This post has been adapted from the chapter, “Lie #7: God Can Set Others Free from Pornography Addiction, but Not Me,” in my new book, 10 Lies Men Believe about Porn. This post is part 3 in an 8-week series on life-changing faith. If you would like to begin at part 1, you can do that here.
When God calls you to do something that requires tremendous trust—to “take a leap of faith” as we sometimes say—He isn’t doing it to test your ability to generate faith. He is doing it to offer you an opportunity to receive more faith. The more you trust Him, the more He allows your faith to grow.
This makes sense when you think about it. God has perfect knowledge, power over everything, and wants only what is best for you—so you can be confident He will never let you down or lose control of any situation. He will never fail you or leave you hanging. Every time you trust Him, He will come through for you. It may not be in the way you were expecting or hoping for, but it will always be for your best. When you experience His trustworthiness in your life over and over, it becomes easier to trust Him when He calls you to exercise faith in the future—not because of your ability to trust, but because of His unblemished track record.
But if you don’t trust God’s unconditional love for you, you will never be confident that He really is acting in your best interest. You will always be questioning His trustworthiness based on whether you feel you have been good enough to earn it or not. You will weigh everything He calls you to do on an imaginary continuum: Is God calling me to do this to better me, or to punish me? You will only trust Him to the degree that you understand how much He loves you, which is why having a proper understanding of His grace is key for life-changing faith to even be a possibility.
You can be certain, however, that God does love you—no matter how messed up you may feel—and everything He calls you to do is for your benefit. The more you trust in this truth, the more your faith will grow. Eventually, you will come to realize that you really can trust everything Jesus promises to be true—even for you—no matter how illogical or unbelievable it may seem. The blessings of the faith you read about in the Bible will become increasingly real to you, not because you have suddenly earned them or deserve them more, but because you are finally trusting them to be true.
Over the next four weeks, we will look at a few of these blessings and see how trusting Jesus determines whether we experience them in our lives or not.
Continue to Part 4: If Jesus Promises Me Rest, Why am I so Burnt Out?
