Jonese's Blog

I don't trust God. That's not a lie. I know you're sitting there thinking "Eric you have to trust God, if you don't trust him how the hell am i supposed to?"

Good question. How the hell are we supposed to trust God?

It's what He wants from us, for us to trust Him. Look at the Bible and you see it all over the place. In the Old Testament the very first book has us humans not trusting God. Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden tree and get banished out into the world. We weren't being punished because we didn't follow the rules. No we didn't trust God when he told us how bad the tree was in Genesis 2:17.

"17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

We didn't trust Him and what he said, so when the serpent came along it was easy for us to fall into temptation. With temptation came sin and away went the trust.

But it does not stop there. Further along God delivers the Israelites from Egypt. He doesn't do this to prove how awesome he is. No he does this to show them that if they trust Him then He will take care of them.

People think it's all about the rules, the Ten Commandments. Well answer me this then. If the rules are numero uno in God's priority list then why didn't Adam and Eve walk out of the Garden with a rule book? Why did God wait hundreds, probably thousands of years, before he had Moses deliver the Ten Commandments?

Because he want us to trust him. You see God is way smarter then all of us combined. He knows that in order for us to be totally obedient to Him and His will, we need to trust him. That's why he spends so much time trying to earn our trust. Yea i said that He spends time trying to earn OUR trust. Think about that for a moment. The most powerful is spending time, doing things, showing us things, whispering things to us all in an effort for us to trust him.

He even sent His son Jesus Christ to help us see how we can trust him. Jesus like God didn't perform miracles so that we'd be like "dude he's really good at that slight of hand thing, let's follow him". He didn't do it to show us how great he was, how powerful, or amazing he is. He does it to show us that if we just trust him, he will provide for us.

Don't believe me check this out.

Ok Jesus is getting his Disciples ready for when he dies, preparing them to continue his ministry. In order to do this they have to trust Him and trust in God. So Jesus has to do some things to help soften their hearts and allow them to trust in Him. Two things he does which just speak volumes to trust, in my opinion, are when he feeds a few thousand people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and when Him and Peter walk on water.

In Mark 6:34-44 we see the story of Jesus feeding the people. The Disciples just wanted to go home, wanted Jesus to send all the people away so they could eat etc. When Jesus tells them they need to feed them, they basically call him out on it by suggesting they spend an enormous amount of money on food for all these people. I'm sure the sarcasm was thick when they talked about it too. Jesus knew they didn't think he could feed them, they didn't trust him that he would provide for all these followers. So he takes the 2 fish and 5 loaves, blesses them and then gives them specific instructions on how to pass the food out. The Disciples don't trust Him but they do it anyways. In the end Jesus feeds all those people and his Disciples are amazed and confused at how he did it. Still they don't trust him.

In Matthew 14:22-36, hours after the feeding they start to head back across the water. Jesus sends them ahead and he sticks around to find seashells on the beach. No he doesn't really look for seashells, at least as far as we know but he might have. Anyways the Disciples head out on the water and sure enough the wind is too strong for them to get across. they spend a lot of time rowing but not moving forward. Meanwhile Jesus decides to walk out to the boat. Yea he decides to walk across the water, hop in the boat and scare the snot out of his Disciples.

Now i don't know about you but a man walking on water doesn't really say trust to me, it says magic, or something else. Lucky for us we have Peter. Peter along with the other Disciples see Jesus walking towards them. After they figure out he's not a ghost Peter steps up and says

28 “Lord, if it's you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

Of course Jesus knows that Peter knows it's him so he responds with:

29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.

You see Peter had trust in Jesus. He didn't ask if he could walk on water. he knew that if Jesus wanted him to, and if he trusted Jesus then he'd be able to walk on water. And he did, at least for a little bit. Then he saw the wind, the waves etc and freaked out and started to doubt Jesus. As soon as the trust was lost he started to sink and cried out for Jesus to help him.

30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Doubt equals distrust. Without trust we can never have obedience. God doesn't want us to just follow the rules. He wants us to trust him and have a relationship with him.

Think about people you trust, i mean really really trust. The list is probably short but i bet if you think really hard you can't point to one reason or idea as to why you trust this person.

You just do.

So why is it so hard to just trust God? Easy because he has more invested in us and it's sooo hard for us to trust him in all aspects of our life like he wants us to. Those people we trust, we trust they won't physically or mentally hurt us, or lie to us, or steal from us and cheat us. But we don't trust them in every aspect of our life because they don't want us to. If you did then that deep dark secret you hold onto wouldn't be so deep, or so dark, or even a secret.

There is another reason why it's so hard for us to not trust God. We call it doubt like Peter but in reality it's the Devil. You see he knows all of our insecurities, fears, hopes, dreams and weaknesses. He uses all these things to put little bits of doubt in our mind in hopes that it will cause us to not trust that God has our best interest in mind. As soon as that doubt creeps in and we try to "fix it", or "make it happen" that's when we've lost the trust.

We all go down this path. Heck i went down it just a few hours ago and I'm sure I'll go down it again soon. But each time i go down it i grow stronger and more resilient. I grow from every moment of distrust and at some point whatever causes me to not have trust will be gone.

I'll be stronger than my fear.
I'll be stronger than my weakens.
I'll be stronger than my insecurity.
I'll be stronger then the devil.
I'll trust God.

So yea i don't trust God all the time. He luckily knows this which is why he forgives so easily, offers me unlimited grace to get over my idiot moments, and continues to love on me the way i need him to.

Next time you feel like you're not trusting God try this simple prayer.

Hey (God, Lord, Father, Pappa). I'm having one of those moments again. A moment where i just can't seem to trust you. It's not easy for me to admit this but i know i have to. Please forgive me for my distrust, and provide me with the strength and grace i need to get through this.

That's it. You'll probably still do whatever you think you need to do, but at least you've made an effort to trust Him. In time you'll find yourself giving it over to him more and more. Then one day you'll be like "wow i used to always ....", then just smile and know that He's looking at you with a bigger smile, because you trust him.

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord w/ all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your path straight.