Trusting is Fundamental

(NOTE: Today I have been traveling and just learned that there was a problem with today’s post.  Evidently, our email subscribers received a broken link, as did most you on social media.  So, I am reposting today’s blog and will delete the defective post.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience.)

Henri Rechatin was a celebrated French tightrope walker who amazed audiences with his high-wire act as he walked across Niagara Falls in the 1970’s.

Once he crossed from the American to the Canadian side pushing a wheelbarrow with a grooved wheel. At the conclusion of this breath-taking feat, he was met with thunderous applause.

Rechatin then asked a little boy who was filled with wonderment, if he believed he could push him across the Falls in the wheelbarrow.

“Yes,” replied the little fellow.

“Then, get in,” invited Rechatin.

The little boy literally ran.

It’s one thing to believe something is so, but quite another to prove it through trust that literally puts your life on the line.

Trust is fundamental to faith.

My friend and preaching colleague, Gary Henry wrote in Wordpoints, “There is a difference between belief and trust. It’s one thing to give intellectual acceptance to a truth, but trust has to do with how much risk we’ll take. Would we stake our lives on what we believe? To use the old illustration, belief is accepting that someone could walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope pushing a wheelbarrow, but trust would be getting into the wheelbarrow.”

Trust has to do with confidence. Conviction. And assurance. When we trust someone we believe in their integrity, rely on their word, and live in hope of their promises.

“In God We Trust,” ought to be more than a motto engraved on our money but the attitude of every citizen and especially every Christian.

The Bible encourages us trust in God and to develop the attitude of the Psalmist who wrote, “In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (PS 56:11)

After the Lord delivered David from the hand of his enemies, he said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust” (2 Sam. 22:2-3)

Later he would pen the Psalm that began with this affirmation: “To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You; Let me not be ashamed; Let not my enemies triumph over me” (Ps 25:1-2).

The prophet Isaiah expressed it this way: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” (Isa. 12:2).

Though afflicted by Satan with physical suffering, the loss of family, and financial disaster, the patriarch Job affirmed both his faith and trust in God when he exclaimed, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (Job 13:15).

The apostle Paul who beaten, stoned, imprisoned, falsely accused and suffer a physical “thorn in the flesh, never wavering in his mission and ministry preaching Christ. Why? Here’s his answer. “For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” (1 Tim. 4:10).

The devotional writer Oswald Chambers was right when he wrote, “Trustfulness is based on confidence in God, whose ways I do not understand. If I did, there would be no need for trust.” Or as Corrie ten Boom once said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

Paul said the Ephesians “first trusted in Christ” after hearing the Word (Eph. 1:12-13). Hearing, believing, accepting an obeying God’s Word begets trust. Some versions translate “trust” as “hope.” Both go together. They both see the unseen. And focus on the invisible instead of the visible.

Too often we put our trust in only that which we can visibly see, physical touch, or experience with our natural senses. The Bible, however, warns against putting our trust in human wisdom, uncertain riches, and earthly leaders. These can and do fail us.

The foundation of faith will ultimately crack without complete trust in God. The words of the wise man will serve us well in our spiritual journey.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
(Prov. 3:5).

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman