How would you answer that question? I was recently at a Christian event and the speaker, who was telling a story, said, “And like He always does, God came through and answered our prayers.” This is a statement about the reliability of God. But, as some friends and I noted afterward, it is a statement that is so far from being experientially true in our lives that it is remarkable that someone would say it in a room full of people. Yet it was said, and the expected reaction of the crowd was to nod our heads in agreement to an expression of faith. It is not unusual to hear this kind of expression in Christian circles. For me it has the feel of “The Emperor Has No Clothes” tale. That God can be relied on to always come through in answered prayer is not true, but to admit that is to be someone who lacks faith, so everyone pretends to believe it in order to promote and participate in a faithful environment. When you saw the title of this post, did you feel pressure to answer “Yes”, as if that is the answer you are supposed to give?

To admit that God is not reliable can feel like an accusation against His character. But, consider this definition of reliable from the internet. “People or things that are reliable can be trusted to work well or to behave in the way that you want them to.” According to this practical definition, God is not reliable, but it is not a character flaw. It is a reality that God has HIs own plans and ways of operating that are different from what we want. God chooses to behave in a way that does not always work well for us.

Someone might object and quote Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. If “all things work together for good” then God can be relied upon to work so that our lives turn out well, even if it is not according to how we wanted Him to act. But, the phrase “according to his purpose” means that all things work together for good according to God’s purposes for the world, not necessarily for our individual lives. So we can trust God to do good, but we cannot rely on Him to do what we perceive as good for our lives.

So is there a difference between saying that God is trustworthy and saying that He is reliable? When we see someone as reliable, we are focusing on how we can expect them to act. We can plan on and expect them to act in a certain way that we can count on. When we see someone as trustworthy, that is more about character than specific action. In fact, we are often called to trust someone when we are not able to perceive a specific action or outcome that we are expecting from them. We trust in them, not what we are expecting them to do.

I began to wrestle with all of this while praying for an outcome in a situation that is concerning me. I have a definite perspective on what would be a good and necessary outcome to this situation. Further, I have no way of honestly assessing the outcome that currently appears likely as anything other than a tragedy. This is why I am praying. And while praying, I realized that I was afraid that the tragic outcome would come to pass. This might be viewed as a lack of faith, but I see it as a product of the reality that I cannot rely on God intervening to bring about what I perceive as good and necessary results in this here, not yet Kingdom of God age that we live in. (See the blog and podcast series on Outcome Based Faith.)

This reality reminds us that God is in charge and “His ways are not our ways”(Is 55:8-9). If God was reliable and “behaved in the way that we wanted Him to” then we would be in control instead of Him. So we can understand why God chooses to not be reliable for us. But this dynamic, that is spiritually necessary, is difficult to navigate when it comes to integrating our faith with our work. How do we involve God in our work if we cannot rely on Him to “work well” when it comes to the specific outcomes we are pursuing with our work? I will explore that next time.

I would love to connect with you about these posts if they have stirred any thoughts or questions. Take a minute, shoot me an email at bo@leavenedlives.org, and let’s see where that takes us.