Trust or Dust
Is it Trust…or is it Dust?
There are three things my flesh constantly seeks when it feels uncomfortable: control, comfort, or escape. None of these are holy or carry the breath of God. They lack life, divine power, and peace. They are empty cisterns that leave a dry taste in my mouth, never satisfied or secure.
The truth is, we crave something tangible—something we can hold onto with certainty and fool ourselves into thinking we have a situation figured out. We convince ourselves that we have control, yet we wonder why the fear won’t stop.
But trust in God is a declaration of invisible dependence on Someone we cannot see. It reveals our powerlessness and reminds us of our humanity. We are aware of our inability to save ourselves. In a world where everything we could ever want is at our fingertips, the lack of control is intolerable to those who lack humility. Waiting on the Lord has become a profanity, going against our instant gratification and impulsive nature. Long suffering is a relic of past glory, holy days gone by.
Our flesh cries out, “I want to feel better right now. I want healing right now. I want the answer now!” But God says, “Those who wait on me will mount up on wings like eagles and run and not grow weary.”
Like the Israelites, we form a golden calf to calm our anxious hearts. And like Moses, God grinds our idols into a powdery dust and makes us drink from the cup we worship. Our idols make us nauseous because they were never meant to sustain or hold us.
Only God can satisfy what we try to pacify.
This is a sobering and convicting reality.
Just barely three months after one of the most remarkable miracles in history—the parting of the Red Sea—the children of God begin to lack faith. Their leader, Moses, has disappeared from their sight, and fear begins to erode their sanity. They dismissively refer to Moses as “this Moses” and demand a “little g” to replace him. His absence—forty days—feels like a lifetime.
I wish we could say we are different. But how quick are we to swap the truth for a lie out of fear, anxiety, doubt, and impatience?
The newly freed Israelites took their gold jewelry, melted it down, and made a golden calf to worship in place of God. And today, we take our finances, relationships, addictions, and status, and worship at the altar of comfort and control.
When Moses came down from the mountain and saw their unfaithfulness, he was outraged and grieved over their lack of trust in God.
“So, Moses took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it” (Exodus 32:20).
We will never learn how to run with endurance if we keep trading trust for dust.
God grinds our idols down to powdery ash to remind us that they are finite, futile, and fleeting. His sovereignty is infinite, and dust is His domain.
He formed us from dust, and from dust we shall return. He drew redemption in the dust near the woman covered in shame. He breathes into dry bones, and life sparks hope again as they begin to dance. Our idols crumble like sand, and we are left with a choice:
Dust? Or trust?
When God is not on our schedule, or we think He’s not present, we can easily reach for a golden calf to numb our pain and ease our discomfort. Our flesh cries out against long suffering, and we stomp our feet like children demanding from our false gods what God so generously offers His children who trust His timing: peace.
Not a false or fleeting peace, but real and lasting, genuine knowing that God is the Author and Perfector of our faith. No other god will love, discipline, deliver, or heal like the One true God, who is still parting Red Seas and setting captives free.
If you are waking up sick with regret or paralyzed by demoralization, check to see what you are drinking. Is it a powdered version of something you are worshiping?
Only Living Water can redeem the dust.
Come, drink deeply from the pure, uncontaminated fountain of life.
