That's life's ultimate question, right? If you can confidently (or semi-confidently) answer that question as a "yes," then you will persevere no matter what suffering comes your way. You'll just interpret every struggle, every pain as part of God's larger process to do good things to and for you. You'll wait as long as you have to wait to see what that good might be. Even better, if He can be trusted, then the uncertainty and paralysis that live in my chest dissipate. Obeying and persevering might hurt me, and it might be difficult, but at least I know what to do.
On the other hand, if the answer is no, then there's really no point in doing the "right thing." Ever. It certainly makes no sense to deny yourself some pleasure or to tolerate agony if God can't be trusted. If He's playing some cosmic game with us (no matter the reason why), we're all screwed, especially those of us who were raised to be afraid of breaking rules or disobeying authority. And that belief will drive me to interpret even the good things I experience from God with a great deal of suspicion and fear about what calamity is coming for me next. I will shrink back from Him like a victim of sexual abuse shrinks back from any affection offered to them for fear that the next moment might involve yet another betrayal.
Is God trying to hurt me, or is he trying to parent me? How we answer that question will determine the course and the outcome of our lives.
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Can God be trusted? My head says, "Of course!" Yet how quickly the enemy will bring to mind some disappointment and the thought enters, "Why did God let this happen? Surely He could have prevented this!" And there it is - DISTRUST.
As Martha and Mary said to Jesus, "If you had been here, Lazarus would not have died." They assumed Jesus had somehow let them down when His intention in their pain was to reveal the even greater power of resurrection life.
Maybe Jesus will allow the stresser to bring me to the end of myself - the end of my own reasonings - where I have nothing left but to trust Him - to stand before the entrance to the tomb I have made. Then, with stone rolled away, my Lazarus will step out, and I will truly marvel at the work of God accomplished in the midst of my "disappointment".
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