A Story of Trust

It has been two and a half years since I have last had the heart to write. I don’t know about ya’ll, but sometimes life sucks. I look back on these last years and see growth and joy, but I can’t deny that I still feel the engraved etchings of pain, hurt, and confusion that the past has left on my soul. I can't deny the confusion I sometimes still feel at the Lord's working, but I doubt I am alone. I fear that despair and depression have not been unfamiliar flavors for a lot of my fellow teenagers and twenty-somethings. 

          

I hope that I may share with you a story of trust, a foothold to place your hope in. If you would, gird up your loins and pick up your faith again from the ashes with me.

Once there lived a man, born into a world of confusion and brokenness. I’m sure he heard stories from people- Abram was only a few generations away from the unified world order and stability that Babel represented. Yet he had his family were wanderers who had at one time purposed to make it to the land of Canaan but were beleaguered in Haran. It was at this time that the Lord- the Creator, the God of Noah- seemingly shows up. His promise to Abram was profound:

“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Genesis 12:1-2

There is no distinct reason for the Lord’s action, besides divine election. God simply chose Abram, while he was a wanderer and little of note, and promised to make of him a nation, a people, a home- complete with all the benefits thereof: stability, peace, blessing, and hope. What’s more important is the response of trust. Abram trusted God enough to take Him up on the offer of a crazy adventure, and as a result the world has received the greatest boon it has ever known. But being himself a man the same as us, Abram never saw the whole picture! Abram’s life on earth was filled with times of doubt, disbelief, rejection of the promise, confusion, hurt, and suffering. It had ups and downs, blessings and hang-ups. Abram became Abraham, his family and possessions grew large. But even after Sarah died, Abram took another wife and had a ton of children, which doesn’t seem like a ton of faith in God’s specified promise. God promised through the unbelievable- through Issac, the natural offspring of one who had once been the tragedy of Sarai, barren among women. Issac was the means of God’s promise, and he was a miracle just tangible enough for a man to place all his hope in.

What a horror, then, to be torn between faith and hope. Certainly true faith in the Lord always entails the most joyful of hopes. But this hope was the tangible desire, the longing, and the love of a father for his son. Abraham had believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that God’s promise was going to take place by means of Issac, but then he was forced to cope with the idea of life with God’s promise without the tangible direction he desired it to take. Do you see what I’m getting at? I am certain that Abraham’s story is not altogether far off from the stories we lead today. We often lift our fists against heaven simply because our hopes do not fall in line with the faith God wants us to have.
            

In our lives today, “God’s will” is fairly open. His promise is sure and it can be trusted. In the meantime, we are busy about our adventuresome lives- enjoying them, and seeking the Lord’s will in them: conforming to His image and making disciples. But oh, to be able to see with God’s eyes, and to see our promise fulfilled! Would that Abraham could have seen the promise as even we can today. But these dreams miss the point of faith. I can’t tell you why God desires to work by the means of faith and intangible promise. I can't fully explain why there is so much suffering in the world. But we live by faith and not by sight- and without faith, there is not much of a story.

“But the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be the heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith… That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring- not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’- in the presence of God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations… That is why his faith was ‘counted to him as righteousness.’ But the words ‘it was counted to him’ were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in Him who rasied from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”             Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22-25

Dear Christian, God has chosen you. It wasn't for any particular reason- in your sinfulness you're not very attractive- but it was because He loves you tremendously. It’s not always about how your story is going to go, or how it is going to end. It’s not about which path to take, and wishing back that you had taken a different path from the one you did. It is all about having the faith to put you’re hope in God, even when trials come… or when the tangible option that was your hope suddenly vanishes into the mystery of God’s sovereign will. These trials will surely come, it’s totally how God works! It’s up to you to decide whether or not to take up your faith, to put your hope in God, and to praise God even in their midst of difficult trust.

Try this one on for size: the Lord gave Abram a part of the picture before He died.
            

“Then the Lord said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgement on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out will great possessions.”         Genesis 15:13-14

Why did they have to go through that? I cannot fully say. But I believe in God's bigger picture. King David continually praised the Lord and demonstrated faith despite his life that was full of confusion and anguish:  

“The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King forever.” Psalm 29:10
“For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble, He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock.” Psalm 27:5

“The Lord is the strength of His people; He is the saving refuge of His anointed.” Psalm 28:8

Our God of mercy has given us the treasure of hope within the frailty of our lives. But a curious part of His nature is that He likes to make your frailty known to you and others for the sake of emphasizing the treasure that you carry.

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.”                     2 Corinthians 4:7-11

I know from experience that despair, depression, and heartache is real. But can you believe with me that it only lasts for a night? That joy comes in the morning? The Lord will swiftly fly to your comfort, and He works through pain for your good.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.…He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.”                2 Corinthians 1:3-6, 10

The Lord loves you, reader, so very dearly. It won’t always be easy, but I encourage you to trust in Him with faith, hope, and joy. He is so worth it.