Trust in Deed, Not Just In Words…

This year I have been going through Dallas Willard’s (and if you are not acquainted with Dr. Willard you need to be!) Hearing God: Through the Year. It takes his book Hearing God and converts it into a daily devotional with reflections. This was the reflection I read today, as Dr. Willard talked about the story of Jesus healing the Centurion’s servant in Luke 7:

“Whom have you known whose word you have trusted implicitly? If they said they would show up, you knew they would – even if it looked as if they wouldn’t. Imagine having such trust in God, believing that he will show up, no matter what. If you trusted God that much, how would your life be different? What would you stop doing? Start doing differently?” (Dallas Willard, Hearing God: Through the Year, reading 161, c.2004 InterVaristy Press, Downer’s Grove, IL)

You can possibly imagine the internal discord questions like this might stir up in my soul! Do I trust God to show up no matter what? Well of course I do! I am a pastor after all!

If this were a text message, we could all follow that up with “LOL!”

I am sure that most of you feel my pain here – we often claim to trust God, but when we examine how we actually live day to day, it tells another story.

The centurion in Luke 7 did not trust Jesus with just lip service, but his whole demeanor toward Jesus indicates to us that he had no doubts Jesus could heal the dying servant just by speaking the word. “"Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed.” (Luke 7:6b-7).

How often do we, by comparison, live like practical atheists? Now please do not get offended – because I can assure you that when I am pointing one finger, three more point back at me. It is easy to do, because our de facto modus operandi is to simply trust in ourselves. Most of us have not been trained to listen for and obey God’s voice throughout the moments of our day. We don’t think of Him being present or even interested as we go through our day, and thus we go along until all of sudden we REALLY need Him, and then of course we are on our knees in desperation, which of course does not offend God, because Hebrews refers to His throne (with regard to prayer) not as the throne of judgment, but the throne of grace (Heb 4:16)!

But I am sure there is a better way to go about the day. And it involves trusting Him moment by moment. I wonder do we trust His word implicitly? Because when I examine my day to day life, I do not always act in ways that indicate I trust Him more than I trust me. When the bank account seems a little low, do I trust Him to show up, or do I suddenly fret about how much work on computers I can bring in (for those of you who may read this and not know me personally I also own a small computer and networking business)? When one of my children is making some bad choices, do I turn to my own ways of dealing with it, or do I seek God’s wisdom on how to handle the situation (hint: my way also seems to default toward anger and control, and His way always seems to move toward grace and love)?

Let me challenge us all with a rephrasing of Dr. Willard’s question: “If we trusted God as much as He can be trusted (which is completely), how would our lives be different? What would we stop doing? Start doing differently?”