Faith and Trust
To trust is to believe in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of something. So, when it comes to trusting God, that means believing in His reliability, His Word, His ability, and His strength. The Bible says that God cannot lie. That He always keeps His promises. That He loves you and has good in store for you. Trusting in Him means believing what He says about Himself, about the world and about you is true. It means that you have faith in God. It’s a choice to have faith in what He says even when your feelings or circumstances would have you believe something different
When we believe in what we are doing, and we commit ourselves to it with our whole being. We continue to push forward even when obstacles arise or doors close. Because we believe in it. We give ourselves wholeheartedly to it, because at some deep level – beyond the level of common sense or logic – we know that it is the right thing for us to do. We believe in this. This is what faith is about. Genuine faith involves trust.
Proverbs 3:5 (NIV) “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding”
Psalm 37:5 (NIV) “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this” He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Faith is one of the most important components of trust. When you trust someone, you almost have blind faith in them. When we do not trust, we become anxious and fearful. To have faith means to let go of anxiety and fear, and to give ourselves over to God, trusting God’s love and care for us
Fully trusting in God is very hard. It calls us to act in great faith daily, but think about how great life could be if we lived without worry, stress, anxiety, fear, and doubt.
Hebrews 11:6 (KJV) “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
We learn several truths about faith from this scripture: that to please God, we must have faith in Him, we must believe that He exists, and we must believe that He will answer us when we try hard to know Him or to get help from Him.
Faith and trust feed one another: we need enough faith to stir us into stepping out of the boat in the first place. And then when we trust Jesus enough to step out, it builds our faith for the future.
Matthew 14:22 (ESV) “Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.”