If you and I are to think about trusting God in this way, trusting God happens only when certain conditions are met. We say to ourselves doing something our way is better than doing it God’s way, but we decide to do it God’s way anyway. We would not call it trusting in God if we happen to agree with God his way is better than our way, and we choose to go God’s way. In a case like that, we shall not say we have trusted God. We simply agreed with God his way was the better way, and we went with what we already thought was the better option. The opportunity to trust God happens only when we disagree with God which way we should go. There is a familiar verse we all know in the Bible that talks precisely about this. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” In the many decisions we face in life every day, Solomon says we can either lean on God, or we can lean on our own understanding, and our tendency is to lean on our own understanding. It is precisely that after we have done our own understanding, when we are tempted to lean on our understanding, that we must trust in God. Trusting in God happens when we decide to go God’s way even though our own understanding leads us to think we should go a different way.
Proverbs 14.12
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Trusting in God says, “I believe God knows what he is talking about, and I am going to do it his way.” The Bible says our God is the God of heaven and earth. The earth, and all that is in it, belong to God. He knows and understands everything. No creature would be so foolish to think he knows more than him. And yet each time when we decide to do something our way rather than do it God’s way, we are saying we know more than him.
Have you noticed much of this world don’t trust in God? God says one thing. But they do another. Sometimes, they do the exact opposite. They don’t know God. Why should they trust what he has to say? They wouldn’t. They trust in themselves. Just like you and me before we met Christ and we trust in ourselves, they trust in themselves. They believe it is wrong, even foolish, to do things God’s way. They say being honest will never make one rich. They say it is absurd to extend forgiveness to someone. They say it is foolish to admit wrongdoing, and look weak. The people of this world don’t trust in God.
In the end, there is a connection between faith and trust, but trust is not what you get when you have strong faith. Trusting in God is a choice. In the many decisions we make every day, large and small, we can either trust God, or not trust God. There are many instances we agree doing something God’s way is the better way. But there are also instances we are tempted to do it our way. For this reason, the Bible gives us verse after verse that encourage us to trust in God.
Our God is trustworthy. Doing things God’s way may not make the most sense, it may take longer to get where we want to go, it may set us back, it may be awkward for us and others, it may make us look weak. But in the end, if we do things his way, he promises to be our rock. He promises to protect us. He will fight for us. It is right, and it is good for us to place our trust in him. I have always said the safest place on earth for us to be is to be in the place where we are trusting God.
Jeremiah 17.7–8
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.