Trust
Mark at “Called Out In Kansas” wrote a very good post this week called “On Faith – Volume 1” (I’m hoping that title indicates that further “volumes” are to come). In this post, Mark talks about how his understanding of faith has changed. He concludes:
So, the crux of the post is this:  faith is an important part of our Christian walk, and faith is a bi-product of our Christian walk.  We use our faith to walk in Christ, and like a muscle, the more we use it the more it grows.  As a charismatic I felt condemned if I didn’t have enough faith.  Now I understand that there are things I will stand in faith for, but haven’t walked in Christ long enough to grow into that level of faith, and so I may not see the final manifestation of what I prayed for.  This is no cause for guilt or condemnation, it just is what it is.  The longer I walk the more I will grow in faith, and the greater works He can do in and through me.
As I told Mark in a comment, I’ve started to think more and more of “faith” as trust. How much do I trust God? Do I trust God in spite of anything that may or may not happen with my life?
amen!
Alan,
I like A.W.Tozers comment: “True faith is not passive but active. It requires that we meet certain conditions, that we allow the teachings of Christ to dominate our total lives from the moment we believe.”
Funny, I was thinking about trust/faith in God today as the following events transpired. I was traveling to Charlotte to help a friend paint and told him that I would be there at 11:30am, on the way I saw a women broke down on the highway and as I passed her felt like God wanted me to turn around and see if she needed help. I said to myself that this would make me late and after some contemplation I decided to take an exit and travel back to see if she needed help. Turns out she had a friend coming any minute and I couldn’t be of much help. Unfortunately this story is not over. Heading back down the road I stopped on the highway because it was a two lane highway and someone was turning left across the lanes, as I stopped a truck pulling a trailer behind me didn’t stop so quickly and hit me and shoved me into the car in front of me. So, I didn’t make it to Charlotte and had my truck towed 90 miles ($250) back to Wake Forest, not sure if it is totaled. What does this have to do with faith/trust in God. I feel a little powerless after todays events and realize that I must have faith/trust in God despite what has happened. Maybe a better way to say it is that my plans don’t always work out as I expect them to but I trust that God’s plan is always at work despite my inability to understand it.
Thanks for this post on a day that I have realized that all I can do is trust in God.
-Kirt
Alan,
The biggest thing that God has taught me over the last 5 years is that my trust is to be in him, not in what I think he might do. He has made it very clear to me that I am not going to be able to predict what he might do, so I need to trust him, regardless of what may happen.
It’s an ongoing lesson.
John,
Thanks!
Aussie John,
Yes. Faith is active. Trust is demonstrated.
Kirt,
You said, “Maybe a better way to say it is that my plans don’t always work out as I expect them to but I trust that God’s plan is always at work despite my inability to understand it.” Yes. That’s a great way to put it. I’m glad you are okay.
Fred,
That’s a tough one. It reminds me of Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding…” That would include leaning on my understanding of God.
-Alan
This is one of your most meaningful posts for me mainly because I have contemplated what faith is pretty frequently over the past several weeks. Faith is conforming myself to the Lord Jesus with unquestioning trust in his mercy and love. I like how Pope Benedict put it in one of his catechetical audiences during the year of St. Paul:
Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love. So it is that in the Letter to the Galatians in which he primarily developed his teaching on justification St Paul speaks of faith that works through love (Galatians 5:6).
It all made much more sense to me when I noticed that the Greek words translated as “faith” and “believe” are the same; just that one is a noun and the other a verb. That is why faith comes by hearing God’s word – because we can’t believe what we don’t know. Faith can be such a religious term, but belief is something less mysterious – a concept we can grasp.
Brian,
Thanks, and thanks for the quote.
Bettie,
Yes, the word translated faith means believe and trust also.
-Alan