages on tithing 10% in order to receive God's blessings. I haven't tithed 10% since October 2013...when I couldn't pay my rent. Since then, I've received 4 bonuses now in a job I'd never before received bonuses at in the over 10 years I'd worked here, and several raises. So I just love to hear someone tell me God can't bless me unless I pay my tithes.
There was also the...God can't or won't help you if you speak negative. Go back up to the first paragraph. Everything bad happening to me, I pretty much figured God hated me, that I really was no good inside and had no hope of ever meeting His expectations...that religion again.
What these kinds of little quips did was to claim that:
- God is limited by what we do (ROFL! at limiting God)
- Christ's death was meaningless, since *I* have to teach myself to speak positive and pay my 10% faithfully before He'll love me enough. They were stripping Romans 5:8 right out of the Bible.
- That God was NOT close to the brokenhearted...rewriting I dunno how many dozens of verses that state the opposite.
The sad thing is, most of the people who make such statements are really stuck by religion themselves. They were raised up in it. The train up a child in the way they should go and when they are older they shall not depart from it scripture is spot on. And why I say I'm a bit envious of those who were raised in it. I can't claim I'm not to blame for taking all these years, but I do have to wonder would I have taken so long had I been taught properly when young...when we're most prone to developing our ideas and we're most capable of being taught.
Anyway, these are some ways God has been helping me to see the truth against what is a religious burden placed on people and how I can still put my trust in Him regardless of how "people" can burden me with thinking I'm not good enough. If it were up to me to be good enough, there'd be no sense in me even going a step further at this point.
I know probably wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy more than the topic, but all this to just say that I'd truly love to gain back all the lost years to have known God's love than to have waited 45 to turn to Him and 3 or 4 more to finally know. But I can't go back, only forward. It's still heart breaking nonetheless.
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I'm sure all of us have some regret over things we can't go back and change. Though we shouldn't. It's still hard to know that so many years were just wasted years that could have been put to better use. It hit home pretty hard when my dad passed away in 2012. There were 300+ in attendance at his funeral. It had me thinking of my own and realizing I'd be lucky if there were 20. I know we're not supposed to put stock in things like that, but it's the "reason" that gets me. He had so many because he was loved because he'd helped so many people and had been a major part of the church since he was saved when I was a teenager. But I'd gone it alone for myself and hadn't helped anyone and would in fact try not to, making up any excuse in the book. Since I have a large family, I'm sure I'd have had 20 in attendance, but can't think of a soul who'd have even noticed my passing other than that.
I'm sure there are atheists as well who accepted Christ on their death beds. I absolutely loved the movie God's Not Dead. I actually believe there is no such thing as an atheist by the way. Atheists typically tromp all over anyone talking about God, like they're angered that you would even discuss Him. And honestly, how can you be angry at something you don't even believe in? ;-)
But like the 45 years I wasted away, think of how much God could have done with the atheist if he'd not waited until he was on his deathbed. It's just heart breaking to think about. I tell myself all the time to just not think but my brain tells itself to ignore what I say.
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Wednesday morning, I went with my mother in law to the hospital for an outpatient procedure that she was having, and while we were waiting during the pre-op phase, we overheard the medical personnel at the nurse station, discussing that the hospital was changing its name. My mother in law used to be a flight attendant, and she said, "Uh, oh! Name change! That's a bad sign!" Then she gave the example of an airline that had changed it's name because of a terrible tragedy and people then being afraid to fly on its planes. The name change led to people flying without "knowing" it was the same airline. I just searched for info about it and found this.
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1914...
We trust what we know, or at least what we think we know. If we believe lies, then ...
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