At some point this week, this month or this year, something good will come your way.  A promotion, an opportunity, an advancement, a raise, a new relationship, a new level of ‘success’.

What if every time something like that happened, you were to say to yourself: this is a trust.

Not “I deserved it”.  Not “I’ve always wanted this.”  Not “all that hard work finally paid off.”  Not “finally, I’m getting what’s coming to me.” Not even “wow this is cool” (okay, you can say that…just don’t stop there.)

What if instead, we just started saying “This is a trust.  I know he didn’t just give it to me for my benefit, he entrusted me with.  It’s a trust.”

What’s at stake is whether we believe that life and opportunities are about God, or whether we believe they are about us.  Our culture says they are about us.  But the scripture would say something different.

If you live like everything that comes your way is directed your way mainly for your benefit, you believe:

• This has come to me mostly for my benefit and the benefit of my family.
• I can use it any way I want.
• It doesn’t matter how I use it, because it’s mine.

If you view things as a trust, you believe:

• God likely didn’t give this to me solely for my benefit.
• I need to use it in the way that best honors God and others.
• It matters how I use it, because it’s not mine and I’m accountable.

I want to get into the habit of viewing all good things that come my way – every opportunity, reward, relationship, ability, advancement and gift – as a sacred trust.

How about you?  What do you believe about the good that comes your way?  How do you process it?  What helps you think this through?

 "But not with my servant Moses.  Of all my house, he is the one I trust."  (Numbers 12.7).

That’s God speaking , by the way.

Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether we think God is trustworthy. But this verse changes the game significantly.  Maybe the only question isn’t whether we can trust God.  Maybe the question for those who want to live a life alive in God is this:  Can God trust you? 

Trust is dependability – a deep confidence in someone.  We tend to trust people who are reliable, who are consistent and who don’t change with the season or the wind direction.  Ever think that maybe God is looking for people He can trust? 

Many Christian I know say their faith varies daily. And mine has seasons too.  But what if our faith was strong enough and we became solid enough that God felt he could trust us?

Trust killers include:

• Losing faith in God the minute circumstances don’t go our way.
• Putting ourselves at the center of our relationship with God, rather than God at the center. (What can I do for God, rather than what can God do for me?)
• Keeping God at the periphery of our lives, not at the center.

What I love about Moses is that he was gut-level honest with God.  He got upset, but God heard about it first.  He went straight to God.  He believed God against all odds (like trusting that somehow God would make a way across the water even if it looked impossible). 

I first got challenged with the trust-reversal idea when Reggie Joiner and I were writing our parenting book together.  In one of the drafts he introduce this idea that parents might stop thinking in terms of simply being able to trust their kids and start asking a different question: do we live in a way that our kids trust us? Are we consistent?  Do we inspire confidence?

I love that thought.  It’s challenging me.  And it’s a great thought to kick off a new week. 

Have you ever thought that God might be looking to trust you?   If so, how would you live different as a result? 

I’m so grateful for my Calvinist background.  One of the Calvin quotes I think about regularly is that the human mind is a perpetual factory of idols. 

What this means is that we continually invent new ways to crowd God out of our lives and worship something else.  For some of us, that may mean other religions.  But for many of us who follow Christ, it just means something other than Christ.  

The surprising thing is that so many of the idols we might struggle with today are ordinary things.  Some are even good things.  Here are some idols I’ve seen…some in me…some around me:

• Success
• Family 
• Children
• Money
• Achievement
• Health
• Coolness, fitness or looks
• Style 
• Cynicism (Cynics love to be right about everything and down on everyone)
• Technology
• Possessions
• Pride (that’s when we put ourselves ahead of God and other people)
• Sports
• Hobbies
• Career
• Emotional Pain (people can grow more fond of their sad story than the healing Christ offers)

It’s not at all an exhaustive list. Basically, anything that would compete with Christ as first place in your life and mine is an idol.  Even your family.  Even your kids.  

So how do you know it’s an idol?  This is what I’ve been working on.  Two thoughts:

• If I worry about it a lot it might be an idol.  Worry demonstrates an absence of trust in God and shows I want it more than I want Him.
• If I fear what my life would be like without it, it’s probably an idol. 

That’s part of my God dialogue.  I’m working hard on this because I have a book release coming up this week.  I want no anxiety around it.  And if it doesn’t sell a single copy, I want to be at total peace with that.  The funny thing is, I think I am. Time will tell, but positioning yourself ahead of time can be helpful.  I hope that’s where I am. If I can hold it very loosely, it becomes something God can use – not something that can become god.  

The side benefit of losing your idols is that it actually brings joy.  If your idol was to disappear, you’ve still got contentment, because you’ve got who really matters.  

How about for you?  What do you think some modern idols are?  What would you add to the list? 

I twittered about something a few days ago and it generated more of a reaction than I anticipated.  This is simply what the tweet said:

The greatest threat to your dependence on God is your current success.

Most of us feel our need for God most deeply when we are up against a big obstacle.  Usually it’s because we’re behind.  We’re behind financially, behind relationally, trying to get our organization to grow, trying to calm a storm, or just feeling knocked down.  God becomes a very necessary part of our problem solving strategy and our prayer life grows.  But mostly they’re emergency prayers (God help!) or sometimes a desperate plea to get someone more powerful to leverage his influence in our direction.

I don’t think God minds our prayers in any situation.  Dependence is a great thing.  It’s just that as soon as the problem is resolved, the organization starts growing, the issue is addressed or the relationship starts to get healthy, God drops out of the picture if we only rely on him for the things we think we can’t solve.  The purpose of dependence is not to solve problems.  The purpose of dependence is to deepen our trust and confidence in God in every situation.

Here’s what’s at stake when we squeeze our dependence on God out of the good times: if God is only there to solve a problem, then our ‘success’ becomes limited to what we can achieve through our own ability.  We seek God’s power to get us to the place we want to be but limit ourselves to what our own ability can achieve when we get there.  Kinda dumb as a strategy actually. It’s the perfect way to lose at success.

Why would I ever want our church to cap out at my ability?  Why would I ever want my marriage to only be as good as I can make it?  Why would I want my leadership to cap out at what I can achieve?  Why wouldn’t I want God to shape every moment, not just the desperate ones?  Why would I not want my life and your life to be a dance between the grace and power of God and a very flawed Christ-follower?

I want to be the kind of leader who is dependent upon God in the best and worst of times.  For me, I think that means I need to lean even harder into God in the good times.  It summarizes so well for me with this principle: the greatest threat to my dependence on God is my current success.

What about you?  What does that mean for you?  Do you struggle with this?  In what ways?

Some mornings my Bible reading stops me dead in my tracks.  This was the first verse I read this morning:

“Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.” Genesis 15:1 (NLT)

Could have stopped right there.  What if I lived like this was true?  What if I just believed that and operated like that was the case in my life?

Look at the claims of the verse.

First – no fear.  No fear of the obsctacles ahead, the conflict pending, the challenges or the battle.  No fear.

Second, a promise of God’s protection.  God would cover for us.  Doesn’t mean it won’t be difficult (read the rest of chapter 15) or dramatic.  It might be.  It’s just that God’s got our backs.  The worst the world can do is…kill us.  And I think Jesus covered that in the resurrection.

Third, the reward will be great.  Probably doesn’t mean we’ll be rich, but it does mean that our obedience will be worth something…it matters to God, and he’ll give us whatever we need and likely far more than we expect.

Think about it:  God promised Abram (and I think, all who follow him) the ability to move through our fear, God’s own protection and a reward.

What if I lived that way?  What would it do? What mediocrity would that eliminate? What ambivalence would that crush?  What fear would that resolve?  What obedience would that make possible?   For sure I think it would give me:

• More confidence
• More courage
• More determination
• More boldness
• More faith
• More faithfulness (doesn’t fear move you off course too?)
• More resolve

So that’s what I’m chewing on today.

If you knew God wanted you to navigate the fear, that he would protect you fully and give you a reward, how would your life change?  How might that move you more onto course.  What are you not doing now that you could start doing with this being true?