Faith Believes He Can. Trust Knows He Will.

Faith and trust would be irrelevant if you knew where you were going. You wouldn’t need a guide if the road of life were marked with signs. And if you were meant to figure it out alone, relationships would be unnecessary.

Oswald Chambers says, “As disciples, we are called to walk by faith. Faith never knows where it is being led, but it knows and loves the One who is leading. It is a life of faith, not of intellect and reason. It is a life of knowing the One who sends us out. The root of faith is knowledge of a person—Jesus Christ himself.”

Chambers’ words invite us to consider not just what faith is—“confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”—but who it depends on. That brings us to the heart of the question: Who is Jesus?

Who Is Jesus, Really?

One could say, “He is the Son of God, the One who died to save us from sin, who taught and performed miracles, and who came to redeem the lost.” These are all factual statements. But I want to go deeper than the answers that Wikipedia can recite.

The question I’d like to discuss is who is Jesus to you and to me? Who is He, really? Is He the Jesus of intellect and reason that Oswald Chambers mentions? Is He the Jesus of the Bible stories we grew up with or the Jesus from historical textbooks? Intellect helps us learn about Jesus (and that has value), but faith draws us into the living relationship where knowledge becomes love.

From Intellect to Relationship

We can know about someone, that’s the intellect. Alternatively, we can know someone in the context of a relationship. For a relationship to grow, it must be cultivated and nurtured. There is only one way I know of to develop an intimate relationship, and that is through time—sharing, listening, and being with one another. When we nurture a relationship, we cultivate trust. Trusting in someone without reservation allows us to depend entirely on who they are, what they say, and what they will do.

He Can and He Will

Faith and trust directly correlate to who we believe the Lord is. Faith is believing the Lord can do it. Trust is believing that He will do it. Do we (do I) have confidence in that? I’ve recently noticed that I am much better at believing the Lord can do something rather than He will do something. For example, I know He can give me the words for each week’s blog, but do I have trust that He will? When my trust falters, and I don’t believe the Lord will provide, stress and unrest quickly settle in. Faltering faith means I have forgotten His promises.

The Gift of Grace

But grace–the supernatural gift that strengthens both faith and trust–reminds us that we can live in dependency, rest, and contentment. We weren’t made to live in chaos or anxiety, though so often we reside there. Jesus invites us into something far better—peace, rest, and freedom that flow from the gift of grace.

The Jesus We Know by Heart

Who is Jesus to me? He is my Provider, Protector, Deliverer, Healer, Shepherd, and my Abba. And He promises rest for my soul and yours. As 2 Corinthians 5:7 reminds us, “we walk by faith, not by sight.” We don’t need a map; we don’t need to see where we are going or how things will turn out. When our heart trusts the One we follow, not only can He–He will.

Reflection

• Who is Jesus to you today? 
• Where might the Lord be inviting you to trust Him more deeply?
• Read Hebrews 11