TRUST AND OBEY - breaking the jinx of unbelief

When in Matthew 18:3, Jesus said you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God except you become like little children, many got confusingly depressed and began to look at Jesus as a strange man who acted strange, spoke strange words and worst of all, had strange thoughts. However, advancements in knowledge and day-to-day experiences has brought to the fore those ‘strange’ words of Jesus again as the periliousity of our times dawn more clearly on us.

You must have heard this words –
Never trust anyone – times over again albeit in different versions. The people who coined those words must have had in mind the verse of scripture that said the heart of man (don’t know about the woman) is desperately wicked. The rate at which the depravity of the human race is making people get involved in terrible things, and I mean real terrible kind of things is extremely alarming and lugubrious. At one time, someone close to you must have done something that must have hurt you so much and then you tell yourself, I will not trust anybody again. If someone so close to me whom I trusted so much could do this to me, then I can’t afford to trust anybody again. I cannot put my belief in a human being again, not on my life. Some people have even remarked that I cannot trust myself, talk less of trusting someone else.

Yet, the wordings of the song above say TRUST AND OBEY. Then an issue arises, how can I trust a God I can’t see or I can’t feel when I still have issues with trusting my loved ones who I can see, touch and feel? I remember in the Teen Study Bible I once cherishingly used, they gave a teenage definition of prayer as proffering words up to the ceiling and wondering if anyone is listening to you. I think it sounded something like that. But you know what? You cannot receive anything from God except you trust Him. Let me show you why from the scriptures in Heb. 11:6.

‘It's impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.’ (MSG)

That word ‘believe’ is gotten from just about the same root word for ‘trust’. The verse makes us know that coming to God with your unbelief will lead you nowhere. In fact it is impossible. The reason why you should come to God is because you trust or believe in Him.

Let me give you another reason why you should trust God
 – He made you. And you will definitely agree with me that the one who knows the best about something is the one who made it. You will be doing yourself most harm with your unbelief because God will still be God, remember? As He has been for ages with or without you, your trusting does not add to His self-esteem. Yet, He says trust me – for your own sake; so that it will be better for you.

You are not trusting God because of what He has done or what He can do but because of who He is. It is a deep recognition of who He is that permits His capabilities in your life. The verse above was trying to explain that your level of trust determines the level of ‘pleasing’ God will have with you. And of course, you cannot receive extras from your parents except your parent is pleased with you.

Take the case of a 6 months old child. One interesting feature of childhood is the sort of unyielding and complete trust a child has in a parent. I’ve tried imagining what a 6 month old or 1 year old child would do if he were faced with a wild animal, say a lion, his first reaction if he at all recognises the animal is to run to his parents. The child has a belief that if he gets to his parent, it is the end of the story.

I want to suppose that Jesus meant this when He said ‘except you become like little children’.

God expects that you should trust Him enough with every aspect of your life, even with your life and see what He would do with it. Only then can we talk about breaking the jinx of unbelief.