Where do you put your trust?

 

In order to function successfully in life, one has to be able to handle, control, and implement trust.  Perhaps you have seen a video of someone trying to help a rescue animal that was either feral or had been abused or neglected. The goal of the rescuer was to gain the trust of the animal which can be a slow process over days and weeks.  But if trust is never established, the animal will simply miss out on the benefits of security, love, and affection.  It will just be skittish and fearful.

 

The benefits of meaningful relationships in life also require levels of trust.  Your ability to manage and control how much you trust other people is a key component to success in every aspect of life. There is always a risk factor involved when you begin to trust other people.  Why? Because every person, including you, can sometimes not meet up to an expected level of trust that has been invested.

 

We all come to the table with a track record of our trust investments.  We may be anywhere along the spectrum of the tendencies to be either naïve, gullible, very trusting, somewhat trusting, cautious, suspicious, or very distrusting of others.     I tend to be trusting of other people until they give me a reason not to trust them. You have an experiential history that has shaped your ability to trust or believe what others say or do. And you may have created a persona that affects the degree others may want to trust you.  

 

Distrust is a learned trait.  If you got burned in a relationship when someone you trusted turned out to be untrustworthy, you then altered your degree of trust in the next person.  Broken trust can be repaired, but it can take a lot of grace, forgiveness, and time.  This is why unfaithfulness in a marriage is so devastating.

 

So how does all this come into play when we talk about putting your faith and trust in God?  After all, the basic bottom-line decision you made when you “became a Christian” was to put your trust in Jesus ahead of or greater than any amount of trust you could ever put in another person.  Were you really trusting fully in Jesus or were you suspicious or cautiously taking His hand?  The more important question is, “How much do you trust God with your very life today?”  Being a Believer is giving everything you know about yourself to everything you know about God.  Has God proved to you through the years that He is completely trustworthy and faithful?  Can you look back at your trust record with Jesus and find anywhere that Jesus burned you or gave you cause to doubt His love for you? If you can, I can only urge you to look within your own heart and see if you were really the one who was untrustworthy and living in disobedience to His Word. People may be let down by a follower of Jesus, but never by Jesus.  God is faithful!  That’s why we sing, “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “He’s Been Faithful,” “Trust and Obey,” and “Only Trust Him.”

 

I know an elderly man who is being scammed by an internet relationship with a “woman in Sweden” who has promised him earthly riches, love, and companionship.  He has a trust problem.  He has given “her” several hundred thousand dollars.  He is trusting “her” completely and not trusting in God for His riches, love, and relationship, not to mention eternal life.

 

Commit to memory these two verses today:

Proverbs 3:5-6  “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.”

 

Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name YHWH our Elohim (the LORD our God).”