Genesis 22 + Psalm 18
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Genesis 22:15-18
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
James 2:21-22
It is not Abraham's action of bringing his son to the altar that pleases God, but it is his faith. Abraham's faith is revealed through his action and through his obedience. It is an important differentiation because we are not justified in Christ by what we do; we are justified by what we believe. The caveat to this is that our beliefs should shape our actions. If someone says that they believe something but do not act accordingly, it would not be wrong to doubt their beliefs. If we want to develop trust with other people and with God, then our actions must align with what we believe. So if we believe God's word to be true, then we would act in alignment with God's word. This is something that I feel very passionate about because I think the best reasoning for why we do something is because God said so. The whole "so and so said so" argument can fall apart pretty quickly if we are talking about a human, but if we are talking about God and we believe His word is truth and we act in alignment with His word then we use His word as the foundation of why we do what we do and "God said so" makes sense.
Trusting in God is something that can grow exponentially. If we trust in God with a little, then we can begin to trust Him more until we trust Him with everything. Abraham trusted which leads him to call out "the Lord will provide" in verse 14 because God saved Isaac from the sacrifice.
With the merciful you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
Psalm 18:25-26
God is merciful, blameless, and pure. The one who is willing to seek after God and trust Him will see God for who He is, just as Abraham saw God's faithfulness because he was faithful. The one who lives a life contrary to God, a life that is evil and filled with sin, will view God as torturous. Psalm 18 says "seem tortuous" implying that God is not actually torturous and that the person's perception makes God seem torturous. It is no wonder then that wicked people question how a good God allows evil, implying that God himself is evil rather than good whereas a faithful person would see God's deliverance of good in an evil world.
If we believe that God will provide, then we will trust Him and our actions will be aligned with His word. If we believe that God is torturous, then we will act contrary to His word because we do not trust Him. The more we put our trust into God, the more that He will reveal His mercy, His love, and His holiness.
There are not many practical ways I can think of for developing trust beyond learning to trust with a little so then we can trust with a lot.
