Trust

It’s easy to trust God on a warm day when all is well and you find a parking place in the perfect spot and people everywhere are smiling.

But when things are falling apart, trusting God can be far more difficult. What happens when a tornado destroys a town, and it’s your town? And your home? Tragedy usually strikes other families. What happens when it strikes yours? Even the children of the most faithful believers come down with cancer.

Lifelong believers in Jesus get Alzheimer’s.

Committed Christians die in tragic accidents.

For some people, one of the great mysteries of a life of faith is that believers are not always exempt from life’s harsh and bitter circumstances.

But it must be remembered that faith in God was never intended to be a guarantee against sickness or suffering. The apostle Paul prayed three times that God would remove his “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7, 8), but his prayer wasn’t answered in the way he had hoped. The faithful saint Dorcas “became sick and died” (Acts 9:37), James was beheaded (Acts 12:2), and Job lost not only most of his family but also virtually all of his possessions. The circumstances of our lives are not a measure of God’s faithfulness. The extent of God’s faithfulness was settled millennia ago. “In the beginning,” God created the world as an expression of His heart of love. Several thousand years later, Jesus died on the cross, “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).

God has given to the world the gift of the Holy Spirit and the promise of everlasting life. There is no question that God is faithful.

The trials that come into our lives are opportunities for us to understand our own faithfulness. Job was able to say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). While we don’t always understand why God permits certain circumstances, we can trust Him. Such a testimony not only speaks volumes to those looking on but also tells God we are not merely fair-weather Christians.