In God We Trust?

As the national conventions for the two main political parties in America take center stage for the next couple weeks, I’m trying to ignore some of the things I’ve been seeing on social media and things reported by the news media.  That’s because I feel they are more likely to distract me from the things that really matter than to help my walk with God.  But I can’t help but notice a trend that I think indicates where the hearts of many Americans, including many Christians, are: we are trusting ourselves instead of what our national motto says, “In God We Trust”.

Now this isn’t something new.  Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and passed a sin nature on to the rest of mankind, people have struggled to trust God more than they trust themselves.  No one in history was immune from this, and none of us is either.  Built into each of us through sin is the desire to control our own little world, which then transfers to controlling others who don’t accept our sovereignty.  And this is where the root problem shines through: there can only be one sovereign ruler in each of our lives.  God is sovereign (whether we acknowledge it or not), but he will never force us to accept his sovereignty.  If we insist on being on the throne, he will step aside and let us.

But here’s the problem: God’s sovereignty is the basis/framework for all of his other characteristics to operate.  So if we don’t understand and trust God’s sovereignty, we have an unhealthy view of who God really is – and this is obvious in the political arena that we’ve been experiencing.  However, even more important than any country’s politics is how this affects our individual relationships with God.  Without a proper Biblical view of God, we cannot hope to trust his sovereignty as we experience “real life” here on earth.

God intends for us to rest in his sovereignty and trust him to take care of us; but many times we are too busy imposing our expectations on God.  We decide how God’s sovereignty should act instead of trusting that he knows more than us and can see a bigger picture than us when exercising his sovereignty.  I’m not saying it’s always easy to trust God’s sovereignty, but our struggles don’t change who God is.  Accepting and embracing his sovereignty and choosing to truly trust him is the call for every Christian in every situation in life where they find themselves.  Here’s some examples that come from my own experiences or the experiences of people I know:

. . . when your 23-year-old son is in a car accident that leaves him in a wheelchair with a traumatic brain injury for the rest of his life

. . . when you encounter cancer or other life-threatening or life-altering physical diseases

. . . when you spend most of your adult life dealing with chronic depression or other mental disorders

. . . when you encounter severe financial losses

. . . when you face infertility despite your strong desire to become parents

. . . when your healthy teenage son dies in a hiking accident

. . . when your innocent child is abused by someone

. . . when a pastor you trusted abuses his position and hurts people in his congregation

. . . when someone with anti-Biblical values is elected to the highest office of your country and uses that value system to govern

This just scratches the surface of things that we face in this life, but the question of how we will respond is the same for each one.  Will we trust God’s sovereignty when we can’t see anything that makes sense?  Will we trust God’s sovereignty instead of bringing to the table our expectations for his behavior?  The people I know who have answered these questions with a resounding “yes” despite their circumstances are the ones whose joy is complete and who have mastered the art of resting in God’s sovereignty.   

Let’s stop expecting this earth and this country to feel good and right, because we were not made for this world.  We were made for eternity, and only when we get there will everything make sense.  In the meantime, as Christians let’s choose to model a rephrased version of our national motto: in God alone we trust.