How do you know when you can trust someone?  Is it when they deliver on their promise?  Well, that’s not really trust, is it?  That would be a transaction.  Trust is knowing that the one who is promising something has the desire and the power to complete the promised action.  Of course, having seen the person fulfill other promises in the past certainly doesn’t hurt either.

What trust does not mean is that we will get some sort of plan of action report so we can understand how the promise will be fulfilled.  That’s the hardest part when I have to trust.  For some reason, I, like Abram, forget all too often how much God has done without my help.  I feel like I constantly need to be sent out to count the stars that God made and put in their places so I remember that His promises in my non-cosmically-foundational life will be fulfilled.  He has done so much to keep me alive and to bless me beyond anything I could ever deserve, that I can trust, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that whatever fear of lacking or loss that Satan wants me to agonize over, God can and will either spare me from it or carry me through it.

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’  But Abram said, ‘O, Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’  And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’  And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’  And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’  Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’  And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”  – Genesis 15:1-6