Measuring Trust

July 17th, 2016 Posted in writing

We print “In God We Trust” on our paper money and inscribe it on our coins. But if we wish to have a genuine measure of how deep our trust in God is, we should look at who and what we entrust to God.

Opportunities to entrust people and things to God come in many circumstances and on many occasions. We entrust our children to God at their baptism and continue to pray for their safety each day. When we discover our most important loves, relationships and dreams we can place these, too, into God’s hands. When we gather as a community for the funeral of someone we have loved, then along with our grieving, we try to entrust them to the love and care of the One who created them. Finally, we can entrust ourselves into God’s care like Jesus, who said on the cross, “Into Your hands I commend my spirit.”

So, the measure of our trust in God is not what we put on our money but our willingness, with God’s grace, to entrust ourselves, our loves and our hopes to the God who promises to protect and watch over them, and us, forever.

It would be wonderful if we could do this all at once and with ease. But the truth is that we have a difficult time learning to put people or things into God’s hands. We persuade ourselves that we’re powerful enough or smart enough or talented enough to protect what we love without God’s help. Or we may think that if we put our loves into God’s care then we should no longer feel love and attachment to them. But that’s a mistake, for entrusting them to God is in itself an act of love for them and brings them closer to us and us to them.

Sometime this week, ask yourself, “Who or what have I entrusted to God? Who or what do I presently need to entrust to him?”

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