The Hardest Thing We Must Do as Christians

It goes without saying that this Christian life comes with its share of struggles and challenges. Jesus himself told his disciples that in this world you will have trouble (John 16:33). Surprisingly, dealing with trouble in your Christian walk is not the hardest thing you will ever do. Trouble is really a mask for what the most difficult thing you must do as a Christian really is, which is to trust God. If there is one thing God is trying to get every believer to do, it is to trust him more.

In Proverbs we are encouraged to trust God.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

With this and all the other verses we have in Scripture that encourage us to trust God, why is it we still find it difficult to trust God?

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Why Is It Difficult to Trust?

To help you understand why this is difficult, I want to take you back for a moment to when I was a teenager. There was this game we used to play which I will attempt to explain for you. As I explain it you may remember playing it too.

In our gym class there was a group of at least twenty of us. We would line up in two rows with ten in the front and ten in the back. The first time we did this I was in the back row. Whoever was in the front had their backs to us so they could not tell where we were positioned behind them. The object of the game was simple, the people in the front row had to fall backwards and trust that those behind them, who they could not see, would catch them. This was easy for the person catching because you could see everything happening. This was horrifying for the person falling because you had to trust that they wouldn’t let you fall.

For most of the group, before they fell backwards, they would turn around to make sure someone was there and then they would ask with a slightly concerned look on their face, “You are going to catch me?” Whoever was in the second row always said yes. When it came time to fall, they would stand up straight, take a deep breath, put their hands on the side of their body, close their eyes and then begin to fall backwards hoping someone would catch them and not let them hit the ground.

As it turned out most of those who were in the front row could not go through with this completely. They would start but then stop and regain their balance. Their issue was not falling backwards, their issue was trusting the one behind them who they could not see.

This game we played in high school mirrors the challenge we all face as Christians. We have to trust a God who we cannot see with conditions that don’t always add up or even make sense.

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The Example of the Widow

Dirty hands holding a small piece of bread

Here is a great example from Scripture of the conditions not adding up.

“So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, ‘Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?’ As she was going to get it, he called, ‘And bring me, please, a piece of bread.’

‘As surely as the Lord your God lives,’ she replied, ‘I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.’

Elijah said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.’

She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family” (1 Kings 17:10-15).

When you look at this story, there are three things I want to point out that underscore the challenges we face in trusting God.

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1. She Did an Honest Assessment of What She Had

The widow was asked to feed the prophet first when the widow didn’t have enough to feed her son and herself. This is what she explained to Elijah. The hard part of trusting God is that it requires you to make an honest analysis of where you are and what you have. Doing so causes you to recognize that you cannot accomplish what God is asking based on what you have. It doesn’t make sense. It is this knowledge that leads to the second challenge of trusting.

2. She Was Afraid

Elijah clearly told her do not be afraid, which means she was afraid, and she had every right to be. She was afraid of running out and when that happened, she was afraid of dying. The circumstances we have in life can produce fear in our hearts. This can cause you to move away from trusting God. But ultimately you have to do what the widow did, which is the third thing.

3. She Had to Make a Choice

In every situation where you must trust God there will come a moment where you must make a decision. Will you trust him or not? This was not a blind trust, because she had a promise to hold onto. The question became would she believe the promise? Would she put her hands by her side, take a deep breath, and fall back into the promise of God? This was her moment of decision and her life literally depended on it. Even though every situation we experience with God won’t be life or death, it still requires us to decide if we will trust him or not.

What Do You Need to Trust God for?

If there is one thing I want you to take from this is that God can be trusted. He came through for the widow just as he promised that he would do. God has given us a Bible filled with promises that underscore who he is and what he will do. Everything God has said in his word will come to pass and you can put your trust in it.

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11).

God has given you his word and you can put your trust in it. There used to be this bumper sticker “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” This is the essence of trust. Will you believe what God has said? If you can then that settles it. It doesn’t matter what happens in life because you can fall back into the arms of a God who will not let you fall. I encourage you today to trust God in every situation, regardless of how it looks, because you can be certain he will never fail you.