Experiencing God's Presence #193

Experiencing God's Presence #193

Why was no one there when I came? Why didn’t anyone answer when I called? Is it because I have no power to rescue?

Isaiah 50:2

Think of how you would feel if, in spite of your long history of faithful devotion, a loved one refused to trust you. How would you interpret his or her suspicious suggestions that perhaps you aren’t reliable or fears that you might have harmful intentions? What if you had always demonstrated great skill and power yet were treated as incapable of handling difficult situations? The slander of your character, however unintentional, would hurt. When someone mistrusts you for no reason, you take it personally.

This is how we often treat God. Despite repeated assurances that He loves us, is taking care of us, will keep His promises, and is mighty to save, it can take a long time for those truths to sink into our hearts. That’s because we come from a background of being alienated from Him, and it takes time to adjust to the Kingdom culture. We can somewhat attribute our difficulty in trusting God to the fact that He’s invisible, but that isn’t the whole story. We have epic battles with trust in part because of our old nature and in part because of our current spiritual enemy. Meanwhile, the most reliable Person in the universe waits for us to have confidence in Him.

God responds to trust. His Presence seems to accompany a heart that has chosen to have confidence in Him regardless of contrary appearances. He is not too weak to save, even when a desperate situation lingers and tempts you to believe otherwise. Whatever obstacles stand in the way of your trust today, choose trust anyway. God takes that attitude personally too, and He loves it.

Lord, I trust You. Forgive me if my lack of trust has hurt Your heart. No matter what, I choose to place my confidence in You.