Faith + Hope = Trust (a moment with Manning)
No, not Peyton. Not his little brother, either. A DIFFERENT Manning (hmm, I wonder if they're related...)
Faith arises from the personal experience of Jesus as Lord.
Hope is reliance on the promise of Jesus, accompanied by the expectation of fulfillment.
Trust is the winsome wedding of faith and hope.
Okay, maybe it's a good thing I DIDN'T give this to Steve last week - I'm not sure those statements are all that clear. Let's try this again.
Trust is faith coupled with hope.
I'm going to riff on this a bit (if you want to know what Manning says about this...buy the book and see for yourself).***
Steve said that two definitions of Trust were "leaning in" and "faithful obedience." I think we're talking about the same things here, but in different terms.
I trust my kids to tell me the truth. My experience (so far) is that they will tell me the truth even when it costs them. My hope is that they will continue to do so... Is that what trust is?
Well, not exactly. My kids are human - so...well, who knows what the future will bring (but I insist on continuing to trust them).
This is bigger - and deeper. Manning says that faith is our EXPERIENCE of Jesus as Lord. And here's why I'm thinking about all this - I'm preaching on Surrender this week - and we can't surrender to Christ if we don't trust him. But if we DON'T surrender to him, how can he really be Lord? I mean, without surrender, isn't Jesus just ONE voice competing for our attention and affection? So, how do I experience Jesus as Lord if I don't surrender to him - but I won't surrender to him if I don't trust him...it just feels like some kind of endless loop.
But then I think it's maybe about the moments of surrender, the moments of trust, the moments of experience of the Lordship of Christ in our lives.
Maybe trust develops as we have more and more, and deeper and deeper experiences with Christ. Maybe trust develops as I hang more of who I am, what I dream, what I want and believe on who Jesus is, how Christ works and lives in me - and is lived out through me...
Maybe surrender is about the growth of trust in my heart...
You see, I'm worried that surrender ends up coming off as "doing good things" or "moral thinking." You know, I surrender my obsession with ...put your favorite sin in here... Rather, surrender isn't so much a giving up from but a giving in TO - the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
And as trust grows, so the surrender deepens. And the more I experience the reality of the Lordship of Christ in my life, the more I trust, the more I surrender, the greater my hope, the deeper my affection for God...
Trust in the Lord with all your heart...lean not on your own understanding... (Proverbs 3:5)
*** So, on Facebook I posted that I was reading Manning on Monday - and in my head the soundtrack suddenly changed to the Bangles singing, "Just another Manning Monday...whoa-oh-oh... Wish it was Sunday..." So, I might just institute Manning Mondays around here...hmmm....
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