Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
January 14, 2007 - W0702

Trust is one key of faith. Have you ever believed what someone said yet didn’t really trust them? 

One example of believing and not trusting happened in 1890. A famous tightrope walker named Blondin, walked across Niagara Falls with a wheelbarrow filled with sand. When he asked the crowd if they believed he could walk across again with a person inside the wheelbarrow they all yelled, “Yes!” Yet when he asked for a volunteer, everyone fell silent. Though they believed him they didn’t trust him. And many times our past experiences make us skeptical even though someone may be trustworthy. To believe is the first step, then…

TRUST IS PUTTING WHAT YOU BELIEVE INTO ACTION.

Trust is a key to our faith as Abraham exampled in Genesis. Abraham BELIEVED God’s promise that his wife, Sarah would bear him a child although he was a hundred years old.  Abraham understood that to be a person of faith, he had to be a person of trust. “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Gal. 3:6). However, since trust is learning to put belief into action it’s not always easy to do for even Abraham struggled with that at first.

“I will bless [Sarah}, and indeed I will give you a son by her…Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old?  And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”  (Gen. 17:16-17) Abraham believed God but reasoned that since Sarah’s handmaiden was young, it made more sense to father a child through her and thus Hagar conceived a son, Ishmael. As a result, it brought problems to his family that continues to this day. Ishmael warred with his own people throughout history. Though Abraham believed God, he didn’t trust him. After all, how could a woman 90 years old bear a child? However, Abraham soon learned that trust was something that had to be developed for Sarah indeed gave birth to Isaac.

And so it is the same for us. We must not only believe His promises, we must trust God even though we don’t understand the process. How do we do that? Here are some guidelines to go by. The first is:

1.      TRUST IN HIS WAYS.

Just believing in God’s promises isn’t enough. Even the demons believe in God, but it doesn’t mean they trust Him. Trust God means taking an action that shows we believe what He says, what He promises. In fact, when we don’t trust God, it impedes His blessings for us. On the other hand, when we trust God, we cooperate with Him and the Bible says: “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things…the ways of the Lord are right…” (Hos. 14:9).

                        TRUST IS THE ACTION PART OF FAITH.

Of course it’s not always easy to trust and at first our action may not feel right, but it doesn’t mean it is wrong. It’s like learning to surf or golf. Every sport requires a certain posture that may feel awkward at first. However, as our skills develop, the position begins to feels right. It’s the same with trusting God. Our faith develops over time by trusting in His way until it feels right because…

·        HIS WORD IS WORTHY OF OUR TRUST.

When we believe in someone our actions will show that we trust that person. Somehow we will act on that belief. The book of Matthew depicts the enormous faith of a centurion. He believed that Jesus could heal his sick servant by speaking a word and it would be done.  The centurion’s act of faith amazed Jesus that He commended him and said: “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel’” (Matt. 8:10).

Of course, there will be difficult decisions to make that can cloud the moment and challenge our actions like that of a single mother whose son was going off to college. She felt like changing her $250 tithe check so she could give it to her son. Nevertheless, she trusted God’s word and gave her tithe. Later her son called from the airport and said the flight had been cancelled. On top of the airlines rescheduling his flight, they gave each passenger a voucher for $300 towards a future flight. This son was equipped with an enormous trust in God even in the midst of their financial difficulties. His faith increased exponentially by his mother’s trust in God’s word.

There are times when we hesitate because we wonder if God’s way will work. Our emotions will war against our best interest all the time. When this happens, please remember this principle: 

2.      GO BY WHAT YOU KNOW, NOT BY WHAT YOU FEEL.

Our faith is shown by how we change our actions to match God’s word, even when we don’t FEEL like it. The question is will we make that choice even though everything in us is fighting against what we know is the right decision?

God tested Abraham’s faith. He knew how much Abraham loved Isaac and asked him to sacrifice his son.  “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took…Isaac his son…and went to the place of which God had told him”.  (Gen. 22:3) No doubt it must have been difficult for Abraham to trust God, yet he went by what he knew and not by his feelings. And that is why Abraham is called the “father of our faith” because he not only believed. He acted on his trust in God.

Faith is belief and trust in God. And that’s the kind of faith that will move mountains in your life and mine this year – a whole faith not a half faith. How often do we believe God instead of trusting God, we do things our way. Then when all the “Ishmael’s” arise and cause all sorts of problems, we wonder why.

“He who gives attention to the word will find good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord” (Prov. 16:20).

The Lord says for me to love my wife as Christ loves the church. Yet there are times I don’t want to love her that way. In fact, one time when I was upset with her the Lord said to speak words of love to her. I said to the Lord, when she deserves it, I’ll let her know. Have you ever been reprimanded by God? Well, the Lord told me to knock it off and as Ephesians 5 says “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing her with water through the word…” (Eph. 5:25-26) In other words, God says to speak His words not based on what we feel or what we think someone deserves. And in doing so, we not only believe in God, we are trusting that His word is trustworthy and in doing so His resources are released and can change any situation. When we understand that faith is not just believing but trusting that His word never changes – even with just a pinch of that kind of faith, we are able to move mountains.

Yet what about the times when our emotions just drop out – we don’t feel like being married, we won’t feel like worshipping or serving God. What about that? What if we feel like bailing out?

What should we do?

3.      WHEN IT IS DARK, TRUST IN THE LORD!

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding”.  (Prov. 3:5) If we don’t, our God will only be as big as our understanding. And God is a whole like bigger than the stuff we are going through.

“In God We Trust” is stamped on every coin in America and it came from this verse in a time of war: “In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.  What can man do to me?” (Ps. 56:11) It was a statement of stalwart trust in God therefore, it brings protection and providence. And when we believe and trust our God, the Bible says: “Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides forever”.  (Ps. 125:1)

Let me finish with a quote from Corrie Ten Boom. She and her parents helped the Jews escape Nazi persecution in Poland during WWII. And when the Nazi’s found out they were aiding the Jews, her parents were persecuted and she and her sister were placed in a concentration camp. Her sister eventually died of malnutrition and disease and she was the only one from her family who survived the imprisonment. She wrote about that darkness in her book, “Hiding Place”. When many men and women of faith were bailing out and giving up she said to those with that reasoning, “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, do you throw away your ticket, do you jump off the train? No, you trust the engineer.”

There will be times when we will go through some pretty dark tunnels and can’t see beginning or end. Don’t throw away the ticket or jump off the train – trust the engineer. And when we do, even a little bit of faith will be able to move mountains and  the Lord gives His highest commendation. Let us be that kind of people who not only believes, but trusts the Lord with all our hearts.

TRUST IS WHAT FAITH IS ALL ABOUT!!

DISCUSSION ITEMS

Q1: Give an example of someone you believed in but didn’t really trust.  Why didn’t you trust that person?

Q2: Who is the most trustworthy person in your life and why?

Q3:  If you are living the consequences of an event where you failed to trust God’s way, how can you look to the future with hope?

Q4: What tests of faith have you faced that helped you to develop your trust in God?

Q5: Besides Abraham, can you think of others in the Bible who has learned to trust God?

Q6: Are you facing a ‘dark’ moment where doing the right thing doesn’t feel like it will turn out right?  Where can you find the strength to do what is right, by God’s ways?