When Trusting God Feels Hard
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6, CSB)
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I walked down the stairs and heard three little voices yell in unison, “But Dad, you promised!” Six brown eyes were staring at me, shocked and hurt that I had broken my promise to them. I had promised them the day before that I would take them out on a “dad date” to eat at our favorite pizza spot and grab some ice cream afterward. But the promise I made the day before was no longer possible the day after. As I looked at my kids’ faces, I saw something that broke my heart, because I realized I had broken their trust.
Broken trust has a way of breaking relationships. It leaves us intimately aware of our vulnerability because we took the risk of relying on someone else. I once learned that the English word “vulnerable” comes from the Latin vulnare and has in mind the reality of being willingly placed in a position of potential for wounding. I hate this. And yet, vulnerability is the prerequisite to intimacy. Having confidence in intimate relationships within a marriage, siblings, family, and close friends is incredibly beautiful. Until the wounding happens. Then trust is shattered.
It often makes us question what we believed and if we should have ever trusted that person in the first place. If we are the ones who broke trust we may face the guilt of hurting someone’s feelings. All of this has a direct impact on our relationship with God.
Often, our human-to-human relationships frame and inform our relationship with God.
We think, “Well, my trust has been broken before with people so why wouldn’t it be the same with God?”
But friends, it’s not the same with God. In fact, it’s very different. In our relationship with God,
God never breaks His promises because if He did, He would cease to be God.
In Proverbs 3:5-6 we are given the imperative (command) to trust in the Lord with all our heart. There are two Hebrew words that start this verse that we should pay close attention to. The first word is “trust/ bā·ṭǎḥ” This Hebrew word has to do with a type of confidence that comes from reliance rooted in a feeling of security. The second word is “heart/ lēḇ” and for the ancient Israelites, this was the wellspring of volition. Today when we hear about the “heart” we may think of emotions and affection. But for the Israelites, the heart was where both affection and intellect resided.
So, what is this Proverb starting out with? A command to experience the confidence that comes from reliance on God through our wholehearted (intellectual and emotional) commitment to Him. The confidence we can be assured of that comes from trusting in God is rooted in the faithfulness of God. God keeps his promises. He delivers on what he says he will do. If you’ve ever wondered if this is actually true. That God actually follows through on his promises, a quick point of reference can be the fact that there are close to 300 prophecies regarding Jesus in the Old Testament. When you trace these prophecies (some may call them future promises) we find in the New Testament that all of them were fulfilled (insert mind-blown emoji).
All of this to say, with confidence - God is a promise-keeper.
But something very important for us to remember is that God works and acts based on His will, not ours. The next phrase of Proverbs 3:5 warns us not to lean on our own understanding. Our understanding is limited and finite. It is imperfect and flawed. But God’s wisdom is unlimited and infinite, perfect and flawless. Friends, this is good news! It means we can truly experience safety and security through a reliable trust in God.
Horne, Charles, and Julius Bewer. The Bible and Its Story: The Prophets, Isaiah to Ezekiel. Vol. 7. New York, NY: Francis R. Niglutsch, 1909.