“Worry is the antithesis of trust. You simply cannot do both. They are mutually exclusive.”
-Elisabeth Elliot
We cannot simulateously worry and trust God, they are diabolical opposites.
While many things in life are a both/and, worry and trust are not one: simply an either/or, always.
A surrendered will, the thing God has been teaching me so much about over the last year, is not a will that is anxious. A surrendered will, when given up as a love offering and not by force, is a will that is choosing something outside of oneself.
For the Christian, it is a willful choosing to believe the character of God as revealed in his Word.
You cannot trust one whom you do not know. And you cannot know one whom you have not spent time with. That is true for any and all relationships.
God's Holy Word is our key to knowing him. We cannot know that he is loving and kind and honest and right and holy and long-suffering and majestic and patient and compassionate and alive if we don't get to know him through his Word. We won't know his Word unless we invest our minds and hearts and time in it. It is a matter of discipline some days and a hunger for it other days. But it really doesn't matter what gets us "in it" it just matters that we are!
As mentioned, we can only decide to trust, or not trust, one whom we know. According to God's Word, this is The One whom we are told that we can trust:
"God is love." 1 John 4:16
He is Yahweh (emphasizes the Lordship of God, the sovereignty of God, the Godness of God)) Exodus 3:14
"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:4-7
From these few verses alone we learn that God is loving, sovereign, kind, merciful, generous, gracious, and life giving! And these are 3 small portions of his 66 book love letter to us. And we have access to it, in our own written and spoken language! Soldier of Christ, let's get after it!
When I choose worry over trust, I belittle the kingship of Jesus at the helm of my life. I essentially say to him, "You don't know my best, nor do you care, I'll take care of myself - Thanks anyway."
How foolish! How arrogant! How stupid of me.
Do we honestly not believe the One who hung the stars in the Heavens to care for us? John 10:11 reminds us that he is the good shepherd who lays down his own life for the sheep. He died for us.
So much of my worry stems from fearing the loss of comfort and control in my life. He has been gently teaching me that those two things, comfort and control, aren't very high on the His priority list for me. That isn't because He is mean; He is like a loving parent who sees the greater good for their child. Developmentally the child isn't always able to "see it" but they can trust their parent's benevolence to them! He deeply cares for our souls and oftentimes the very things we are anxious about (jobs, children, materialism, health, etc) are windows inside revealing the idols of our hearts.
What if the thing you are anxious about losing or happening is actually the Refiner's fire at work in your life? What if the thing you are white knuckling is being taken away by the very hand of your loving Father?
Being made into the image of Jesus cannot happen apart from suffering. What is it that you really want? Christ-likeness or a comfortable, controlled life? Does your hope lie in this life or the life to come?
This tug-of-war is familiar to each human heart. But as Elisabeth Elliot has often reminded me through her frank and bold writings, it's not about how I feel about things, it's about TRUTH.
The truth is, I want Christ, no matter the cost.
Philippians 1:21 "To live is Christ, to die is gain." Let it be so in our hearts, O Lord. Help us to live wholly surrendered to your sovereign and loving hand in our lives, dear Jesus. We will follow you into the lion's den or into the green pastures. You alone are our peace. In Jesus' name, Amen
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