The Trust Challenge

January 26, 2025

Dr. Paul Cannings

Why is giving so challenging to do?  I believe it is because there is a tug-of-war between what we want and God’s demand for us to trust and love Him.  The things we love can compete with God.  A true love for God requires sacrifice.  An example is a mom giving birth to a child.  On one hand, she would love to keep her figure and not put herself through so much pain.  On the other hand, she wants to be a mother (as God has blessed her to be) and develop a family with her husband.  But it calls for sacrifice.  Another example is a hard-working parent who tirelessly toils daily to support a child through college or prepare them for the prom.

For a moment, let’s evaluate the things we must do to express godly love. “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)  Loving is obeying God’s Word (1 John 2:3-6) because we are committed to thinking the way He does (Romans 12:2; 1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  When we decide to think biblically and obey His Word, our love is transformed into Christ’s love.  This is the means by which we can genuinely and actively love God and each other.  When Christ’s love overflows in us, we deny ourselves, pick up the cross, and follow Him. (Luke 14:27)

The Bible describes love this way: “Love is patient, love is kind, and is not jealous, loves does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all thing.  Love never fails…” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Because loving God’s way requires patience, we can resist the emotional impulse to buy things and wait. Because love is not jealous, we don’t have to envy what someone else has and purchase something we don’t need. Because love “rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things,” we will accept God’s challenge and trust Him for our daily needs because love always hopes.

Giving can be difficult because it is in giving that we are letting go of the world.  (Matthew 6:24)  It is when we let go of the world’s way of “making it” that we demonstrate faith and experience God’s way of living.

“…you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”  (Deuteronomy 8:3)  “And the world is passing away, and (also) its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.” (1 John 2:17)

Giving in worship expresses our love and trust in God.  This is why it is worship.