One of the core instructions throughout the Bible is to wholly trust in God. This instruction gets to the heart of following him; do we believe that God is good and that he can (and will) do what is best – or can we make a better future for ourselves?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
As you read through the scriptures, it is clear that this is an all or nothing decision. Trust in God is often contrasted with trusting in other things – ourselves, other people, and created objects.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
Psalm 20:7 ESV
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Psalm 118:8-9 ESV
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
Cursed is the man who trusts in man
Jeremiah 17:5a ESV
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
Yet sadly, our heart seem inclined to turn from trusting God, and the more knowledge and technology we gain, the more likely we are to turn to those things.
In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians.
2 Chronicles 16:12 ESV
In Jerusalem he [King Uzziah] made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.
2 Chronicles 26:15-16a ESV
But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.
What does trusting in God look like today, with more knowledge and technology than ever before? How do we trust in a God we don’t “see” when we can get an answer to almost any question from ChatGPT?
I need to constantly remember that though it seems we can control almost every aspect of our lives, we’re just one phone call or prognosis away from a radically altered life.
In light of this, we must daily (or even hourly) remember our fragility, the fact that we are a mist – here today and gone tomorrow. And yet, also remember the promise that when we trust in God, we will not be shaken.
Trust in the Lord forever,
Isaiah 26:4 ESV
for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.