Wake Up to Trust

We often overcomplicate the word faith, treating it like something lofty or hard to grasp. But very simply, faith means trust. And when we see it this way, we begin to notice the places where we’re not really trusting God.

The truth is that idols aren’t just carved statues from the past. An idol is anything we lean on more than God—our own strength, our comfort, our control, even our fears. And often, we don’t even realize we’ve picked them up. This is the cunning nature of sin. It whispers lies that masquerade as logic: You’ll never change…This is the only way you can cope…This is the only solution…You don’t deserve freedom. It promises control, but in reality it makes you spiral out of control, falling deeper into a pit you can’t climb out of. But no matter how deep the pit, God’s love is deeper still. When we choose to believe the truth of His Word over the lies of sin, we discover He is always faithful to His promises.

If we’re going to wake up our faith, we need to start with repentance. We need to identify the idols we’re trusting more than God.

For fifteen years, I struggled with an eating disorder. I relied on my own strength instead of trusting in God. I believed God was a healer, but I didn’t believe He would heal me. I believed that because I had gotten myself into my addiction, I deserved the consequences of it. I took God off His throne and judged myself. But when I repented, God faithfully restored me—mind, body, and spirit.

Even good things can become idols when they replace God as our source. Work, for example, can easily become an idol. God gave us the Sabbath as one of the Ten Commandments. If I refuse to rest, what am I really trusting? My own ability to hustle and make things happen, instead of trusting that God can work on my behalf.

Beloved, God doesn’t expose idols to shame us. He exposes them to free us. Grace isn’t permission to stay in bondage; grace is God’s empowerment to walk out of it. When we repent—when we turn from false trust and return to Him—He throws open the prison door, wraps us in His endless love, and empowers us to trust Him over the lies.

Reflect: What are you trusting right now?