The Way I See It, A Pastor’s Perspective
Southaven,MS
Trust
Trust is a funny thing sometimes. We trust a lot of things we shouldn’t always, and we don’t always trust the one thing we should; God.
We blindly trust that our food will be safe most of the time. My fiancé Beth religiously checks expiration dates. Me, not so much. If it’s a meat product, it has to at least resemble a picture on the package. And there’s the ritual smell test of course. But I usually forge wildly ahead where she would fear to go, armed only with trust.
As an example, I opened a can of tuna the other day for my lunch; the brand with the talking fish. Didn’t even look at the date on the can. I quickly dove in with my trusty knife and scooped it out into a bowl. Mixed in mayonnaise (no date check), the relish (nope, didn’t look at the date), and happily spread the mix on some sourdough bread (bread has a date?). Beth would have shrieked if she had seen said tuna can dated earlier than said sandwich, but I digress.
The point here is I trusted my health and my life to preparers, manufacturers, processors, distributors, suppliers etc. without a second thought.
Ok, granted, I did pray over my yummy handcrafted feast. But still, I trusted everyone previously involved in the prep of my food. I fully trusted that my sandwich would not later be the cause of my own expiration date!
Why don’t we trust God in that way? When we pray, why do we immediately follow our petition to the Lord with doubts He will respond? Why is it so hard to trust Him? Is it because we don’t feel we’re worthy to have Him answer? Is it because we have seen our prayers go unanswered before? Is it because we don’t think He is able? The answers are many and varied I suppose, but the simple truth remains that trust is a large and key factor in the level of faith we have, and if we don’t trust God, then certainly our faith is suspect as well. To me they are interchangeable.
Hebrews says this…
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Hebrews 11:6
“Impossible to please Him” is a pretty strong statement! Impossible is not a word you want to hear when talking about having your prayers answered! But we must learn to trust God without question or doubt if we are going to please Him. We must trust Him that He is who the word says He is; that He is capable of moving mountains in our lives; that He desires to help us overcome our problems; and that He is on our side.
There are so many reasons we can give as to why we DON’T trust Him, but only one reason why we should;
HE IS GOD.
A God who is all powerful and all knowing. A God who loves you deeply. A God who is on your side, simply because Christ Jesus has made you in right standing with Him! Jesus has cloaked you in His righteousness and the Father is pleased with you if you’re born again! That fact alone should give you the confidence to trust Him. That He is pleased with you!
You might say, “Pastor Mike, you don’t know the sins I’ve committed….how can He be pleased with me?”
Well, quite simply He sees the Son’s righteousness, not yours. To be honest, your righteousness on your best day is filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), but HIS righteousness is perfection. Granted, you must confess your sins, but 1 John 1:9 reminds us that He is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins! Go ahead and shout on that one! And go ahead and trust Him too.
Solomon said to trust Him with all your heart. You will never be disappointed when you do.
No, you won’t always get the answers you want to your prayers, but trust me, no, trust HIM, you’ll get the best answers and the right answers!
And that’s the way I see it!
Pastor Mike
