Faith is simply trusting in God and what He says He will do or has already done on our behalf. The more we learn to trust God, the more we learn about Him and learn to love Him. It's difficult to fully love someone you cannot or do not trust. We can "love" people and do for them without "trusting" them with important things in our lives. God's love for us is and was different to the degree that He already knew we didn't understand the spiritual things in life.
We can love a child and still not trust their ability to know good from bad. A child will eat a bug just as quickly as he'll eat candy because he doesn't know the difference yet. He will grow with teaching and maturity to distinguish and choose good over bad. Children trust their parents to teach them without hurting them. We would never feed our children something that would hurt them, but would only feed them good things.
Our children grow to trust us to make good decisions on their behalf until they become old enough to make their own decisions. Sometimes, they go up against the things we taught them (especially during their teenage years), but they always come back to our love. Learning to trust God is learning to love God. We must learn to trust in His Word and His Spirit Who teach us. It's only when we know Him in this way that we can truly learn to love Him correctly.
When teaching the people to pray, Jesus said to pray, "Our Father." In Matthew 6:11 (Amplified) Jesus taught us to pray, "And lead (bring) us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one!"
The word for "temptation" here is also the word for "trials, tests and the evil that is around us." How many times have we been taught that God's the One Who is "trying and bringing us into testing?" How are we to know when to "submit to God" or "resist the devil" if we don;t know which one is responsible for the testing? If I can't trust in what Jesus prayed for us, then how can I trust in the trials of life in God?
Proverbs 25:28 (Amplified) says, "He who has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls." If we don't know what spirit is leading us, then we're like a defenseless city without walls to protect us. If it's true that God is the One testing us, then aren't we still being judged by works instead of grace?
If I pass one test, then am I once more in God's grace and mercy? If I fail that test, then must I continue going through it until I can pass? Whatever happened to being led by the Spirit instead of testing and hard times? This sort of teaching is no different from being under the Law. God doesn't want to teach from the "outside-in" like He had to under the Law. These people were dead in the spirits, so God had to deal with their flesh. We have been made alive in spirit so God can now deal with our very heart or spirit. We are to be led from the inside and not the outside.
Many of today's teaching still deal more with the flesh than the spirit. We never seem to know whether it's God or the devil. The Apostle Paul knew that all the trials and tribulations he faced were not from God, but were from a "messenger of satan who was sent to buffet him." In 2Corinthians 12:7 (Amplified) Paul said that the "revelation" was from God and the trials were from the enemy. And, because he knew he could trust God to deliver him instead of destroy him, he could trust Him and love Him fully.
Did you ever think how foolish it would be for God to take Paul to the third heaven, give him the revelation of the new birth or commission him to go and preach it, make him responsible for recording it and then do everything He could to stop Paul from doing these things?
We must learn that God is not our problem, but our answer. We usually get ourselves into trouble (even without the devil's help), but God still delivers us out of it all. Once we learn to distinguish whether it's God or the enemy, like John 10:10 says, then we can keep God on the right side of our faith and love. Thus it says, "The thief comes only in order to steal, and kill and destroy (this is the devil), I am come that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." Having and enjoying life to the full, until it overflows is God. If it isn't life and joy and abundant life, then it isn't God's will for you.
James 1:13-18 (Amplified) says, "Let no one say when he is tempted (tried, tested) I am tempted from God; for God is incapable of being tempted by (what is) evil and He Himself tempts no one. But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desires (lusts, passions) then the evil desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully matured brings forth death." Verses 16-18 go on, "Do not be misled, my brethren, Every good gift and every perfect (free, large, full) gift is from above: it comes down from the Father of all (that gives) light in (the shining of) whom there can be no variation (rising or setting) or shadow cast by His turning (as in an eclipse). And it was of His Own (free) will that He gave us birth (as sons) by (His) Word of truth, so that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures (a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself)."
God doesn't need "trials, tests, hardships and disease to guide or train or correct His children. He certainly doesn't need the unholy devil to teach or make holy, those He went to the cross for. God uses the Holy Spirit, the Holy scriptures and the Ever Present gift of the new birth through Jesus to teach us. God's sheep, "know His voice and a stranger they will not follow."
Learn to love Him by trusting Him to do only good and not evil in your life. If you're going through some hard times, then look to Him to take you through them and not to put them on you. It's easy to be unafraid to love God with all your heart when you know He has only your best in His heart.
Loving Him, when you trust with all that you are, is simple. God will lead you in "Paths of righteousness for His Name's sake" because you belong to Him.
No loving parent will place their child in the middle of the road and oncoming traffic in order to teach him that cars can hurt them. No loving parent will hold their child's hand in the flames in order to teach them that fire can burn him. Yet, we're always blaming God for putting us in places of danger in order to teach us that "cars can be dangerous." Are we really better fathers than He is? If we had earthly fathers who did these things, then they would be in jail. But, we're always accusing God of doing these things.
It would be difficult for any child to totally love his father who would do these things. Still, though, we believe that our Heavenly Father does them. Does this determine our love for Him or are we misunderstanding Him? I think it determines our lack of knowledge of Who He really is.
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