Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Allow me to lean a little. On my own understanding, that is.

See, I have some issues trusting God with ALL my heart. As I’ve experienced it, when somebody says “trust me”, at least 50% of the time they’re hiding something. I guess I’ve just experienced enough shady used-car salespeople to think otherwise.

I mean, is God REALLY going to make my paths straight? Am I really supposed to trust that God is going to answer every prayer, get me out of every jam, and generally straighten out all the dangerous swerves as I drive through life? Experience tells me that this is not always the case. In what, exactly, am I supposed to put my trust when it comes to God?

God never really comes out and says “trust me”. Instead, what we get are a lot of rave reviews from prophets, psalmists, and disciples who did. We hear from a whole bunch of people who have trusted God and received positive results. We are told that God has our backs.

Really? Because I’ve suffered in my life. I’ve gone through long difficult times when I scraped bottom, almost at my end. How did God allow this to happen? How am I supposed to trust God under those conditions? It is a question as old as the first person who ever raised their eyes to the heavens and yelled “help”!

Is God trustworthy? As it turns out, when you search the scriptures, you discover that what God offers us is much more intangible, yet more important than simple deliverance from life’s challenges.

God offers forgiveness when we sin. God offers comfort when we grieve. God provides guidance when we’re lost, and strength when we’re overcome. God offers the bounty of God’s creation as our daily bread. And, through Christ, God offers the promise of salvation–a life lived both now and forever in the Kingdom of God. In these ways, God is forever trustworthy.

We make the mistake of thinking that trust in God equals God altering the course of human events to prevent us from feeling pain and loss. No, that is the ride of life that comes with having free will and agency in a world that is always changing. God’s trust comes like a parent attentively coaching their child as they learn how to drive. That doesn’t mean Jesus takes the wheel from you. You’re in the driver’s seat of your own life.

This is a deeper level of trust than my “own understanding” can sometimes comprehend. It requires a deeper response than an expectation of God just “fixing” my life. It requires a deep faith that God WILL provide guidance and comfort and strength and bounty and salvation along the way.

Trust in God means trust in God’s love, with all your heart. It means trusting the Holy Spirit, pointing the way straight to the Kingdom. It means trusting Christ’s offer of salvation. And, I suppose, it means trusting those who’ve come before us, examples of what trust can do.

That’s a lot of trust. Especially for the more skeptically minded, like me. But God’s not selling a car.

God is offering free life-time

roadside assistance.

Have a great week,

Mitch