Intentional Trust

My grandmother gave me one piece of advice before I got married.  “When you don’t feel like doing the loving thing, do it anyway and the loving feeling will follow.”

This is great marriage, or any relationship, advice, but I recently realized the principle applies to trusting God also.  We trust God when we are feeling good, when things are going our way, when it’s working out like we want it to.  As Sarah Young says in Jesus Calling, “This type of trust flows readily within you, requiring no exertion of your will.”  

But what about the bad times?  Then it’s harder to trust because we can’t see things working out to our benefit. Young challenges us:  “When things go wrong, your trust-flow slows down and solidifies.  You are forced to choose between trusting Me intentionally or rebelling, resenting My ways with you.”  This is true for me. I start questioning everything when things are bad. That trust flow solidifies, as she says.  

It’s hard to intentionally choose to continue trusting in that case because you are doing it with no benefit to yourself.  At least nothing visible.  You have to trust that it’s good when it seems it’s not.  Think of Abraham taking Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him.  Think of the Israelites walking straight into the Red Sea.  Think of Ruth sticking with Naomi. Think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego standing up, knowing they would get thrown in the fire.  Think of Daniel praying openly when he knew the penalty.  And then think of Jesus walking straight into Jerusalem when He knew it meant His death.

These were people choosing to trust intentionally.  They didn’t resent God’s way.  They had a faith and a hope that God would do the right thing even when it looked very bad for them personally.  I’m praying God helps me trust Him intentionally, even when that trust has solidified and stopped.