To trust is not always easy.

During our holidays my wife and I took a one-week road trip through the beautiful province of Quebec.

One of the items… or more specifically one of the gadgets that we took along was a GPS.

A GPS (Global Positioning System) is designed to give directions to the driver, both visually and audibly, assisting the driver to the desired destination. As we found out on our road trip it was a handy gadget to have, because not only did it give us directions, but it identified places of interest to visit, how long it would take to get from one place to the next…and of course the closest Tim Horton’s for the occasional pit stop!

As those who are familiar with GPS can confirm, there is an element of trust that is needed when using them.  When the GPS had determined the route to the desired destination the decision was ours to either trust or reject the decision that the GPS had already made.

At one point on our journey, the GPS indicated that we should stay right, but I thought it would be better to turn left. Mistake! “Re-calculating, Re-calculating, Re-calculating” the voice said from the GPS. As I said, to trust is not always easy.

At another point in the journey, the GPS indicated that there was “severe traffic ahead” and re-routed us onto a different and unfamiliar route. We were glad we trusted – because it saved us from sitting in a traffic jam, saved us some time and allowed us to see a part of Montreal that we had not travelled through before.

There are benefits to trusting.

It occurred to me that our relationship with the triune God of grace also requires a response of trust on our part. In other words there is a response of trust that we need to make…to respond to a decision that God has already taken for us in Jesus Christ. Sort of like my GPS.

The good news of Christianity is that my existence has already been brought under God’s sovereign grace in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The good news is that my destiny has already been laid hold of by Christ and determined by his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. I am saved not because of my own act of faith or decision, but according to the New Testament what has saved me is the obedience of Christ, and it is through his Spirit that I have a share in his obedience.* Thus my decision rests upon a decision already made for me…and for you…out of love on the cross and the empty tomb.

So will we trust? It is not always easy…sometimes there is “re-calculating” needed…but when we trust in what God in Christ has already done for us, our destination is assured.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”    Galatians 2:20

Pastor Ian McWhinnie

* T. Torrance  Incarnation p.27