Strong trust cannot be anchored on feelings and sensual feedback—it must be anchored solely on God’s Character. It must become so anchored on Him that it can persist in the face of contrary sensual feedback. Strong trust knows that God is present even when emotions are screaming that He is far away. Strong trust does not rely on senses to define reality—it relies solely on God. The only way to develop this kind of trust is to go through “dry spells”—periods when we experience no warm fuzzies in our relationship with God. To survive such a period, our trust must find a better foundation to cling to, for the sensual foundation it was leaning on has crumbled beneath it. Once trust re-anchors onto God’s good Character, it is in a position to grow much stronger. But to really attain more strength, it must now be put through a period of countering emotional feedback—times when it is bombarded with sensual “evidence” that God is the opposite of everything He says He is. By intentionally doing things that will cause us to feel deeply betrayed by Him, God forces us to really scrutinize the foundation of our trust. We must decide if we are going to believe the things He says about Himself—that He is good, that He is faithful, that He is for us, etc.—or if we are going to throw out everything He said because our sensual experience of Him isn’t lining up.

To reach deeper levels of intimacy with God, we have to let go of this need for our experience of Him to always feel like a logical match to the things He says about Himself. God is good, but there are many times when He will behave in ways that seem very evil to us. God is trustworthy, but there are many times when He will do things that we don’t understand. Our trust in Him must become strong enough to allow room for Him to behave in ways that seem illogical and contradictory without us immediately questioning His entire Character. God is far too huge and complex to be understood by our limited minds.