Knowing How to Trust

On Monday this week we looked at a love letter from our King which talks about courage. (If you haven't read it yet, pause here and come back after you read it.) There were some key things that stuck out in the letter that I highlighted and want us to expound upon one of them today.

Perhaps the most powerful element to the love letter is the question "Can you trust that I am strong enough to handle any situation?" Notice God is asking us "can" we trust and not "will or do" we trust in His strength. The word "can," as defined by Webster's, means to be able to, to know how to. So putting the question it into context with the definition, God is asking "Are you able to trust...? Do you know how to trust...?" Now let's take it one step further. The word "can" is a verb so this gives a new element to the question. Looking at it this way, God is asking "Are you actively able to and know how to trust that I am strong enough to handle any situation?" Really ponder this for a moment. Tough question, huh? The key here is that we must know how to trust God in order to be able to actively trust Him. Without knowing how to trust God we really cannot trust Him. To get to this place of applied knowledge in our lives we need look no further than His Word and His past activity in our lives. By spending time in His Word daily we are exposed to His promises and stories of how He took care of those who trusted Him in the past. It is only then that are we able to take Him at His word. Without knowing what He has to say we simply cannot actively trust, for we do not know what we are trusting Him to do. If we do not know that God will neither fail nor forsake us (Deut 31:6) we will not trust Him so that in times requiring courage on our part we cower instead of being courageous. If we do not know that God does not change (Heb 13:8) then we see the stories as words written on a page that do not apply to us personally. If we never take the time to stop and think of what God has done for us in our past we easily forget that He knows our future (Jer 29:11). Dear one, it is vital to our spiritual health to know these things. It's not to say that each one of us has to be a Biblical scholar. We simply must take the time to read for ourselves, asking God to open our minds to receive all He has to say to us. There will be times we need help understanding the written Word and for those times we have access to the Holy Spirit of the Living God who does understand all and is available to counsel us (John 14:16). As we grow in our knowledge of our God, so we will grow in our ability to actively trust in the strength of our God and what a sweet place of rest that is to find ourselves in by being able to stand firm while we face every situation head-on, knowing that we are empowered and protected by the One who has gone before us preparing the way!