Trust: The Verb You Have Been Treating As A Feeling
Most Christians treat trust as a feeling we are waiting to have.
We wait to feel trust before we act. We think of trust as a warm inner sense of certainty, and when the certainty is not there, we conclude our faith is not strong enough. We pray for more trust, hoping God will hand us a feeling.
That is not what trust is in the Bible.
This week's theme: Trust.
Today, the sentence in Proverbs that reshapes what trust even is, and why treating it as a feeling has been keeping you stuck.
The most famous verse in scripture on this is short and demanding.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." - Proverbs 3:5-6
Read the two verbs. Trust. Lean not. Both are commands, not descriptions of feelings. Trust is something you do. Leaning not on your own understanding is something you do. The verse is not asking you to feel a certain way. It is telling you to act a certain way.
The Hebrew word for trust here is batach. We will look at it properly on Saturday, but the basic meaning is worth naming today. Batach means to lean on, to lean into, to place your weight upon. It is a physical picture. Imagine leaning back into a chair without checking it will hold you. That is the picture.
Trust is that action. It is not a feeling of warm confidence. It is the daily, sometimes moment-by-moment, decision to place your weight on someone.
That reframe changes everything.
Because if trust is a feeling, then when you do not feel it, you are stuck. You have to wait for God to change your emotions. You have to keep praying for more.
If trust is an action, you can do it today. Right now. Even while feeling anxious. Even while doubting. You can, in a moment, choose to lean your weight on God for one specific situation, and that choosing is trust. The feeling may or may not follow. Often it does not for a while. It does not matter. The trust happened in the leaning.
This week we are going to walk through trust from several angles. Tomorrow we look at Abraham on the mountain with Isaac. Wednesday, the specific grip most of us hold instead of trusting. Thursday, a small practice. Friday, the hard truth about trust after disappointment. Saturday, the Hebrew. Sunday, a Psalm to rest with.
For now, one question.
Where in your life have you been waiting to feel trust before you act?
YOUR ONE THING FOR TODAY
Take one specific situation you have been holding tightly. Lean on God with it once today. Not a big prayer. One sentence. "I am leaning on you here." That leaning is the trust.
A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Father, forgive me for waiting to feel trust before I acted. Teach me this week to lean. To place my weight on you deliberately. Even when I do not feel anything. Give me the courage of small daily leanings. Amen.
OVER TO YOU
Where have you been waiting to feel trust before acting? A word or a line. Every reply read.
God bless you, my friend.
The LowKey Christian
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