Faith as Trust

by Archbishop Michael

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5–6)

There is a huge difference between declaring one’s belief that something exists or happened and declaring belief in something or someone. In the Nicene Creed, we do not say, “I believe that there is a God,” but rather we affirm, “I believe in One God.” It is possible for me to believe that someone or something exists without that belief having any practical effect upon my life.

So, for instance, I can open up a telephone directory and find the names and phone numbers of many of a city’s residents. Thus, I am prepared to believe that these people (or at least most of them) actually do exist. But I don’t know any of them personally; I have never visited them, and my belief that they exist has no effect whatsoever in my life.

On the other hand, when I say to a much-beloved family member or friend, “I believe in you,” I am expressing far more than the notion that this person exists. “I believe in you” means that I turn to that person, I rely upon that individual, I put my full trust in that person, I hope in that individual. This is precisely what we are saying to God when we recite the Creed.

Faith in God is not the conclusion of our reasoning or the certainty of our logic. To believe in God is not to accept the possibility of His existence, because it has been “proven” to us by some argument, but it is to put our trust in the One Whom we know and love. Faith is not the reasoned conclusion that something might be true; it is the assurance that Someone is there.

This means that faith is not a logical certainty but a personal relationship. Because this personal relationship is as yet incomplete in each of us and needs to continually develop further, it is very possible for our faith to co-exist with our doubt. There are some of us who, by God’s grace, retain throughout their lifetime the faith of a child. As such, they are able to accept all that they have been taught without question. My dear grandmother was like that. But for most of us who live in our western, technological world, such an attitude is hardly possible. We have to make our own the cry of the father in the Gospel account: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

For most of us this will remain our constant prayer, right up to the very moment we close our eyes to this world. Yet, in itself, this doubt does not signify a lack of faith. In fact, it may actually mean the opposite— that our faith is alive and striving and growing! For faith implies not complacency or apathy, but taking risks. Faith implies not shutting ourselves off from the unknown, but rather advancing boldly to meet the unknown, having God with us.

The pages of the Bible provide us with two incredible examples of such a personal, living, and trusting faith. From the Old Testament, there is an account of unimaginable sacrifice that required incredible faith—the story of Abraham and Isaac (Gen. 22). For parents, this is perhaps the most gut-wrenching story in all of Scripture. It is difficult to comprehend the faith it would take to offer the life of our own child to God. And yet, this is precisely what Abraham was prepared to do, in obedience, with his own son Isaac. The tension in this passage is excruciating—especially when Isaac realizes that something is wrong, and he asks his father: “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham, having nothing other than real trust in the character and goodness of God, replied: “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” After journeying to the top of Mount Moriah, Abraham placed his bound son upon the altar and raised his knife. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord cried out from Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham! Do not lay a hand on the boy!” Abraham looked up to see a ram caught in a thicket. God had indeed provided the sacrifice, and Isaac was set free to new life.

Abraham’s trust in God is the greatest example of faith in the Old Testament, one which came at the cost of unimaginable emotional pain and suffering. But it is also one of the clearest pictures we have of the Gospel message from the pages of the Covenant of old: A loving father who was willing to sacrifice his one and only son… only to have this son returned to him alive!

Along with this stirring story, there are other accounts from the Old Testament that reflect faith as trust in God, such as the parting of the Red Sea, the collapse of the walls of Jericho, and the three youths in the fiery furnace. But none of these is “more impossible” than the Virgin bearing within her womb the Incarnate Son of God! Yet this is exactly what we read in the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel account— that the angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin named Mary and told her: “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”

The choice placed before the Theotokos would forever change her life. To embrace God’s plan would result in a cloud of suspicion and shame hanging over her and her family. It would cause her heart to suffer untold pain and grief, as her Son would suffer a brutal and unjust death on the Cross. It would place her on the front lines of the eternal struggle between the forces of Heaven and hell.

Yet, in spite of all these things, Mary said to Gabriel, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.” What a powerful statement of faith! And, in response, the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 was fulfilled: “The Virgin will conceive and bear a Son, and will call Him ‘Emmanuel’ (which means ‘God is with us’).” The Theotokos’ words are an example to all who would follow the Lord in faith. No matter what the obstacle, no matter what the cost or the danger, we all would do well to make the words of the Virgin Mary our own personal declaration of faith: “I am the handmaid (or the servant) of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.”

Faith, then, as we see from the examples of Abraham and the Theotokos, signifies a personal relationship with God—a relationship that is incomplete and faltering, but nonetheless real. It is to know God not as a theory or an abstract principle, but as a person. To know a person is essentially to love him or her; there can be no true awareness of other persons without mutual love. We don’t have any genuine knowledge of those whom we hate or those who are strangers. So, we have two simple and clear ways of speaking about the God Who surpasses all understanding—He is personal, and He is love. And these are really two ways of saying the same thing. One way of entering into the mystery of God is through personal love. And we do that with a faith that is trust. As we read in The Cloud of Unknowing, “He may well be loved, but not thought. By love He can be caught and held, but by thinking never.”

Seek Him with Your Whole Heart In the 11th century, Saint Symeon the New Theologian described how Christ revealed Himself in a vision of light to the monastic:

“You shone upon me with brilliant radiance and, so it seemed, You appeared to me in Your wholeness, as with my whole self I gazed openly upon You. And when I said, ‘Master, who are You?’, then You were pleased to speak for the first time with me, the prodigal. With what gentleness did You talk to me, as I stood astonished and trembling, as I reflected a little within myself and said: ‘What does this glory and this dazzling brightness mean? How is it that I am chosen to receive such great blessings?’ … ‘I am God,’ You replied, ‘Who became man for Your sake; and because you have sought Me with your whole heart, see from this time onwards you shall be My brother, My fellow-heir, and My friend.’”

Solomon the wise tells us, across the cavalcade of three thousand years: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5–6). For He is the One Who loves us more than we love ourselves!

The Most Rev. Michael (Dahulich) is the Archbishop of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey (OCA). He is also the Rector of Saint Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary.