Last night, in Pastor Mike’s Bible study, he was talking about Judah in the book of Isaiah. Mike brought up a very interesting question. He asked us what God wanted from his people and from King Ahaz in order for him to take care of them. Was it sacrifices? Was it a feast? A celebration? A prayer? A tithe? The answer wasn’t remotely like any of those. I’m sure God was/would have been pleased with those offered to him, but that wasn’t what he had desired. God wanted his people to trust him. Isaiah 7:9b states, “If you will not believe, surely you shall not be established.”
Now, I don’t want the title of this post to be misleading. I don’t want to imply that it is easier to love God than to trust Him. In fact, I’d rather not touch that statement right now. What I do want to point out (from my own life), is that I sometimes struggle with trusting Him more than loving Him. I’m one of those people that constantly questions my own motives and answers to questions like “do I really love God?” But I have realized, that for me, the answer to “do I love God?” is much clearer than “do I trust God?” The Bible is filled with passages regarding not worrying and trusting God (Matt 7 and Phil 4 are probably the most popular). When I’m struggling financially, or sick, or have a relative that is sick, or just having a bad day…am I trusting God? My answer normally ends with…intellectually, I think I do trust him, but I don’t always FEEL like I do, or ACT like I do. How would you answer that?