Ruthless Trust
“But the righteous shall live by his faith” Habakkuk 2:4
Faith – Does faith confuse you? Do you wonder, “What does it mean to live by faith?” “How can I pay the bills by faith?” “How do I make sense of living by faith when my life is consumed with just living?” “Do I have to have some sort of super-spiritual awareness?” “Do I need to pray more?”
These questions, and dozens more like them, haunt Christians today. We hear stories about those “special” people who seem to live from moment to moment with God constantly at hand. But try as we might, we often just don’t feel God’s presence. Life still overwhelms us. We still get discouraged. We still stumble. How can all of this be reconciled with the life of faith?
Often the answer is couched in terms of hope. We say, “Faith is hoping in God’s goodness” or some such gobbledygook. I can hope in lots of things, but that doesn’t make my daily life much better. Faith is supposed to change things. Hope is too far away to matter much today.
If we knew a bit about the Hebrew word emunah, we might be able to settle some of these questions. The essence of emunah is this: an unwavering trust in the word of God in opposition to all apparent circumstances. Faith is ruthless trust. It is not confidence because confidence can be shaken. It is not assurance. Assurance depends on evidence. It is not conviction. Conviction requires being convinced. Faith is ruthless trust. It is an act of the will. A decision to put all of my eggs in God’s basket no matter what the circumstances seem to say. It is a decision to rely entirely on what God says in spite of how I feel, what I see, who gives me advice and what the world promotes. It is ruthless because if it is wrong, I fail completely. And finally, it is not based on me and my grasping for answers but on the unshakeable reliability of the character of God.
I cannot live by faith unless I deeply know who God is, unless I know His heart toward me. Trust demands relationship and if I am going to bet my life on a relationship, I better be fully engaged. This fact alone explains why so many “Christians” look just like good non-Christians. They simply are not ruthless because they do not really know the One they claim to follow.
Ruthless trust is intensely personal. It is not found in doctrinal statements, membership declarations or patterned morality. It is one-on-one fervor, hammered out in joy, struggle, failure, and friendship. If you are ruthless about your relationship with God, you know it! If you’re not sure, then ruthless doesn’t apply.
A note: I commend to you Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning. But be prepared. Ruthless trust will leave scars.
