Our Treasure in Trust

Think about it for a moment: Which of your possessions do you cherish the most? Personally, I have four: a keyring screwdriver that once was my dad’s, a picture of my mother, a sleeve of golf balls given to me by my then eleven-year-old son, and a just-for-fun card from my wife. Oh, and a queen-sized quilt Peggy handstitched. (So, make that five.) The quilt aside, the cumulative monetary value of all these things collectively would not likely exceed $25, but I treasure them more highly than anything else I own, for they speak love in ways my heart well receives.

Overlooked on my list, however—and perhaps yours, as well—is an intangible gift more valuable than anything our senses could perceive: namely, our faith. The apostle Paul tells us faith is “the gift of God,”¹ and his contemporary Peter declared faith to be “of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire.”² “Without faith it is impossible to please God,”³ declares the writer of Hebrews, and conversely, the humble faith of a Roman soldier left the Son of God amazed.⁴ (Think about that for a moment.) With faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains⁵ and uproot trees.⁶ It is through faith that we are declared righteous,⁷ and it is by faith that the righteous live.⁸

How vital, such faith! Who can measure its worth? It is our “yes” to God, so precious to Him. Then I must ask myself, is my “belief” in God merely the acceptance of His realness—mental assent from the “safety” of interpersonal distance—or do I follow my belief daily into a loving, trusting, and receiving relationship with the “I AM”?⁹ Is my faith merely “wishing upward,” or is it the complete entrustment of my life and everything in it to the love, wisdom, and power of the eternal God? Does my trust in God’s willingness to act accompany my belief in His ability to do so? It must.

So, this is where I find myself these days: called to trust entirely in the ability and character of God and, thereupon, to the complete entrustment of my wellbeing to Him. Peter calls us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”¹⁰ Now doesn’t “cast” suggest complete riddance, a tossing off of our cares from us to God who can handle them? And His “care”—doesn’t this speak the character from which God acts and in which we may trust?

God sees more than we see, knows more than we do, loves us more than we love ourselves, and cares for us better than we know how. Then may we speak our love for Him in the way His heart well receives, through the treasure of trust.

Lord God, thank you for the precious gift of faith. May we, in turn, entrust our all to you. Be pleased with your trusting people. In Christ we pray. Amen.

¹ Ephesians 2:8 NIV
² 1 Peter 1:7 NIV
³ Hebrews 11:6 NIV
⁴ Matthew 8:10 NIV
⁵ Matthew 17:20
⁶ Luke 17:6
⁷ Genesis 15:6
⁸ Habakkuk 2:4
⁹ Exodus 3:14
¹⁰ 1 Peter 5:7 NIV