Trust

As an American citizen living in a suburb of Michigan with a Walmart just within driving distance, I am extremely blessed and privileged. That sentence alone covers just about every basic need I have. I don't have to worry about where my food will come from, where I will sleep tonight, whether my family will be safe, or even how to get an education.

And you know what? I trust God for all of it.

Sounds pretty grand of me. That's like a level 316 Christian statement. I should take a trip to Israel or start a devotional Instagram account now (you know, because my devotional life is different than my real life, but that's another blog for another time).

But really, we make statements like this all the time, and they're slightly ridiculous. Have you ever seen a mob movie where someone brings in a suitcase full of money, sets it on the table, and the mob boss says, "I don't know if I trust these guys to follow through on this money sitting right here"? No! So why then, when we vocalize our "trust in God," do we default to trusting Him merely for everything we can go home and find in our houses already?

I've questioned myself on this for a few weeks now, actually, and this Sunday I figured it out. I think my life is too complicated for God's provision. The Bible says not to worry about our clothes, our food, or our homes because God cares for all of His creation. He provides for the birds and the grass, but what about us? What about our medical expenses? What animal has those? Or the electric bill after you've been laid off? What about that credit card debt? Is the grass of the fields living paycheck to paycheck as well? What about where I'm going with my life? What about these new ideals and cultural shifts? What did the birds do with those?

As Matthew 6:25-34 states,

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Sometimes, as Christians, we bring our problems to God, but fail to really trust Him to provide. We pick through our struggles and realize how the Bible never mentioned this, or that. But it is through this mistrust that we harm our own faith. To question God’s nature of provision overtime is ultimately to suggest to ourselves that the Bible IS dated, and there is a “relevancy” expiration date on the New Testament. Sure, maybe the writers of the Bible never anticipated our world evolving like it has, but God absolutely did.

No matter what time we live in or the struggles we have, we are instructed to not worry about the tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Like the Israelites trusting God for the manna and quail, we should stand firm and confident in the knowledge that God has provided for us TODAY, and will do so again tomorrow.

This week, let's all reflect on what areas of our lives we thought were too complicated for God, and put our trust somewhere it can actually do something.

Written by: Brianna Vanderveen

Edited by: Tamara Sturdivant