Trusting God When Trust Is Difficult

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"--If, Rudyard Kipling

If a pillar’s going to fall it will be this one. It’s the easiest target for Satan to shoot at. Three words will do it, “Didn’t God say…” It’s the same three words the Tempter used in the wilderness, “Didn’t God say…” It’s those three words that spring to mind when as we wrestle with trust in God.

Didn’t God say ‘by His stripes you are healed?’ So why are you still sick, why is she dying of cancer, why does your child have special needs? Didn’t God say He would meet all your needs? Then why are your finances a wreck? The attacks come, fiery darts piercing the darkness. With tired and shaky arms we lift the shield of faith. We seek to imitate Christ’s example and quote scripture in context. All the while the fight is to believe the character of God despite the groans of this world.

It would be easy to jot down some simplistic solutions to solidify trust in God. At the center of each issue and the core of each question is the person of Christ. “ For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words,” it says in Romans. So it is in the seeking solace in Christ that we cry for understanding at a level beyond mental processing. Then we wait for the Spirit to meet us with word and assurance.

As our head hits the pillow rest comes in knowing the pillar still stands. It is trust that we cling to, “keeping your head when all about you are losing theirs.” It is the waiting, the holding on and the pressing on that will prove out trust in the long run. Longsuffering is the old word which describes well the night but it is written elsewhere ‘Joy cometh in the morning.’