9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! –Matthew 7:9-11
How easy is it for you to trust God? To trust that He truly does know what is best for you? To trust that His promises are true?
Do you ever find yourself seeing people who let you down and break your trust on earth and transferring those feelings of distrust on God?
On Sunday morning I did an object lesson with the kids in Kids Church that involved my daughter. I blindfolded her, asked her if she trusted me to give her what she needs, and she said yes. I proceeded to feed her grapes, popcorn, oyster crackers, and then, horror of all horrors, cauliflower. Two things that Anne hates are cauliflower and broccoli. She chewed it up, and even swallowed it despite the gag reflex that tried to take over. Then I asked her again, do you trust me? Again she answered yes, and this time I fed her a couple of pieces of candy (to help get the cauliflower taste out of her mouth.)
Anne had to make a choice to trust me, but at first that was pretty easy; after all I am her mom, I know her pretty well, she knows I wouldn’t do anything to intentionally hurt her in any way. And then she had to make a choice to trust me a second time, after remembering that I have a responsibility to take care of her and keep her healthy, even if that means making her eat cauliflower and broccoli every now and then.
I think that is how it is with us and God sometimes. Some things that happen to us aren’t bad or harmful, but we don’t like it or it makes us uncomfortable, and it makes us “blame” God or distrust His goodness. But we have to be able to trust that God is good and His plans for us are good, regardless of how we feel. We have to be able to say, “Yes, I choose to trust you, God, no matter what.”
That reminds me of one of my favorite passages of scripture, Daniel 3:16-18:
16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Emphasis mine.)
That is trust – knowing that God is good, and God is able, but no matter what happens, God is still God, He is still good, and He is still able.
Are you ready to trust, “even if he does not” answer in the way you ask?
Wow, I found this post because I wrote a post tagged with listening and was looking down the list! I have been thinking about this exact same passage since I saw a post on Stuff Christians Like. The post’s perspective was, do we expect God to give us what is best for us or is the God in our head one who always gives us a snake instead of a fish. It’s the question, will God establish my ministry here only to call me away to some far off place where I don’t want to go. Thank you for the encouragement to trust that God has what’s best for us in mind!
Tyler (http://thereversal.wordpress.com)
Thanks, Tyler! I read that SCL post, too, a while back. I have just really been struck with this idea that why, when God promises us that He wants good for us, do we always assume what we’ll get from Him is bad? At some point, we have to move further into a place of trust – He is good and He will do what He promises! 🙂