Let’s be honest: Don’t we sometimes get suspicious of God?
According to Merriam-Webster, suspicion is “a state of mental uneasiness and uncertainty.” To be suspicious is to be “disposed to suspect; distrust.” So ask the question again, Do you get suspicious of God?
It’s a provocative question because “suspicious” sounds like such a strong term. We can be suspicious of people who have immoral pasts, or of people who have wronged us, or of people we think might be trying to con us. But of God?
Yes. Even of God. It’s helpful to admit this. When things aren’t going our way, we can become suspicious. When we look at a certain evil or injustice in the world, we can become disposed to suspect that God doesn’t care or doesn’t know what he’s doing. We start to become uncertain and uneasy not just about our circumstances, but about him.
Suspicion and a Lack of Trust
I was recently reading a book that described distrust in God like this, as suspicion of God. And the term is especially insightful when we talk about trusting God because it directs us to what’s truly going on in our lack of trust in God.
Here’s what I mean: When we speak of a “lack of trust” we usually focus on ourselves. We distrust. We’re the ones who lack faith. But when we talk about being “suspicious,” we immediately think about the person in question. “Lack of trust” usually points us to ourselves, while “suspicion” directs us to consider why we don’t trust the person. When we’re suspicious, we think about who they are, their influence on the issue at hand, and the reasons for why we don’t trust them.
And such suspicion exists when we don’t trust God. Our lack of faith isn’t mainly about our distrust; it stems from a suspicion of him.
We don’t trust him in those moments because we don’t think he’s trustworthy. Whether that means we don’t think he cares for us, loves us, or is in control of the moment, the issue is our lack of trust in him. We’re suspicious of him, thinking perhaps something we believe about him isn’t true. We start to suspect his ability, his grace, his love, and his involvement isn’t what we thought.
A Cure
What then is the cure to such suspiciousness of God? How can we stop being suspicious of him?
As with so many other issues, the cure for suspiciousness of God is to look at the gospel of Christ.
Milton Vincent, in his book A Gospel Primer for Christians, writes, “The gospel cures me of my suspicion of God” (18). His point is that when we’re suspicious of God, we can look at what he did in the gospel to know that we have no reason to be suspicious. We can look to how God cared for rebels, came and bled for us, and graciously promises us joy-forevermore, and we can have confidence that if he accomplishes that, then he is trustworthy (or, not worthy of suspicion) in whatever circumstance we’re facing.
Paul in Romans 8:31-32 expresses the same idea when he writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” The logic is straight-forward: If God accomplished the gospel for us (the gospel which says that he sent his Son to suffer and die, the gospel which is bringing us home to glory; may we let the gospel truly sink in), then of course he is for us and will give us whatever he knows we need. If he can do that—if he can accomplish that massive, infinitely gracious, personal, eternal salvation for you and me—then why would we be suspicious of him, thinking that he doesn’t care or doesn’t know what he’s doing in our lives right now?
Fight Suspicion with the Historical Gospel
This is how we fight against suspicion of God. We don’t just say, “I should stop being suspicious of God’s love because I know God is loving.” That’s true. But we can go deeper. We don’t just say, “I know God is loving,” we also look to historical, gospel realities which prove his love.
The apostle John used proofs like this when he penned his infamous “God is love.” As Christians who trust in God and his love, we don’t just say to ourselves, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8), we reason with historical events which prove that “God is love.” John continues on, “God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:8-9). But not only that, as Christians who believe and prove that “God is love,” we particularly focus on the historical event of the cross for our proof: “God is love…In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:8, 10).
So our cure for our suspicion of God is the gospel of God. The cure for our distrust in our circumstances is to see what God has done for us in the gospel in the past (and to take his gospel promises of what he’ll do in the future). When our historical circumstances arise that cause us to distrust him, we look to what he has already done in history in the gospel which proves that we have no reason to be suspicious.
And as we look more and more at his gospel, we’ll continually learn that because of the gospel not only do we not need to be suspicious, but we have every reason to say, “God is for me.”
