This may be a simple illustration, but perhaps it will speak to you.
Imagine that before you are two buttons.
The Red Button brings pain when you press it.
The Blue Button brings pleasure and comfort.
Naturally, we would all rather press the blue button.
But imagine God told you to press the red button ten times—and never the blue one. That would be hard. Everything in us would want to reach for the blue button. Yet suppose God, in His infinite wisdom and love, had a good reason for His command—something we couldn’t see or understand in the moment. Could we trust Him?
I think of a child sitting in a doctor’s office, clutching a parent’s hand. The nurse walks in with a needle, and tears fill the child’s eyes. Every instinct says, Run! The parent gently says, “I know this will hurt for a moment, but it will help you get better.” The child doesn’t understand how pain could possibly lead to healing—but chooses to trust the parent’s love.
That’s what faith often looks like. God sometimes calls us to things that don’t feel good, that cost us something, that stretch our hearts and test our trust. He may ask us to forgive someone who wounded us deeply. To stay faithful when it would be easier to walk away. To surrender something precious that we’ve been holding too tightly.
When we face those moments, Proverbs 3:5–6 whispers to us again:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Trusting God doesn’t mean we’ll always understand His reasons.
It means we believe His heart.
Even when obedience hurts, His love never does.