Ponderings: Trust

Nothing is harder to overcome in life than the loss of trust.  Counselors and pastors will tell you that when spouses lose trust in each other, it’s almost impossible to restore their marriage.  When customers lose trust in the product they are buying, the business is not long for this world.  When a nation loses trust in its leaders, the next election will reveal sweeping changes. 

One of the most important things we can say about God is that God is trustworthy.  Some theologians believe that this is one reason why God took the name “I AM” rather than something else.  Nothing is more trustworthy than the pure essence of being—unchangeable, dependable, ever-present.  Each of these subsidiary attributes are further revealed in the Bible.  Everything points to the existence of the God who says, “You can count on me.”

This is the source for agape, the kind of love that is rooted in the nature of the lover, not the beloved.  The beloved can waver; their love can “rise or fall,” but God’s love never changes.  We call it grace; God’s unwavering favor.  You and I never need wonder for a split second if God loves us.  That’s what agape means, and nothing can separate us from that love.

God’s trustworthiness is further manifested in the fact that God will not put up with anyone or anything that robs us of the life intended for us.  We say it this way: “God accepts us as we are but does not leave us as we are.”  Agape moves through our lives, detecting every conscious and unconscious manifestation of sin.  Wherever God finds it, an immediate restoration process is put into motion.

We call it “conviction,” and sometimes we don’t like it.  But it is the way trustworthiness operates.  God will not look the other way while choices or circumstances work to destroy us.  Again, God says, “You can count on me.”

There are times when we do not understand what’s going on—why things are happening as they are.  In those moments, don’t try to hang on to understanding, hang on to trust.  Trust that no matter what, God is with you—God is giving you grace to make it through whatever situation you are in—and God is not going to allow anything to ultimately destroy you.  Believe it.  Trust your “I AM.”