Do You Trust God?
Spring has officially sprung in Florida. Even Minnesota has temperatures above freezing. On beautiful spring days, it’s easy to throw all of our cares away. With this lovely warm weather and a clear, cloudless sky, God’s blessings and beauty are abundant and apparent everywhere we look, making it easy for us to sing God’s praises and trust in his goodness.
But what happens when the sky gets cloudy or those spring-like temperatures disappear and the snow comes back one last time? How much do we praise God and trust in his goodness then?
It is easy to trust God when things are going our way but how much do we trust God when things are not going our way? So many times we fail to trust God in the middle of problems that we ourselves have caused. Have we been trying to purchase temporary happiness in the form of material goods? Have we forgotten about our Catholic money management plan, spending too much on last week’s shopping spree? Do we really trust God to provide for our needs or are we taking things into our own hands by trying to fulfill our every want? Are we trying to find peace, contentment, happiness and security in material possessions, instead of trusting in God to provide them?
It is interesting to note that our money is imprinted with the statement “In God we Trust”. Yet so many times our spending does not reflect trust in God. Instead of trusting God to provide for our needs, we focus on fulfilling our every want. Instead of being grateful for what we do have, we focus on what we do not have.
In spreading his message of love and hope to the world, Jesus performed a number of miracles, including raising Lazarus from the dead. Martha, Mary, and those with them were incredulous. As stated in John 11:40, “Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’”
In passages such as these, God explicitly demonstrates the path to happiness. We need to believe in him and we need to trust him. Even when times get hard, God will reveal that something better is awaiting us. In the realm of Catholic money management, we must trust God’s word, and show that trust through careful spending, thoughtful savings, generous giving and unbounded gratitude.
When we stop focusing on trying to fulfill our wants, when we live a life of gratitude, when we are thankful for the gifts we have been given, it is easy to see that God is providing all that we need. We just need to trust in him.
