Trust – What Does This Mean?

“You will have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)

In a previous post, we considered what it means to have a god. What it really is all about, Martin Luther tells us, is who or what are you going to trust. As Christians, we know that well. After all, the Holy Spirit planted trust — faith — in our hearts. So, we love God. We also remember that God is holy and know that sin has its consequences. So, we respect and fear him too. What challenges us is the “above all things” part.

There are many precious things that claim a place in our hearts. We love our spouses. We love our children. Perhaps we love our country, our home, our hobbies or possessions. These are great blessings that do have a proper place in our lives. The trouble comes when they compete with God. We can easily come to invest a trust in them. We build our lives around them, invest time and money in them. It is easy to come to trust them as much if not more than God.

The problem is that, no matter how precious these things are, they cannot bear the weight of our trust. Spouses and children become ill and die. Our nation may turn on us and make us choose between it and God. Possessions break, fade away and are lost. The only thing that endures forever is God’s word. God made the world by his word, his Word became flesh and lived with us. His suffering, death and resurrection earned for us forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Because he lives forever, we know that we will rise to live with him forever.

So we fear, love and trust God above all others. Then other blessings fall into their proper place as we thank God for them. This love and trust, then, in turn, leads to obey the rest of the commands as well.

Encore Post: It had been a long day. Jesus had just fed the five thousand. The people had tried to grab him and make him king, so they would always have bread. He sent the disciples ahead, while He went to a mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-60)

The apostles worked hard all night to row against the wind. As professional fishermen that worked at night, they were very familiar with this kind of labor. Yet this night was particularly difficult. What they did not expect was to meet someone walking on the whitecaps.

So, when they saw Jesus coming, that was the last straw. They thought Jesus was a ghost. When Jesus told them who he was, they were no longer afraid.

Peter, who was known to rush in where angels fear to tread, asked Jesus to call on him to walk on the water to meet the Lord. (Matthew 14:28-31) When Jesus called Peter, the disciple walked on the water. As long as he focused on Jesus, he was fine. The moment he focused on the wind and the waves, he began to sink. It was all a member of trust. Peter called out to Jesus to save him. Jesus pulled Peter out of the water. Jesus scolded his star pupil for his lack of faith.

When Jesus returned to the boat, the wind stopped. The disciples then worshipped Jesus as God.

We should be careful how critically we view Peter. We like to think we have everything under control, especially in areas we are experts. When events demonstrate we really are not in control, we panic rather than trust God. To us God says “do not be afraid.” He cares for us now and forever.

Tag: Trust

Fear, Love and Trust God

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