God is reliable now, as he was in the past and will be in the future

I confess that I sometimes struggle with the truth that God is reliable.

That's embarrassing for me to admit, considering the nature of inspiration-for-singles.com, but I promised to be truthful with you.

Recently my health insurance premium jumped 30 percent in one month. As I was reading the letter, a sense of panic hit me. Charles Stanley, a respected author and preacher, calls a shock like that "getting blindsided."

You've probably seen a football game (American football, not soccer), in which the quarterback gets sacked unexpectedly by a tackler he didn't even see coming--from his "blind" side.

That's exactly how I felt.

A day or two later, after I had settled down, I felt ashamed and confused. God has taken care of me very well to this point in my life. God is reliable. He's proven himself to me time after time after time. And yet I had doubts. Why did I feel that way?

In good company

It was no consolation that by doubting, I was in good company. The apostle Thomas, no matter how much good he later did in his lifetime, has forever been nicknamed "Doubting Thomas" because he wouldn't believe Jesus had risen from the dead unless he touched the Savior himself.

And Thomas wasn't the only one. Jesus was constantly asking his apostles why they doubted and why they had little faith.

Like Thomas, we all tend to be stuck in the material world. We want visible, touchable, solid proof. We've been scammed by politicians, businesses, and sometimes even friends or relatives.

More credible than God?

We often put our life in other people's hands. We're willing to trust our life to an airline pilot, bus driver, or even a niece or nephew who just got their driver's license.

We trust our doctor with our life. We trust our pastor to tell us the truth. We trust investment advisers, insurance agents, and banks. We put a lot of trust in fallible, imperfect human beings, and yet we can't belive that God is reliable.

So why do we trust these people more than we trust God? Is it just because they're visible, and he's not? Is it because we don't understand how he's going to help us? Or is it because as hurt human beings, we're basically cynical?

Maybe, deep down inside of us, God sounds too good to be true.

God is patient with us

Sometimes Jesus sounded exasperated with his disciples. After all, they had lived and traveled with him every day for three years. They'd seen him do astounding miracles, like raise people from the dead, cure the blind, and feed huge crowds with a few fish and loaves of bread. You'd think after experiences like that, even the most doubtful men would have been convinced that God is reliable.

There's a disconnect between our world and God's world. We know limitations and have limitations. He has none.

We can't do much. He can do anything. We are weak, both in faith and courage. He is all-powerful.

Those aren't excuses for us. They're just explanations. Maintaining our faith is a lifelong struggle. Just when we think we're making progress, something comes along, through no fault of our own, to hit us from the blind side.

So if you've doubted God lately, like I did, don't beat yourself up either. God is supernaturally patient with us. He's forgiving. Understanding. And most of all, head over heels in love with us. Yes, God is reliable.

Thanks, God, for being patient with me. I've got a lot to learn and a long way to go. Next time I'll try to remember how far we've come together, and that you're not going to stop taking care of me. Ever.

How to stop second guessing God...

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