Faith and trust are different.
Faith believes while trust acts…
I could believe in who HE was but I could not anchor down in a way to believe He would/will do as He says.
Have you struggled with minding the gap in believing He will do what He says?
Truth? From me to you?!? Lacking in TRUST has been the bedrock of my own demise.
For where there is no trust in Him there is no relinquishment of control. In short, a failure to submit.
Have you lived out loud that reality?! Lack of trust?
The dichotomy in reality.
When the world teaches that we will be let down, promises broken , words unkept, we develop an internal system that programs our minds into believing that God is the same way.
What we learn in the world, we take and compare it to God. Though the world is fallen and twisted (if that’s all we know) that is the only standard by which we measure our Creator.
Until we internally (heart level) believe that we are able to fully receive in the understanding that God is the Creator of the world and that He truly loves and cares for us, there’s NO HOPE in accepting His standard of measure.
“Do not be conformed to the patterns of this world but be transformed into the renewing of your mind.”
Romans 12:2
We first have to anchor down somewhere to even begin the process of renewing our minds.
Where do we anchor down?
LOVE. We anchor down in His love.
First we have to come to a place of understanding in our entire being that with God we are fully, unconditionally loved.
It says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son for us” (John 3:16). We can see and read that scripture, but UNTIL our own “being” owns it as TRUTH, there’s no hope.
HOPE comes when our confidence in Jesus is accepted within ourselves.
Accepting Jesus is the pathway to peace.
Accepting Jesus becomes our doorway to inheriting the promises to believing the TRUTH.
And the TRUTH is that God truly has chosen us to be His family. His children, His coworker, His companion.
Holding our FAITH (belief) in that God truly desires us for His very own unlocks the kingdom doors in to His world where we begin the action of TRUST.
Trust is the actionable state in which we show we believe God at His word.
Trust becomes the willingness to submit to His ways – it’s the beginning of willing obedience. Trust voluntariotly releases the need for control. Its an acknowledgement that He and His ways are greater than that by which we can do alone.
God is the kingdom keeper. We have to unlearn everything we learned in the world and start again in our heart, mind and body, taking as truth what He says about us.
As we begin to make Him our standard of truth, we have found a position in which we can stand firm, walking our what He tells us to do, “proving what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
WHAT DID THE WORLD TEACH ME? (Which would obviously be in opposition to His kingdom rule?)
- Don’t admit weakness – I’ll be taken advantage of if my weak spot is known.
- If something bad happens, don’t talk about it INSTEAD COVER IT UP.
- If I tell the truth, I’ll just be called a liar anyway so why bother. RUN AWAY OR LIE.
- If I fail, I’ll never get ahead. SO DON’T TRY UNLESS I KNOW THAT I CAN WIN.
- Overtime and paid holidays get me ahead. DON’T WORK FOR FREE, OVERWORK AT WHATEVER EXPENSE.
- When life gets overwhelming ignore it NUMB OUT or RUN AWAY.
- Achievements, awards, and perfection will get me recognition, recognition will make me valued.
- Console myself if something goes wrong; find my own path of relief DENY the hardship and vulnerability.
- If I want something done right, better do it myself DON’T DELEGATE.
- If I admit there’s a problem, then the problem will follow me my whole life IGNORE IT.
- I’m nothing special; if I make myself fully known to you, I would only disappoint you anyway, so why bother getting close. Besides, you will judge me and condemn me and you think that I am completely screwed up AND I will agree with you so KEEP A SAFE DISTANCE.
- Try only things that I can succeed at because public failure is a disgrace.
- If I do something you don’t like/disapprove of, I will be disowned
- If I make you happy, you will not pick on or criticize me.
- If I make a mistake, Ill be an idiot. If I admit a mistake we’ll all know that I am an idiot.
Do these things sound familiar to your own self sabotage? Are these familiar lies that you’ve told and believed too?
This kind of thinking is far from God’s truth. The world’s thinking is built in lies – lies of the devil.
But these fundamental lies make up our “being,” which unless refuted by redemptive truths (at our very core level of doubt) will always overshadow us, keeping us bonded to the darkness of our flesh and this world…
“For what I am doing I do not understand. For what I will do that I do not practice but what I hate I do.”
Romans 15:7
Unless we renew our thinking into God’s TRUTH, we remain anchored in deception, double dealing between two kingdoms, vacillating between two masters – making us at best impulsive, fickle, indecisive, shifty…
We will remain caught in the “snare of the devil,” with the above such thinking.
And we will bring into fruition what we believe – because in what we believe, we will put our confidence into, and where our confidence is we will place our hope for care and control.
In our hope we stand to protect to yield to all costs.
In our hope, we are secure.
Our “individual must be postponed in the name of the higher ideal” (Plato the Republic.)