How Do I Trust God With My WHOLE Heart?
It's natural to put conditions on trusting God, but we're asked to place our total trust in him.
The past few weeks, I've been having some pre-teen dad moments with my oldest daughter. She's a wonderful girl with a strong personality. And she's one who loves to know the why behind every decision and can sniff out hypocrisy in approximately 3.5 seconds.
Even at nine years of age, she is wrestling with whether or not she can trust the decisions her mom and dad make. "Why did you do that?" "How come you asked me to do this, but you do that?"
Perhaps you're a parent who can relate.
Even if you're not a parent, you've probably had these same feelings in your relationship with God. You think, God, what does it mean to trust you with my whole heart?
Total Trust
Usually, we think of trust as conditional. We trust others to the extent that we can believe and depend on them. And when, not if, they disappoint us, we lose some of this trust. Thus, the concept of total trust feels unnatural. But at the heart of God's connection with humanity is his call for them to trust him.
Trust in God is one of the primary components of the central message of Proverbs. As Bruce Waltke writes, "Proverbs is written to teach a life of faith in Israel's covenant-keeping God (22:19)."[1]
For many of us, trust doesn't come naturally, and we place our hope in things other than God. As Timothy Keller says,
You can believe in God yet still trust something else for your real significance and happiness—which is therefore your real God. We hide how we do this from ourselves, and it is only when something goes wrong with, say, your career or your family, that you realize it is much more important to you than the Lord himself.[2]
To trust God with all our heart is to rest in who our Heavenly Father has revealed himself in his Word, to seek to respond as Jesus would to every situation we face, and to actively obey the voice of Holy Spirit when he speaks.
Trust is both passive and active.
Thankful for Discipline
Part of trust is accepting God's means of discipline. Proverbs 3:11-12 says, 11 Do not despise the Lord's instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline; 12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights."
Discipline is a sign that we're a child of God. And so rather than run from it, we should embrace it. This isn't to say we should live a disobedient life in the hope that we receive discipline for our selfish actions. But it does mean that if we fail to trust God as we should, we should be grateful for his discipline because this is just one more indicator of his love.
To think this way is unnatural. But keep in mind that our lives are a work in progress. In The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis writes,
Over a sketch made idly to amuse a child, an artist may not take much trouble: he may be content to let it go even though it is not exactly as he meant it to be. But over the great picture of his life—the work which he loves, though in a different fashion, as intensely as a man loves a woman or a mother a child—he will take endless trouble—and would doubtless, thereby give endless trouble to the picture if it were sentient. One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and re-commenced for the tenth time, wishing that it were only a thumb-nail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God had designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less."[3]
Contrary to what some say, the opposite of love is not hate. The real opposite is not caring. If God didn't care for us and allowed us to make foolish choices without any consequences, this would be the equivalent of allowing a toddler to run out into the middle of the street and not saying a word.
The true believer who trusts in God is simultaneously grateful for his discipline.
*Unless you specify otherwise, comments and questions you ask may be featured in upcoming podcast episodes.
[1] Waltke, Bruce K.; De Silva, Ivan D. V.. Proverbs: A Shorter Commentary (p. 159). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.
[2] Keller, Timothy; Keller, Kathy. God's Wisdom for Navigating Life: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Book of Proverbs (p. 22). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[3] C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
