When Trust Isn't Really Trust

Sooooo.....we've been talking about FEAR in our Sunday School Class the last couple of weeks. In our group of a dozen or so participants we have every fear imaginable ....loss of family, car accidents, death, not being needed, being out of God's will, messing up this whole parenting thing, frogs.

Yep, in the middle of many could be life altering fears...frogs. That's mine.

Seriously? Why are you so afraid of those disgusting, gross, slimy, wart giving, pee-on-the-spot, nasty  animals? Well, because very early in my life a frog was placed in my hands. It was the ugliest, nastiest looking thing and it must have felt how I was feeling about it and it peed all over my hand. Disgusting. So since then it's not just the feel of the frog or the fear of being peed on, it's the whole experience that I am afraid of. Touching, petting, catching, chasing, holding....ain't gonna happen. I'm afraid.

It's a good thing we have a couple of therapists in our group. (Funny...but true)

In the middle of our lesson this past week our teacher asked us, what could we do to counteract the fear. The class chimed in "TRUST, think about your past experiences, believe God's Word." My answer: "avoid frogs." And pretty much I'm good with my answer. Only, I'm pretty sure that while it's comical to deal with my greatest fear of frogs, I don't think God wants us to live our lives paralyzed by fear of anything....especially the serious issues many of us have trouble trusting Him with.

In fact TRUST is one of the things most of us struggle with. Trusting each other, trusting God, trusting the government, trusting our spouse. Trusting is a huge part of our emotional make-up. But somewhere along the line I've misconstrued what trust is really all about. So many times I've made a decision and because I had rationalized it out, worked the dynamics of the whole situation out, budgeted the finances for it, mulled over every jot and tittle and it all worked out...I'd say proudly that I was stepping out by faith, trusting God to provide, depending on Him to lead me....when in reality that wasn't really trust at all..I'd already told God how this and that were going to work together to get me exactly where I wanted to be. And hopefully it would look like I was trusting God. But it didn't.

But in recent days, I'm figuring out, with God's Word as the guide, that TRUST is more an act of obedience and less an act of me knowing what the next step is. Trust means believing that what God is asking you to do is going to glorify (make Him known) the most. Without knowing the next step...without figuring it out...without knowing how it's all going to work out. It's obeying because He says this is the next thing, the next step, the next way you can glorify ME best.

So I'm learning in this process of sanctification that the old hymn is true...

Trust and Obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, 
But to trust and obey.