Why Is It So Hard to Trust God?
“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” Jeremiah 2: 13.
In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah is rebuking God’s people for turning away from Him to get their needs met. To read the entire chapter for context, click here.
Naomi and the Prodigal Learned to Trust God the Hard Way
This is what Naomi did when she went to Moab to find food- to get her needs met. And what was the result: “I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty” Ruth 1: 21.
This is also what the prodigal son did: “And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!'” Luke 15: 16, 17.
Both of them had an unmet need. Both turned away from their God and to sin to try to get that need met. And they both learned the hard way that trying to meet their need in their own way apart from God was “broken cisterns that can hold no water“.
Why Is It So Hard to Trust God?
Why are we so tempted to turn from the “fountain of living waters” and dig our own worthless cisterns instead?
Because the path to life is the narrow path of affliction, trouble and suffering tribulation. This is the definition or the word narrow according to Strong’s Bible Dictionary. It involves death to sin, needs, self, life. It is the path of self-restraint, self-control and self-denial.
The path of destruction, on the other hand, is broad and pleasant and deceptively easy (Mathew 7: 13, 14). It is the road to self-indulgence, self-gratification, and immediate rewards. On this path, you can get your needs met right now. You don’t have to trust God or wait.
Faith and Patience Required
But the way to life and blessings and promise requires faith and patience (Hebrews 6: 12). We have to trust God to meet our need rather than trying to meet it with sin. And we have to wait for Him to do it.
The path that leads to the fountain of living waters is hard and uncomfortable and unpleasant.
The cistern represents a concrete, tangible way to get our need met, so we don’t have to trust God. But we don’t realize it’s broken and can’t meet our need until we’ve reached it.
To read another post related to Why Is It So Hard to Trust God?, see To Trust and Obey Feels Like a Threat to Your Well-being.