TRUSTING GOD IS KNOWING GOD

 

 

It has taken me a long time to learn a simple truth. By praising, rejoicing with thankfulness, and by glorifying our God, we grow strong in our faith:

·       Romans 4:20–21 No unbelief made [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Our Lord doesn’t require our praise. However, in love, He requires it because we need it. However, there is another factor involved. Abraham had become “fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.” How? Paul explained that we must know Him:

·       2 Corinthians 1:8–10 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Abraham too had become convinced of God’s love and trustworthiness as God delivered Him from peril on many occasions, as he passed off his beautiful wife as his sister so that it would go well for him as he sojourned among foreigners (Genesis 20). Kings would take Sarah for their harem, but on each occasion, God restored Sarah untouched to the faithless Abraham. However, through the knowledge of God’s love and protection, Abraham began to trust in Him:

·       Psalm 91:14 Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.

·       Psalm 9:10 And those who know [You] put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Abraham was taught to know Him so well that He trusted God enough to offer his beloved Isaac as a burnt offering (Genesis 22), convinced that God would restore him.

Our Lord has also been teaching me of His love and trustworthiness through His Word. I had suffered from depression for decades, but I always told myself that I could get through whatever life threw in my path. However, the arrival of panic attacks partnered with my depression to utterly devastate me. The suffering was so intense that I lost confidence in Jesus that I could make it from one day to the next. Therefore, I hated myself.

Consequently, I was unable to believe that Jesus really cared about me. Nor could I shake the thought that He might be a sadistic deceiver no matter how hard I tried to reason it away. However, one evening, as I was praying, I realized that He couldn’t possibly be a sadistic deceiver. Such a deceiving god would never have died for me, an incontestable historical fact!

I could now trust in my Savior. I still shed tears of joy because of this glorious truth. Consequently, thankfulness and rejoicing have become my haven and safe-place as they continue to nurture my faith.

Daniel also came to know His God as trustworthy, even as he was given visions of the approaching trials:

·       Daniel 11:32–33 [The anti-Christ] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame…

As we come to know our God and to trust in Him, we too will be enabled to “stand firm and take action.” Therefore, Jesus had prayed:

·       John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

By knowing His love and faithfulness, we can stand. Without this knowledge, any provocation can send us fleeing.