“I trust in God as much as God trusts in me.”
These are the words, my 8-year-old son, Mason, declared in the car on the way to the movies Christmas day. At first, I thought what does that even mean? I thought by the times an Old Professor name Bill Dogterom would say, “God is looking for people who are trustworthy.” Then it hit me. Mason hadn't lived long enough to be deemed untrustworthy by world standards. He is very trustworthy. He does what he says he is going to do and generally is consistent. Am I trusting in God or asking God to trust me?
We are so quick to ask God for more and even claim a “faith” in doing so. That's why I warn against 99% of the preachers we see on TV. We often pray and trust God to get us out of a situation we haven't learned from yet. We often ask God to bless our mess when we don't even admit whose fault it was. We ask God to change the hearts of others in conflict but in reality, it's our heart that is hardened.
One of my all-time favorite passages in the bible is in John 14:6, “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is responding to Thomas, the doubter. Jesus is correlating a marriage ritual of preparing a better life for His bride to His disciples to comfort them. But like many of us do we create our ideas of what we want before we ask what God has in mind. Many of us even act like we know what Jesus is talking about and live a lie and go along as if we understand. I am not saying there isn't ambiguity in following Jesus. That happens. What I am saying is that following Jesus sometimes requires us asking Him for what He is talking about or what He wants us to do instead of telling Him to do what we want Him to do. When we, like Thomas, ask questions like “Jesus we don't know where you are taking us, can you help me to understand?” we can be trusted with answers like Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Building trust requires leaning on God and not our understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6). As we begin to seek Jesus and do what He does, He can trust us more. Maybe we should stop trusting God to fix our mess and start Trusting God to make us better through the mess. #gracetogrow.
Do not miss this January series. It will change your life and make you more trustworthy in the Kingdom.
See you Sunday,
Pastor Michael