Trust in God

There’s an inspiring passage from The Book of Habakkuk where the author describes the attitude of a person whose world has come apart –they have lost their livelihood and income, everything! The bottom has fallen out of their world, as happens to countless numbers of people every day, especially in war zones and many other areas of life. Yet the author, faced with such a huge calamity, can still say, ‘Yet I will rejoice in the Lord / and exult in God my saviour / The Lord my God is my strength’ (Habakkuk 3:18–19). That is just one of the extraordinary acts of trust in God found throughout the Bible. That’s the kind of faith involved in ‘I believe in God.’ At such times, many of us may not be able to make such an act of trust as it seems to defy the odds. We simply allow ourselves to be carried along by the prayerful trust of our faith community as if we’re stowaways on their prayers. Experience also confirms that those with a deep trusting faith are supported by their conviction that God can be relied on, especially during difficult times, because the Bible reassures us that God is on the side of the broken-hearted.

Jim Maher SJ, Reimagining Religion: A Jesuit Vision