I’m not sure how you think you came into existing. While God tells us how He did it in the bible, there are various thoughts on how that happened. Today I’m not touching on that issue, so let’s stay on topic. Because I want to consider how we trust God or not; how we exercise faith, or not.

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Hebrews 11:3

I was told at college that faith is an interesting concept: you can have faith in a chair – that it will not collapse when you sit on it; you can have faith in the floor – that it will not open up beneath our feet. Those are things we can see, touch, and feel.

So what about things that we can not see? What about the wind?

We can’t see it, but we can feel its affects. We can have faith that that [unseen] wind will push a sail boat across the local duck pond, even though we can’t actually ‘see’ the wind, because we see the wind itself – only the effects of it when it is blowing.

What’s that got to do with me?

In life we start off very innocent – a child instinctively trusts those who are taller than them (which is why I always sit on the floor, as often possible – when speaking with children).

For the same reason children can quickly land themselves in trouble because they can not see the same dangers as those older and wiser (and with more knocks and bumps) than they yet have.

Over time they will learn, often by mistakes, what works and what doesn’t. And that is why you don’t have to tell a child how to eat – that’s something they pick up rather rapidly!

And, just like that child learning to walk, or tying a shoelace, we learn much by both the mistakes and successes we make.

Thankfully, God does not desire for us to learn faith by making mistakes:

• He is the only one we can fully, consistently and reliably trust.
• He does not trick us – that is not in His nature.
• He will not entice us – that is a ploy of the devil.
• He will not guilt us into doing something – emotional blackmail is the ploy of a narcissist, not a loving Heavenly Father.

If God is asking you to do something, then you can fully trust Him; that with Him you will be able to accomplish what He is asking of you.

Where we get frustrated with God, it’s most often because we place our own poor imitation copy over that of God’s original masterpiece. That’s when it tends to wrong fast, with us finger pointing at God when we’ve actually just wandered off the path God laid out before us.

He guides us. He doesn’t push us.

Andy B