Without a doubt, the most important relationship we will ever have is our relationship with God. Only God can enter our deepest heart and heal our wounded and sin-sick soul. Only God can give us the unfailing love we so desperately crave. Only God can be our sure foundation, our rock, and our refuge in an upside-down, topsy-turvy world that, at times, makes no sense to our human understanding.

Many people don’t experience the reality of God. They don’t see him as a very present help in times of trouble, or as their faithful friend, Father, Shepherd, or King. Rather, they see him as distant and find it difficult to trust him or totally rely on him even when things are going well in their lives.

Since intimate communion with God is so vital to our well-being now and eternally, I’m going to spend a few weeks looking at some of the things that hinder deeper intimacy with God.

Unbelief

Everyone struggles with unbelief, even believers. We want to trust God but sometimes our own internal voices speak much louder so that we can’t hear God or don’t trust what he tells us is true.

Let’s put unbelief in human terms. What kind of relationship would you have with someone if you didn’t trust what he or she told you or didn’t believe that they truly cared about you? When we distrust God and his concern for us, we can’t feel close with him. It’s impossible. The remedy for unbelief is trust. He tells us, “Trust me with your whole heart. Don’t depend upon your own way of looking at things.  In every way look for me and I will direct your steps” (Proverbs 3:5-6 my own paraphrase).

Jesus tells his disciples, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1). Trust Jesus. This sounds too simple, yet Jesus tells us that when we trust him, we don’t get so rattled by life (John 16:33). The opposite of trust is unbelief. A.W. Tozer writes, “Unbelief is a deadly sin. Among all created beings, not one dare trust in itself. God alone trusts in Himself, all other beings must trust in Him. Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust not in the living God but in dying man.”

Doubt is not the same as unbelief. God may use our doubt to build and refine our faith. However, when we struggle with doubt and we’re not careful, we can quickly slip into unbelief. Satan is more than happy to create severe turmoil in our life in an attempt to get us to disbelieve God’s goodness and love for us (see Job 1:1-11).

Satan isn’t the only one that sows seeds of doubt and unbelief. Our world has a way of thinking about life that is contrary to God’s wisdom. When we feed ourselves a steady diet of worldly wisdom through what we read and watch on television, confusion and doubt creep in often rendering us incapable of discerning what is true, good, right, and helpful (James 3:13-18).

We can do some things that make faith more likely to take root in the garden of our heart. One of those things is meditatively reading God’s word. When you come upon something in the Bible you struggle with, be honest with yourself. Ask God, “Do I trust what you’re telling me here?” Ask him to show you your doubts and unbelief. What things are you afraid to believe God about? Where do you find yourself trusting in your own version of truth instead of what God tells you? Like the desperate young father in the biblical account who wanted to believe God more, ask God to increase your faith (Mark 9:24). Then we must take that next step and choose to trust. Trust is an act of our will and, in my life, is often done minute by minute, decision by decision, incident by incident. Sometimes I find it easier than other times, but the more I journey along this faith walk, the more I trust God. He is faithful.

Another way I find that my faith grows is to spend more time in nature. Observing God’s creation, his power, and his ordered orchestration of the universe reminds me of my smallness and his greatness and moves my heart to praise and worship. When I see all he has made and how wonderfully it all fits together, my faith increases and my willingness to trust God with the details of my life grows.

God loves it when we diligently seek him and chose to trust him. It delights his heart when his creation desires to know him, and we yield ourselves in humble, childlike trust.