Faith and Trust

Heard a guy say something very interesting the other night. He was speaking about human relationships and business, but I related it to God... Here's what He said.-- "We have to live by faith for a while, because TRUST takes time."

Wow.

And again I say, wow.

Let's think about this in human relationships. If you are a person that I enter into some sort of relationship with, maybe some sort of business relationship, I would have to live on faith, or hope, for a while, that what you told me was true, that what you said you were going to do, you did, and when you said you were going to pay me, you did, etc. etc.

But eventually, after some period of time, my faith would turn into trust, if you came through for me on a continual basis, consistently, over and over and over.

Then, I wouldn't be living by faith any more, ...eventually, I would be living by trust. My faith would have turned into trust.

This is the logical progression in relationships. Healthy ones, anyways. This is the natural progression, it is the way God designed it to work. This is how relationships are formed.


The more I get to know the Lord, the more I find out that He has set things up the way they are for a very good reason, even though we have trouble seeing it a lot of the time now while we are still so young. The point here being that he tells us we're going to have to live by faith for a very good reason. And I'm hoping to possibly explain some of that reason here.

So here's the gig. We are born into this world, with no sense of God, or connection to Him in any conscious sense, until some point in our lives, when he intercepts us, and we get to meet Him. We think this is just the greatest thing since sliced bread, and want to tell everyone else about it, and rejoice in it, but often make the mistake of thinking that that is the goal. When in reality, that is just the very beginning.

So we enter into the scene called "christianity", where we find other people who have had this same type of experience, and one of the first things we discover, from those who have been doing it already for some time, is that we have to "live by faith". In God. And most of us just sort of accept this is true, because God says so, without ever stopping to think about WHY this might be true. WHY would he tell us that we had to live by faith for a while??

IT'S BECAUSE WE HAVE NOT YET LEARNED TO TRUST HIM. Because trust takes time. BUT ONCE WE BEGIN TO SEE HIM FAITHFUL TO US, OVER AND OVER AND OVER, AND OVER AGAIN, THROUGHOUT THE YEARS, THROUGH THICK AND THROUGH THIN, NO MATTER WHAT COMES OUR WAY, FOR REAL...

WE BEGIN TO LEARN TO TRUST HIM.

AND TRUST IS THE DOORWAY INTO LOVE.

I've got news for you people. I DO NOT THINK THAT FAITH IS FOREVER. Faith is for now, because we are all so young, and such beginners, and He knows it's what we need in order to survive for a while. BUT EVENTUALLY, YOUR FAITH IS GOING TO TURN INTO TRUST. And that will lead you to love.

"Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease;whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

And now abide faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love."