This word called trust is many times like a mist, a cloud, an elusive vapor that’s hard to contain, retain, and maintain. It is hard to obtain and easy to destroy. It is a feeling best described without a definite formula yet we can always give reasons why we trust a person, an institution, a government, God…yes, God. Trusting a God we cannot see is the highest and deepest level of trust, the most difficult to master, and yet the most rewarding in the end. Trusting Him also causes us to trust His people…
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. – Psalms 20:7 (NIV)
It is much easier to trust in people, systems, and institutions especially when they’re predictable and they fit our definition of what constitutes trust. We can create our own list and a set of principles that cause us to trust or not trust people, systems, and institutions. God cannot fit in our definitions. He many times blows apart our premonitions and preset definitions in order to re-establish Himself as King and Lord over our hearts and lives.
He aptly put it in the Bible through the Psalms by stating the obvious…”some trust in chariots…” – human might and strength, something we can see, touch and feel, “…some trust in horses…” – something practical that can get me to my destination – “…but I will trust in the name of the Lord” – the one I can’t see physically, can’t understand fully, can’t completely relate to in my human form, can’t fully explain how and why I trust in Him, but I will trust Him nevertheless.
Trusting in God pays the most dividends because it causes us to grow in faith, which is the avenue to pleasing God (Hebrews 11:5). In many ways, trusting God forces us to throw our books of principles away and lean only on His wisdom. It does not make us foolish, it makes us faithful…to God. Situations that we otherwise would not trust or entrust ourselves to become our refuge. We do things that most people think are ridiculous because we trust God to see us through. We make decisions that are outside of our temperament because we trust God.
He alone understands the end from the beginning and if He revealed everything to us, we would not do it right in our own way. We would predefine and craft it based on our limited knowledge and understanding of how things should be. Isn’t it interesting that God will take a man and reveal to him the end in the beginning and then spend the rest of his life discovering how to get to the end?
In the end, the journey becomes more meaningful than the destination because it is the journey that forms the man who is ready for the destination. Trust is the glue that holds us together as we walk through this journey called life…with God. Without it, we’re like a ship without a radar, a vehicle with no GPS, an airplane with no tracking system.We’re lost and making life what we think it ought to be rather than what we know God wants it to be.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6
While it is not easy to trust in a God we cannot see, it is the most valuable investment of trust. Don’t trust in chariots and horses more than the Lord. Don’t set criteria for trusting God, just trust that ALL His ways are designed for your good (Romans 8:28). Don’t qualify your trust for Him, just believe and watch your faith grow. He works best when the odds are stacked against you.
This word called trust. We must invest it in the Lord more than anything and anyone else.
Nelson Masinde 