Trust

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding – Proverbs 3:5

The dictionary defines faith as “confidence or trust in a person or thing” and as “belief that is not based on proof”. Faith is a hard thing to exercise in such a complex and often contradictory world. We’re only human, and so many of us – myself included – yearn for proof even though we are asked to “not lean on our own understanding” but rather to “trust in the Lord”. I know some people who keep a prayer journal and place a mark next to those prayers that have been answered.

When I think back to some of my more urgent prayers (For example, during my bellicose divorce I had repeatedly requested my ex-spouse’s consent to sell the house we had bought because I was unable to carry the mortgage, and just as I my options were narrowing to a personal bankruptcy filing the judge intervened and dispensed with her consent so I see that as an answer to my prayers!) I have been struck by how my requests have been granted, not on my desired deadline but after my trust in God had been put to the test.

Other times the answer has been “No” or “Not yet” and, with the benefit of hindsight I have come to appreciate how this has really been in my best interests.

Jesus said to his disciples: "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit – John 15:1