Faith or Presumption?

Have you ever gone to bed at night with worries on your heart?  I’m sure we all have.  Have you ever worried that the sun won’t rise in the morning? Of course not. Or have you worried that spring won’t follow winter? Okay, so maybe we do wonder if spring will ever come when we’ve had a difficult winter. We joke with one another about ever seeing spring or summer again. But seriously…don’t we know that spring will indeed come? We may make silly comments about the seasons but just like the sunrise, we know for certain that the seasons change each year. We don’t stew about it, we don’t pray about it.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t pray every day that God will cause the sun to rise in the morning.  I just know that He will.  I know He has it under control.  Maybe I’m just taking it for granted…but isn’t that like faith?

And what about the issues in our own lives — those concerns that are on our hearts in the quiet darkness each night?  If we get to the place where we trust God to take care of those issues just as He does the sunrise and the seasons are we now walking in faith?  Or have we begun to take God for granted? What is the difference between trusting in faith that something will happen and just taking it for granted?  I think the difference can be expressed in one word — thankfulness.

If I am thankful I am acknowledging that the Father is in control. My desire is to get to the place where I can trust Him and thank Him for all that He has done and will do. There will always be cares that threaten to steal my peace. But if I will take those cares one by one and lay them at my Father’s feet I know he will be faithful to fulfill all His promises.  If He can handle the sunrise, He is more than able to care for the things that concern me and I will be thankful.

Psalm 86:12 “I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever.”