Anniversary...Faith and Trust

Well to me me this has been a great week. My wife and I celebrated our 11th anniversary yesterday. We didn't do anything big, but we had a great time. We went out and had dinner and just hung out together for a couple hours without the kids. It's times like that I realize why I love my wife so much. I feel comfortable and natural around her. I can be myself and not have to worry about how she perceives me. I know she loves me and accepts me as I am. Maybe there's a tie in here to my last post.

If I can feel that way in my relationship with my wife why is it hard to feel that way in my relationship with God. Why can't we just hangout, and why can't I feel comfortable and natural around him. I think that's the way God wants it, I think that's the way our relationship should be.

I just began reading a book by Brennan Manning called "Ruthless Trust" and the first chapter hit me square between the eyes. He talked about our relationship with God moving beyond faith and into trust. To me the difference between faith and trust is same difference between belief and action. James said something similar like, "faith without works [action] is dead".

It takes a lot of courage to fall in love, get married, have children, the whole nine...but after 11 years I can say I'm glad I trusted myself and my wife and made the decisions we've made. It takes even more courage to trust in God and his promises and to begin to act on them. I'm hoping this year that in my relationship with God I can begin to experience the same rewards I've been able to experience with the relationship with my wife. I'm hoping this year I can trust God a whole lot more then I have in the past. In fact I'm trusting him right now that he will make it happen.

Rich