Describe Him: Trustworthy

God is trustworthy. 

This begs us to ask questions such as "Why do we trust God?" "Why should we trust God?" "Is He really altogether worthy of our complete trust?" "Is trusting Him a crutch for our weaknesses?" "When we trust God, are we simply falling back on Him as our last resort?" 

In light of these questions, here are a few thoughts about trusting God and His trustworthiness:  

Consideration #1: If we are going to "trust God" we must understand the God in whom we're trusting.  

In other words, if we're trusting God without knowing what He is like, we are blindly trusting Him, and I would suggest that such trust is not trust at all. 

Take, for example, a chair.  If I trust in a chair, what does that mean?  

It means that I know what a chair is. 

I understand the purpose of the chair. 

I understand the character of the chair to be such that it will hold me up.

And because I trust the chair, I sit on the chair, unafraid that it is going to give out from under me. 

And so it is with trusting God: To trust God, we must understand the nature of the God we are trusting in. As Jeremiah 9:24 says, "let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me...." Understanding and knowing God involves studying His character to understand how it governs His actions.  It involves studying His purposes to understand what motivates His actions.  

Then, when we say "I am trusting God", we are essentially saying that "I understand who God is because of what He has revealed about Himself in Scripture and I am going to place my trust in Him—I'm going to sit on the chair, so to speak—and let God act according to Who He Is."  

Consideration #2: We can trust Him because of Who He is. 

As God's revelation of Himself to mankind, Scripture reveals specific aspects of God's character that give grounds for His trustworthiness. Scripture reveals that God is good, all-wise, and sovereign.  While there are other aspects of His character that pertain to life, these particular qualities—His goodness, wisdom, and sovereignty—shape the substance behind His trustworthiness. 

- We can trust Him because He is always Good.  His ways—while often a mystery to mankind—are always determined by His goodness. He will never—in fact, He cannot ever—act in contradiction to His goodness. The Psalms burst forth with declarations of God's goodness:

     Psalm 34:8 "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"

     Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." 

     Psalm 135:3 "Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant!" 

     Psalm 145:9 "The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made."

- We can trust Him because He is All-Wise. Romans 11:33 declares "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" And Isaiah 40:13-14 asks, "Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?  Whom did he consult, and who made him understand?  Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?" The answer is, of course, that no one has ever counseled or instructed the Lord, for He is all-wise and all-knowing, and acts accordingly in all His ways.   

- We can trust Him because He is Sovereign. As Sovereign, He controls all things in the entire universe. He does not answer to anyone or anything.  He alone is supreme in authority over all the earth, will accomplish His divine purpose, and "works all things according to the counsel of his will." (Ephesians 1:11)

This control is always in precise correlation with His goodness and wisdom: He never abuses His supreme authority to contradict His own character, for since the beginning of time, He has always acted consistent with the entirety of His character and will continue to do so for all eternity! 

Consideration #3: Trusting God is a means to exalt and glorify Him. 

Have you heard of the idea of having a "big God theology"?  

Essentially it is the idea that when we seek to understand God for who He really is (Almighty, All-powerful, All-knowing, All-sufficient, All-wise, Good, Sovereign, and so on) and not simply for how we would like Him to be (a god fashioned after our own imagination), we allow Him to reveal Himself for who He really is. As a big God, He is totally awesome, majestic, and glorious in comparison to mankind, who is merely a lump of dirt with the breath of life breathed into it and who will return to dust shortly. 

We recognize Him to be big, while in comparison, we recognize ourselves to be small.  

I believe that remembering how big our God is in comparison to how insignificant we are is beneficial to this discussion of trusting God, for when we choose to trust Him, we recognize and acknowledge that we are but dusty human beings in need of the all-glorious God of the Universe. We essentially point to Him and say "You are God and I am man. Because of who I  am, I need You, and because of who You are, I choose to trust You with _______." 

And in so doing, we exalt and glorify Him.

Consideration #4: "Trusting God" is not the magic formula that fixes all problems. 

We most often recognize our need to trust God when life presents a problem that seems beyond our ability to fix. Consequently, when we decide to "trust God," we're often just saying that we're waiting for Him to work out the problem in a way that will be favorable for us. 

However, when we trust God, we willingly submit ourselves to His character and to His will, and as such, we willingly surrender to the accomplishment of His good purpose in the particular situation, however that may look.

Perhaps the outcome will actually be quite different than what we desire it to be. In fact, from our perspective, it may be very undesireable. 

Do such seemingly negative outcomes then mean God has failed us or that we somehow failed to trust Him enough? 

I don't think so. 

I would suggest that when we trust Him, we recognize that the out-working of His good will in a particular situation is often beyond our finite understanding; we recognize that He is free to do as He deems best and to act according to His character that is always good, wise, and sovereign. 

I love how J. I. Packer, in his book Knowing God, helps us understand that it is okay to have unanswered questions. In discussing God's wisdom concerning those trials He sends our way, Packer says:

"Whatever further purpose a Christian's troubles may or may not have in equipping him for future service, they will always have at least that purpose which Paul's thorn in the flesh had: They will have been sent us to make and keep us humble, and to give us a new opportunity of showing forth the power of Christ in our mortal lives.  And do we ever need to know any more about them than that?  Is not this enough in itself to convince us of the wisdom of God in them?  Once Paul saw that his trouble was sent him to enable him to glorify Christ, he accepted it as wisely appointed and even rejoiced in it.  God give us grace, in all our own troubles, to go and do likewise." (Packer, 98)

I just love that statement:

"And do we ever need to know any more about them than that?  Is not this enough in itself to convince us of the wisdom of God in them? "

Do we need to know any more than that??  

I dare say that no, we don't.  

Learning to trust God is hard, for it is only natural to want to have concrete and logical answers for those hard things in life.

But if we know the character of the God we're trusting in, we can trust Him to accomplish His good pleasure in our lives.  

I can trust that, even though I don't fully understand all the reasons behind our miscarriage or why He deemed it good to take away our twins, He is using it for good. He is accomplishing His good will in my life, according to His goodness, wisdom, and sovereignty, .  

And if we never know anything else concerning His ways or His purposes in allowing our troubles, we can still say, as Job said, "Though he slay me, I will hope [trust] in him" (Job 13:15) 

Because He is God. 

Do we need to know anything else? 

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If you would like to do further reading on trusting God, I highly recommend reading Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.  This book was highly influential in shaping my perspective on why and how we should trust God.