Believing in His Efficiency

Coming to terms with all that I'm not and seeking to find what little in this lifetime I can about who God is. That is where my life is headed.
We have an eternal God. Me, my family of believers, and the vast world of unbelievers. We live under the sovereignty of an eternal and profoundly mighty God. I'm learning something about this one true God's character. He is trustworthy. He is trustworthy in the traditional sense...He listens to requests and pleas and answers them. He won't let you down. He is "most dependable" in the cosmic "who's who". He can be relied on. This I know...and this I've known from day one in bible school. He loves me. I can trust that.
Simple, yes, but something that could be cataclysmic to Satan's whole regime if we, as believers in this all-loving, trustworthy God, were to claim this truth in our lives. The rest of the world, the generalized "they" of unbelievers, would notice such life-altering, regime-crushing trust. Why? Because this populous of non-Christians in our world are wounded souls. They are individuals seeking--without realizing--the very thing we, as Christians, are blessed by grace to know: that we, grounded in faith in the one true and living God, can trust Him with our lives.
The world we live in is chaotic, cold, lonely, cruel, vile, teaming with sickness and evil, impoverished, and dark. Standing next to an unbeliever, a christian looks the same. There is no symbol we are forced to wear on our bodies. We are not required to wear our hair in any certain way. We don't speak in a different tongue. We experience the same emotions. By all observable standards, we are no different, except for one thing. God in us. He is distinguishable. He is our claim to fame, our only worth. Christ in us, the hope of glory. (Col. 1:27) He sets us apart. The one who calls us is faithful and he will do it. (1 Thes. 5:24) We must simply trust in our very faithful God.
God's trustworthiness means he is capable. His trustworthiness means he is in control. It means he can be counted on. Our reliance on God shows outwardly because in the hectic reality of this life, he is the calm amid the storm. He puts us in the eye of the spiraling messes around us, and others see and long for that kind of assurance. He is our sure-footing. He is our shield and defender. All these things, in analogous terms, we must trust in order for them to work.
Shields were used in battle because they were trusted to hold up against the sword of the enemy. Daily, we trust that the ground we walk on is stable enough to hold our weight. Children trust that their parents are highly capable of defending them against anything, seen or unseen, that might cause them harm. Trust is essential in all these circumstances, and our God is bigger than all of our circumstances.
Trustworthiness is definitive of who God is. Acknowledging this is foundational for us to be believers. The astounding idea is that this trait of our Lord is a fragment, a mere facet compared to the riches our God possesses; but before counting His many benefits we must first count on Him.

Peace