Conversations with Jehovah

"The real underlying flaw in your life, Melanie, is that you don't think that I am good.  If you knew I was good and that everything--the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives--is covered by my goodness--then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me.  But you don't.

"Melanie, you cannot produce trust just like you cannot 'do' humility.  It either is or is not.  Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved.  Because you do not know that I love you, you cannot trust me."

But I don't know how to change that.

"You can't, not alone.  But together we will watch that change take place.  For now I just want you to be with me and discover that our relationship is not about performance or having you please me.  I'm not a bully, not some self-centered demanding little deity insisting on my own way.  I am good, and I desire only what is best for you.  You cannot find that through guilt or condemnation or coercion, only through a relationship of love.  And I do love you."  

[The Shack, p. 126]