A Sacred Exchange of Trust

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 (nkjv)

For believers suffering is a sacred place. It’s certainly not always the sacred experience we would choose for ourselves or loved ones, yet it’s a place God has chosen for us. The landscape of our suffering may be a life-altering accident, a wound from a trusted friend, an injustice, or a long-term battle with cancer. In that hazy, unwanted, and perhaps mysterious circumstance God creates space for the sacred in our lives. In our unique pathway He calls for us to trust Him and He demonstrates trust in us. Suffering becomes an exchange of trust.

The exchange of trust begins as He calls for us to trust Him. Faith and trust may be hard to find in our dark hours. In the unexpected or unwanted trust is not always our first response to God. And yet genuine faith as referred to in 1 Peter 1:7 is a faith that is proved in a crucible of a real experience. We may have willingness or readiness to trust, but the surprise visit of suffering gives us a real playing field to demonstrate the trust we claim to have.

Hardships provide us the sacred opportunity to trust God in circumstances in which He may not be clear or understandable. Our trust is tried and purified in hospital waiting rooms, at gravesides, through infertility tests, injustices, or difficult callings, all sites of raw emotions and fears. The stakes are high in these scenarios of trust. It is far easier to trust God in the safe, sanitized church pew agreeing with the often-quoted verses about trust. Yet it is at the scene of car accidents or a bad prognosis from a doctor where trust must emerge. While we may be disoriented, our hearts must find their way to trust the God who loves us faithfully.

God is not always as clear as we need Him to be. God does not always work as we would like Him to work. Fear and mistrust battle in our hearts. Corrie ten Boom has said it well: “When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets darks, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”[i] Sit still. Even in a dark tunnel, trust the Engineer.

Dear Father, my faith seems fragile. And yet I know You are still on the throne. Quiet my fears and confusion. In this dark place let me sit still and know that You are God. Amen.