The One Thing That Displeases God—Even More Than Sin Itself?

What this article is about:

How a lack of trust in God the Father—more than sin itself—deeply displeases Him and limits His work in our lives.

What you will find in this article:

• A striking spiritual insight: we often treat God with distrust—professing belief while living in worry and distrust
• The distinction between sin (seeking good wrongly) and distrust (an affront to God’s goodness and power)
• Christ as the perfect model of trust
• A call for men—especially fathers—to live with radical trust in God amid trials, family struggles, and suffering
• A practical starting point for deeper trust

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The One Thing That Displeases God—Even More Than Sin Itself?

What Displeases God?

My daughter, Anna Marie, offered me an opportunity to enter into God the Father’s heart.
Anna Marie is twenty-four years old and suffers from Acquired Brain Injury.
Consequently, she suffers from extreme cerebral palsy and is confined to her wheelchair.

As the 90’s alternative band Live, in their song Selling the Drama, put it, “For Christ the Cross; for me, this chair.”

Indeed, Anna’s wheelchair is her cross to which she is confined.

Coupled with her CP, Anna’s spine, which is in the shape of an ‘S’ due to her scoliosis, juts out into her belly region (lordosis).

As a result, her body has become contorted, twisted, and deformed.
Anna Marie experiences consistent low-level psychosis.

Occasionally, she is hospitalized for severe derangement and debilitating bouts of madness.

Anna relies entirely on others for clothing, feeding, bathing, tooth brushing, diaper changes, and catheter care.
You name it, others do it for Anna.

Because of her dependency on others, Anna has become a professional worrier.
She worries about nearly everything.
Because she cannot control anything.

Kim (my wife) and I spend each day reassuring her that everything is okay and that there is nothing to worry about.
Nevertheless, she worries.

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My Daughter’s Distrust

Yesterday was no different.
After spending a couple of hours at her day-hab, Anna returned home.
As I approached the handicap accessible van, Dan, the driver, rolled down the window and said, “I’ll need your help. It looks like the battery on her wheelchair is dead.”

He didn’t need to say anything more.
Because I knew that Anna Marie was freaking out.

Sure enough, as the sliding door opened, I saw Anna Marie, tense, eyes as big as saucers, seized with alarm.
Immediately, I assured her, “Anna, don’t worry. I’ll get you out of the van, and we will charge your battery.”

Nevertheless, Anna, tight-fisted, her arms up in fear—like a bank robber caught by the cops—continued to worry.
Afterward, I rolled her and her wheelchair down the van ramp.

Because it was one of the thirty days of incredible weather in good old Iowa, I decided that Anna and I would sit together on the driveway and soak in the sun.
I ventured into the garage, plugged an extension cord into the wall outlet, and connected it to her wheelchair’s charging port.

There Anna and I sat, soaking in the sun.
Of course, Anna Marie could not drive away because her chair was not working.
Additionally, I could not leave her.
The two of us were stuck together.

Although I solved her dilemma, Anna—as she always does—became fixated on the problem at hand.

Anna lacks trust.

She consistently worries and complains.
Anna voiced her concern about the wheelchair losing power at least a dozen times.
Despite my efforts, Anna Marie repeatedly returned to her concerns and worries.

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Don’t You Trust Your Father?

Finally, I became a bit exasperated.
As a result, I asked her, “Anna, don’t you trust me? Don’t you trust your father? When have I let you down?”

Silence.

“Anna, haven’t I always come through for you?”
Anna mumbled, “I do trust you.”

However, I didn’t believe her.

Suddenly, I had a convicting thought, “Devin, this is how you are with God.”

Human fatherhood is an analogy for divine fatherhood and God’s relationship with us, his incredulous children.

In that moment, Anna became a lens through which I gained insight into God the Father’s heart.

In short, it was as though God the Father was speaking directly to me.

“Devin, don’t you trust me?”
“Why do you worry about things that you cannot control?”
“Haven’t I always come through for you?”
“Devin, don’t you trust your Father?”

Ugh.

“Father, I do trust you…”

As my rebuttal trailed off, I mumbled the other half of that truth, “But there are times when I don’t.”

My friend Greg says that we are self-proclaimed theists who are practicing agnostics.

Isn’t that the truth?
Indeed, I claim to believe, but often—in real-time—I fail to trust God the Father.
In other words, I worry like Anna.

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Is Lack of Trust Worse Than Sin?

Furthermore, I noticed how Anna’s distrust made me feel.
I felt pained and frustrated by Anna’s lack of trust in me.
Anna’s lack of trust frustrates me more than her deliberate defiance.

Why?

When Anna Marie “sins,” she is seeking good in the wrong way.
Her sin is not a direct affront (usually) against my fatherly love and authority.
However, I am offended by her lack of trust.

Why?

Her lack of trust offends me. It challenges my benevolence, my ability, my responsibility, and my consistent follow-through.

Accordingly, I began to ask God if this is the case with Him.
Meaning, is God displeased with my lack of trust?
Of course, God is not offended in the way that we humans are when our pride and ego are bruised by another.

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The Consequences of Not Trusting God

However, the Holy Spirit flooded my tiny brain with multiple examples from Holy Writ that confirmed that God is very displeased with our lack of trust in Him.

For example, the author of Hebrews warns us, “Without faith [trust] it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Notice that if we don’t trust God, it is not just unlikely or improbable to please God the Father.
It is impossible.

Moses Twelve Spies

Furthermore, Moses sent twelve hand-picked men, one from each tribe of Israel, to reconnoiter the Promised Land.
After 40 days, the Jewish reconnaissance team returned.
They recounted that the Gentile men who inhabited the land were like giants.

Indeed, “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come from the giants, and in our eyes we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.” (Numbers 13:33)

Only Joshua and Caleb believed that they could defeat these giants and obtain the Promised Land.

Because of the ten spies’ discouraging report, the people of Israel began to weep, to complain in fear, and ultimately to despair.

Consequently, God was so displeased with their lack of faith that he forbade their generation from entering the Promised Land, except for Joshua, Caleb, and their bloodlines.

Grumbling and Complaining in the Desert

Furthermore, the Israelites, during their exodus from Egypt, doubted that God would provide food for them.

Indeed, the Israelites vented their distrust of Moses and Aaron.

“Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt. When we sat over the flesh pots, and ate bread to the full. Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy all the multitude with famine?” (Exodus 16:3)

What was the result?
Specifically, God makes His solemn pronouncement:

Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts:
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, though they had seen all my works.
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so, I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.

Notice that the Israelites’ lack of trust in God offended Him deeply.
Why?

Because God has performed mighty works, delivering them from the enemy.
And yet, they still chose not to trust Him.

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What is the Essence of Sonship?

Hence, I had no need to search Sacred Scripture any further.
I understood the message God was communicating to me.

Precisely, God was reminding me that the essence of the true Son is trust in God the Father.
In fact, the True and Only Begotten Son exemplified this trustful abandonment in the garden, during His agony.

“Abba, Father, let this cup pass from Me. But not my will, but thine be done.”

Notice that the Son, Jesus, is well aware that Hell awaits Him.
His flesh feels the anguish of His impending torture and demise.
Nevertheless, Christ trusts His Father and submits to His Holy Will.

Fast forward to the end of the Lord Jesus’ paschal self-offering, just before he exhales his last breath.

He utters those confident words of trust, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.”

Hence, Jesus’ self-offering to His Father is bookended with two words of total confidence.
On the front side, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”
And the backside, “Into Thy Hands I commend My Spirit.”
In between the two is Christ’s patient, persevering sacrifice.

 

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Trust is Not Lip-Service

Expressing trust means facing the temptation to distrust.
An act of trust always demands a trial, a test, or a hardship.

Trust unlocks incredible blessings.

In fact, our Lord summons us to heroic levels of trust.
“All things are possible to the one who believes.” (Mark 9:23)

Precisely, Our Lord says this to a father whose son is a demon-possessed lunatic.
Therefore, this promise has tremendous implications for the human father.
In other words, God is specifically calling us fathers to trust that He can do the impossible.

Specifically, He can bring our wayward children back to the faith.
He can heal our broken and breaking marriages.
God can deliver each of us from our addictive and sinful bonds.
Indeed, He can do anything.

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God Won’t Do “Anything” Without Our Something

However, for God to do “anything,” we must do “something.”

Notice that Our Lord doesn’t say, “Some things are probable to the one who believes.”

No.

But notice something else.
Specifically, Jesus says that “All things are possible to the one who believes.”

Indeed, it is not Christ who has given up on our children, on our marriages, on our deliverance from vices.
We are the ones who have given up.

The main message: God the Father wishes to bless us, but calls us to trust Him deeply.
But our lack of trust limits His power in our lives.

This is why I believe that doubting or mistrusting God the Father displeases Him more than sin.
Why?
Because it is an affront against His power.

It is not that God lacks enough power, but rather that we lack enough faith.

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The First Step to Building Trust in God the Father

Let us return for a moment to Jesus’ agony in the garden.
The first word on Jesus’ lips is “Abba.”

For this reason, in moments of duress and trial, it ought to be the first word on our lips.

Abba is the key to unlocking new levels of trust.

God the Father could have asked Jesus, “Do You trust Your Father?”
And Jesus would have responded, “Abba, Father, I trust in You.”

My first step to trust God the Father, and His providential care for me, is to address Him as “Abba, Father.”
Indeed, when I address Him in this way, the barriers of formality, distance, and distrust wash away.
In fact, my experience has been that God the Father provides the grace and strength to trust Him all the more.

Indeed, St. Paul confirms this.
“For those who are led by the Spirit, cry out Abba, Father.”

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Are We Slaves of Fear or Sons of the Father?

More precisely, St. Paul differentiates a slave of fear from the son of God:

For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry: Abba! Father! (Romans 8:15)

A slave of the world distrusts the Father.
Whereas a true son trusts God the Father.

A trusting son of the Father is led by the Spirit.
Yes, the Spirit will lead a trusting son into the desert to be tested.
The tested son cries out Abba, Father, as Jesus did.
And the son who endures the test prays with confidence, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
In other words, “God I trust you with everything I am and have. I know you have this.”

Abba, Father, fill us with your Spirit that we may be true, holy, trusting sons of God.
For it is trusting sons who become trustworthy fathers.
And it is trusting fathers who reveal and reflect your Fatherhood. Amen.