God-focus and Trust

In a teaching given to sixteen thousand people on the virtue of trust (October 23, 2002), Pope John Paul II showed how in any expression of trust in God there is an implied derivative effect; it’s vetted in the cry of David in Psalm 86:11. This scriptural passage is essentially a petition for the gift of being totally God-focused; that is, the gift of single-heartedness (having undivided yearnings). In patterning our prayer after that of the psalmist, says the Pope, “every Christian . . . should cry out to God everywhere, while enduring trials, various temptations, and numerous scandals.” We should be, he says, “like a very small child, who without ulterior motives or self-interest, entrusts himself fully to his father’s leading as he sets out on the road of life.” (Quote from The National Catholic Register, 2003).

Thus, the sublimated form of faith called trust is neither faith in my faith, nor faith in my prayer, but a trustful faith in a trustworthy and faithful God who will never forsake me. This kind of total trust in God’s loving and gracious sovereignty is the antidote that quenches the forces of evil, sin, despair, and even the fear of death (see Ps 86:12-13 and 16:10-11).

“We often view trouble as an issue of ‘me’ versus ‘my circumstances,’” writes Joseph Stowell in The Upside of Down. “In reality, hope dawns when we refocus our thinking . . . on the One who controls our circumstances.”

Holiness is essentially union with God. As we focus on him, especially in prayer, we become more aware of that union; as we communicate with him in prayer, we start to commune with him in a communion of loving trust. While our relationship with God is diffused and not yet fully incubated by deep prayer, before the ultimate favored state is reached and sustained, we can pray only with a kind of blind, reckless abandon, “Lord, I trust that you are here!”

This excerpt is from the book Pathways of Trust, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Publications. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.