Trust?

"If you trust God, He will get you out of all your troubles."

"If you live for God, He will make everything in your life right." 

"Trust God and your troubles will be over." 

"If you trust God, He will do what you ask." 

We have heard these statements and many others like them through the years.  But do they mislead ones who don't know God, or for that matter, even some who do know Him?

How often do new Christians come to God and because of what we have told them, they think they won't have heartache, loss and trouble?

 How many times have the new Christians walked away from God because their new life wasn't trouble-free like we made them think it would be?

  How often do we think, that because we believe, like the three Hebrew children did, that "God is able to deliver us out of the fiery furnace," that alone is trust? 

Does trust not go farther than knowing He can?

When we were children we believed our Dad was Superman and that he could do anything. And though our earthly Dad's powers were limited we trusted him to either get us out of bad situations or help us through them,  and he helped us through many. Our Heavenly Father's powers are not limited by fleshly limitations, He really can do anything. But does knowing that mean that I trust Him?

If you recall the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they told the king, "Our God is able to deliver us from the furnace. But if He doesn't, we will trust Him anyway." They had faith that God could, and trusted that if He didn't keep them from the furnace He would have still delivered them. Their faith became trust when knowing that He could, yet not knowing that He would, it remained steadfast. 

When we were children we dreamed of the day we would grow up and be big and strong  like our Dad. That couldn't be achieved by him giving us candy every time we asked for it. Nor could we grow into strong adults by being allowed to skip the broccoli or other vegetables that didn't taste good to a child. We had to eat the yucky tasting ones as well as the yummy ones to grow up healthy. And our spiritual life is much the same. 

The  main goal in our spiritual life is to grow up big and strong like Jesus. But we often want to achieve that by eating candy, Krispy Kreme and ice cream and skipping our vegetables in a spiritual sense..... 

As a child when made to eat vegetables I didn't like,  I would gag, and pretend to eat them by putting them in my mouth then spitting them in the toilet.   Or some of my siblings spread the vegetables over a wider area of their plate until Dad agreed they could just eat half, then they raked them into a smaller area. If we continually avoid the healthy food that makes us stronger  our growth will be stunted. The same is true in our spiritual life.

God knows when the bad things will help me grow stronger, and at times may save me through them instead of from them. It is my greatest desire to grow to be like Him, even when His answers to my prayers are achieved through methods other than the ones I wish for. I pray for His grace and strength to help me trust Him through them all....