What do you trust?

I like to read. A lot. So when I come across a theme in different things I read I often start to think about why it is there. No most of the time I need to have a hint applied with a 4 pound hammer (just ask my wife!) but I think I picked up on this one pretty quickly.

I came across two things on the same day that got me to thinking about faith again. The first was the daily email from Ransomed Heart Ministries. In the excerpt from his book "The Sacred Romance", Eldredge says

Sometimes the way God treats us feels like betrayal. We find ourselves in a dangerous world, unable to arrange for the water our thirsty souls so desperately need. Our rope won’t take the bucket to the bottom of the well. We know God has the ability to draw water for us, but oftentimes he won’t. We feel wronged. After all, doesn’t Scripture say that if we have the power to do someone good, we should do it (Prov. 3:27)? So why doesn’t God?

John sums the section up by remarking:

Indeed, how do we not only trust him, but love him in return? There’s only one possible answer: You could love him if you knew his heart was good.

So that got me thinking about trusting God without knowing what He is up to with my life, the world, the universe (you get the point). I mean, I don't know why the events and conditions in my life are the way they are. I don't know why God chooses to do (or not do) certain things. If only I knew his agenda...

Ok, so that was in the morning. That evening I opened up an issue of CCM magazine and they had a piece in their "The Proof Is In The Blogging" section from Nick Macneill's blog post Faith in Chairs. In his post, Nick talks about the spectacular failure of his new office chair and wonders "Is it not sad that people have more faith in the chair they are sitting in than the God of this universe?" The part that hit me like that 4 pound hammer I mentioned above was:

Hebrews 13:5 tells us, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Why is it that we have such a hard time trusting Him if He is yet to ever disappoint?

Still, we find ourselves doubting God when He has called us to step out and do something out of faith. We want to look at the logistics of everything. To examine and analyze it to make sure it will truly work out. And yet, if God has called us to do something, then He is going to take care of all the details for us, the details are not for us to be worrying about. The only thing we really have to do is just be willing and always ready to answer His call.

Well that got me thinking about what I read in the morning and what I thought about knowing that God's heart is good. Why do I feel like I need to know what God has planned? Why do I think that I need to test it out as if I should decide whether I like it or not? Nick hit the nail on the head: "Just step out and go wherever He sends us."

So, following my instinct to read, I opened up my Bible and found a lot of verses on trusting God (actually I did a search at BibleGateway.com). Psalms is chocked full of verse of trusting God (Ps 20, 25, 31, 40, 52, 55, 56, 62, 78, 86, 91). There are probably more, too. The one that stands out to me most is Psalm 25 where the psalmist writes:

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.
Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths;
guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:1 - 5, NIV)

So I ask, what do you put your trust in, what do you test before trusting, and what do you truly have faith in?