Graduated Faith
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When I was praying about what truths to give you at the beginning of the year this idea came to mind:
The difference between faith and trust.
For a long time I thought they were the same. 2022 has taught me differently. And I believe God wants to get into this deeper relationship with you. He wants to sow into you so that you learn to trust God more and trust the people and things around you less.
The importance of understanding the difference is because I believe many Christians have handicapped themselves hanging their hats on faith when we should be resting in trust.
Tiredness and exhaustion the the ability not only to quiet ones ability to dream and to see God’s further plan for your life, but it also has the ability to separate us from the message of God and put a wedge in our relationship with God.
When counseling couples one of the most damaging statements I can hear is when one person says to another “I Don’t trust you any more.” Lose of trust makes a person go into self preservation mode. Walls go up, voices get silenced and space begins to happen. We distance ourselves from things we don’t trust.
In order to understand the difference between faith and trust we first must define them.
Webster define faith as
Faith: strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
The bible defines faith as
1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
In short Faith is believing that God exists without any physical evidence to support it. For me—this is a simple one. Even when I was running away from God I knew he existed. I never lost my faith in God, but at times I lost my trust in Him. And those times have been the most crippling times in my life.
Trust: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.
Trust is all about relationship. Faith is believing without seeing, trust is knowledge based on persona experience.
So Here’s the issue:
Fear, Anxiety, and doubt are all weapons the enemy uses to stop God’s people. Satan can’t physically stop you.
The bible tells us if God is for us than who can be against us? Satan knows that if we dig deep into our knowledge of who God was and what he has already done for us than he lost the battle. There is nothing Satan can physically do to stop you. It’s all mental warfare.
Trust Comes from Relationship
Trust comes out of relationship. It’s built up over time and through experiences. If you go through the Old Testament When Israel was facing a major battle how many times was Israel reminded of the God’s past success so that they would find confidence in God’s ability to get them through their current battle?
David, a man familiar with war wrote;
8 Cause me to hear Your loving-kindness in the morning, for on You do I lean and in You do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk, for I lift up my inner self to You.
There are a couple of things here to note. First, the importance of connecting with God in the morning. The battlefield is for your ming and if you don’t start out your day right you can never get your mind right. There were times when I was is crippled with doubt and fear that my body literally stopped moving. Everything halted and it was all in my brain.
The second is the idea of leaning and trusting: The bible reminds us of who God was in the past because it tells us who he is in the future. God is the same yesterday today and forever so if through God’s word we receive who God was than we can through experience receive who God is to us today.
Then the lifting up of ones inner self. The denotes a long term relationship. You can’t know the inner me in a short time period. That takes a while and shows a complete reliance on the person whom you are showing yourself to.
2. Trust Sows Blessing
I hear people say and I have said numerous times, that I don’t have the strength to continue.
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
8 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.”
Jeremiah was talking to Israel about entering war. He was convincing the people that God was on their side and that they would win the war if they would just enter it. Israel wanted to stay out of war. As Christians I wonder how much of God’s blessings we may have lost because 1. We didn’t want to engage in battle and 2. We didn’t trust God enough for the victory.
But it also was a step further. Israel, when entering war, often relied on alliances. They relied on Egypt, Babylon, and other non believing countries thus removing the glory from God and placing it on men.
I want to show you for a minute though because there is a transition in V 7. Blessing is a man who trusts in the Lord, but then Jeremiah brings it deeper and says who trust is the Lord.
In today’s term a trust is a financial term and a way to escape taxes when it comes ones inheritance. It financially allows the person to use the full benefit of what was left to them without outside influence receiving or minimizing the blessing.
When you make the Lord your trust it’s a direct connection and you aren’t letting outside influences hinder your connection to God.
3. Trust Brings fulfillment
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Not only do believers who trust in God have hope, but you have joy and peace through the avenue of trusting in God.
Adam and Eve’s sin was a direct link to their lack of trust in the word of God. When Satan comes to attack your peace and joy and will directly attack your trust. He will try to show you ways that God has failed you in the past. He will try to twist scenarios and convince you that God doesn’t have your best interest at heart.
When you don’t feel peaceful you its a sign that your trust isn’t surely connected to God.
This year I pray that your lean in on your trust of God. That every move you make is centered in your knowledge that God will never leave you nor forsake you. That his plans are secure and his ways are higher than yours.