Guts to Trust

As I reflect upon my recent trip to the United States for a pastor's conference, I have a renewed appreciation for the Bible.  It is the divinely inspired, living and authoritative Word of God.  No man could ever exhaust the wealth of wisdom contained within those pages.  There is always more for us to learn and obey.  Though God's Word does not change, it changes us and remains relevant still.  To every person in whom God has breathed a living soul have these words been written.

A danger grows from our familiarity with passages, phrases, and events in the Bible.  When we listen to a sermon or read the Word, we can fall into the trap of simply confirming our current beliefs.  Instead of reading for the purpose of entering into God's presence and listening for the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, we read only to stroke our spiritual pride.  There is a big difference between agreeing with God's Word and believing it.  A man might agree that a course of action is good and right, but that does not means he will actually work toward that end.  In Aesop's fable called "Belling the Cat," a group of mice agree their safety would be greatly improved if a bell was attached to the collar of the cat.  The ringing of the bell would alert them to his presence and give them advance warning so they might escape.  A venerable mouse stood up and said, "This is a great idea - but who is going to bell the cat?"  Everyone agreed in the plan, but it didn't mean they would actually have the guts to put it into practice.

For us the question is not of guts but of faith.  Do our lives reveal we actually believe what God has said in his Word enough to obey?  Another danger is we would limit God according to our limited understanding of scripture or theology.  Yesterday I began to work on a poem about a man who was shackled by sin and was imprisoned awaiting a death sentence.  Jesus appears to Him and offers salvation:  "If you repent and trust in Me, I will free and grant you eternal life!"  The man places his trust in Christ and the chains fall from his hands.  For a while, he delights in reading the Bible as he grows in knowledge and the wisdom of God.  But as time passes, he becomes rigid in his theology and limits God according to what he can understand.  He builds himself a safe, predictable house fortified with his personal experience and theology.  He bars the door to make sure no heretics could possibly enter.  Sadly, the man dies in this prison of his own design because of his pride like so many Pharisees before him.  At the beginning he was chained in sin:  after being freed the poor man used his knowledge to confine God with shackles.  The moral of the story?  Faith frees both God and man.

Jesus couldn't do many miracles in His hometown because of unbelief.  If I refuse to believe what God says in His Word, I limit His work in my own life.  The children of Israel were not able to enter into the land of promise because of their unbelief.  Asaph writes in Psalm 78:40-41: "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! ⁴¹ Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel."  How tragic that I would limit God by my unbelief!  When I walk by sight and not by faith, I hinder the miraculous work He desires to do.  How sad that the ones who God delights in can grieve and provoke Him even after He has paid the price of our deliverance and atonement!  God's Word says He makes all things new!  God's Word says that nothing is impossible with God!

What grace God gives:  even after we construct a little box where we give Him permission to operate, He opens our eyes and hearts to trust Him.  He frees us from our spiritual pride and rigid unbelief.  He softens us to yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  May we never read the scriptures to remind ourselves of what we already know, but so we might grow in ways we once never thought possible by grace through faith in Christ.  May God give us the guts to trust!