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Trust
Faith is the centerpiece of Christian life. Faith simply means trust. We can fully trust Jesus in our salvation. The New Testament clearly tells us that we are not justified by anything we can do, but simply by trusting in Christ the Son of God.
In Romans 3,28 wrote the apostle Paul:
So we now hold that man does justice without the law works, solely by faith.
Salvation does not depend on us at all, but only on Christ. When we trust God, we do not need to try to hide any part of our lives from Him. We are not afraid of God, even if we sin. Instead of being afraid, we trust him that he will never stop loving us, helping us and helping us overcome our sins. If we trust in God, we can indulge ourselves in complete confidence that he will transform us into the person we want him to be. When we trust God, we discover that He is our highest priority, the ground and substance of our lives. As Paul said to the philosophers in Athens, we live, weave and are in God.
He is more important to us than anything else - more valuable than possessions, money, time, reputation and even this finite life. We trust God knows what's best for us and we want to please him. He is our reference point, our foundation for a meaningful life. We want to serve Him, not out of fear but out of love - not out of indignation, but joyfully out of free will. We trust his judgment. We trust his word and his ways. We trust him to give us a new heart, to make us increasingly like him, to make us love what he loves, and appreciate what he appreciates. We trust him that he always loves us and never gives us up. Again, we would never be able to do any of this on our own. It is Jesus who does this in us and for us, from within, through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. We are, at God's own will and purpose, His beloved children, redeemed and bought by the precious blood of Jesus.
In 1. Petrus 1,18-20 wrote the apostle Peter:
For you know that you are not redeemed with transient silver or gold from your vain change in the manner of the Fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as an innocent and immaculate Lamb. He was chosen before the earth was laid, but revealed at the end of times for your sake.
We can entrust God not only to our present, but also to our past and future. In Jesus Christ our Father in heaven redeems our whole life. Like a little child, fearless and content in the arms of his mother, we can safely rest in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
by Joseph Tkach
