Faith vs. Trust: When Believing Isn't Enough

Lately, God has been quietly wrecking my understanding of two words I always treated as exactly the same: Faith and Trust. For years, I used them interchangeably. But recently, God has been showing me just how wrong I was—and how much harder it is to actually trust Him.

Allow me a brief moment to explain.

The Bible tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. We have to believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Hebrews defines faith as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” But if faith is simply believing, how do we explain the father in the book of Mark? Desperate for Jesus to heal his afflicted son, the father asked if Jesus could do anything. Jesus replied, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father’s immediate, heartbroken response was: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” How could this man have faith, but at the exact same time, lack it? I think what he was really crying out was: "Lord, I have faith... but help me to trust You." 

The Chair and the Tightrope

I’ve heard the difference between faith and trust explained like this: Faith is believing that a chair is structurally sound enough to hold your weight without collapsing. Trust is actually sitting down in it.

All of the disciples had faith in Jesus while the storm raged around them. But only Peter had the trust to physically step over the edge of the boat. Abraham had faith that God could raise his son from the dead, but he demonstrated his trust by actually placing Isaac on the altar.

When the Lord first started untangling this truth in my mind, I was reminded of a story popularized by Paul Harvey about Charles Blondin, the famous 19th-century acrobat.  Charles Blondin was the first person to cross the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope. He did it so many times it became a massive spectacle. He crossed it blindfolded, in a sack, and on stilts. Once, he even carried a cast-iron stove on his back, stopped halfway across, cooked an omelet, and lowered it to a boat below before finishing his walk.

One day, he pushed a wooden wheelbarrow across the tightrope. When he safely reached the other side, he looked out at the massive, cheering crowd.

"Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?" he asked. 

"Yes! We believe you!" the crowd roared. 

"Do you truly believe I can do it?" he pressed. 

"Yes! Yes! We believe!" they shouted back.  Blondin looked at them and simply asked, "Okay. Who will get in the wheelbarrow?"

The crowd went dead silent. Not a single person was willing to bet their life on it. It was incredibly easy to have faith when the stakes belonged to someone else.

Eventually, someone did get in. His manager, Harry Colcord, put his faith in Blondin into action by trusting him enough to climb on his back for a crossing. To this day, it stands as one of the greatest visual analogies of the difference between faith and trust.

Putting Legs on Our Faith

In the book of James, we are told that "faith without works is dead." James was saying that his trust in God was what enabled him to put boots on the ground. Trust is simply faith in action. It is sitting in the chair. It is climbing into the wheelbarrow over a raging river.

Over the last several months, the Lord has been challenging me directly. I would pray, "Lord, I have faith in You," and I could almost feel Him smile as He whispered back to my heart, "Then let go of the wheel." It wasn't enough for me to just intellectually know that He could handle my situations. He was urging me to demonstrate my faith by actually surrendering the outcome. At other times, He would lead me to make a move that I couldn't take back. Gently, He would speak to my soul: "Shayne, trust Me. Take the step and don't look back." I did what He asked, and I haven't regretted a single moment of it.

Is He asking you to step out of the boat right now? Is He prompting you to demonstrate your faith by sacrificially giving something up, or walking away from something comfortable?

I know it’s not easy. I know it can be downright terrifying when you are staring down at the concrete and the cold. But I can personally promise you this: if you exercise your faith by taking that step of trust, He is not going to let you fall without catching you.