Trust Me

If you have not read the post from last week, “Teach Me,” I would encourage you to take a minute and read through it, before this one.

My prayer:  Teach me.
God’s answer:  Trust me.

Trust is defined as:  reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, or surety, of a person or thing; to rely upon or place confidence in someone; to have hope.

In life it is sometimes difficult to find a person that you can really trust, someone that you can count on, through the good, and through the bad.  Political leaders, business leaders, who can you trust?  Learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult tasks.  It is not just outside of the church, but now within the church.  Who can you really trust?  The power of trust is very difficult to build, yet very easy to destroy.

You may have friends, or family that you would trust with some things, but not all things.  You may have some areas that you have difficulty trusting anyone with.  Do you know someone that you once trusted, but something happened, and the trust was broken, so now you have difficulty trusting them?

It has been said that trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair.

Trust is like a piece of paper, once it is crumpled, you can try to smooth it out, but it’s never going to be the same again.

Trust is like an eraser, it gets smaller and smaller after every mistake.

Trust is like a broken mirror.  You can put it back together, but the cracks still show in the reflection.

But what about God?  Do you really trust God?

It seems so easy to trust God when I am healthy, when I have a good job, when I have money to spare at the end of the month, and when all is well with those around me.  When all is good, it’s not a problem to trust God.  It’s easy to trust God when I can clearly see and understand circumstances that surround me.  But what about when it’s dark and I don’t understand?  What about the times, when life seems to be falling apart, and you come to the realization that life is just not fair?  What about those times when your situation defies all logic?

Among believers we hear it so often, “Trust in God.”  Whatever the problem is, physical, financial, family issues, etc, “Just trust the Lord.”

So often we love to share Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”  A while back, I was forced to consider this.  In doing so, a word that seemed so small, suddenly became so large – “all.”  “With all my heart,” lead me to consider that there could be a level of trust that would be with less than my whole heart, or even varying degrees, or levels of trust.

I have found that the trust we have in other people usually depends on what I call the 3 W’s – What, When, and Way.  We tend to trust other people if:  they do what we want them to do, when we want them to do it, and in the way we want them to do it.  But, if they fail in either of these areas to meet our expectations, then our level of trust is compromised, and our level of trust may be diminished.

As believers, it seems we may have the same tendencies with God.  If God does what we want Him to do, when we want Him to do it, and in the way we want Him to do it, we trust Him.  But if He is negligent and does not meet our expectations in either of these areas, we may, or may not trust Him.

Recently I’ve found a level of trust that I never knew existed.  You see, God didn’t do what I wanted Him to do, when I wanted Him to do it, and in the way I wanted Him to do it.  So He failed to meet my expectations in not one, but all of these areas.  I had to decide, do I trust God with all my heart, or with only part of my heart?  Will I trust God, only when He does what I want Him to?  Will I trust God, only when things are good, and I can fully understand everything, or will I just trust God?

It’s a choice that we all make.  Life is not, and will not be fair.  There are two types of people in the world:  those who are in a storm, and those who will be in a storm.  As long as you are living, you will face adversities.

If you are currently in a difficult life situation, and God is not doing what you wanted Him to do, when you wanted Him to do it, and in the way you wanted Him to do it, I encourage you to trust God, with all your heart.  Don’t lean on what you can, or cannot understand, but in every way acknowledge Him, and He will direct you.

Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.  Jeremiah 17:7

Don’t allow the temporary to distort your view of the eternal.

I asked God to teach me.  He responded, “Trust me.”

Still believing!