“To Trust or Not to Trust: Is that really the Question?”
Trust is an interesting phenomenon when coupled with emotions and experience. When trust is betrayed, it can become Alcatraz in the heart. An impenetrable place until it is escaped. In 1962, three men escaped a place that was lauded for its fortified wall. The place that was once a penitentiary is now a National Recreation area for tourists. In the natural, a place that was meant to keep people out is now an open door for the masses. The Word of God tells us in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” How many times do we attempt to bring our emotions and experiences in the equation of trusting God? Our hearts were never meant to be a place of Alcatraz concerning God. There is no protection that we will need concerning a loving and long-suffering Father.
Life is this continual classroom. It is this place where we cumulatively learn how to navigate and assess. I have found that being a Believer is its own educational tract. It entails constant tests, where the Greatest Teacher of all time prepares us through His Word and our time with Him. Intimacy is a gift that we have been given to learn the heart and character of God. He so beautifully shares the answers to living a surrendered life. In the natural, those men who had to surrender and acquiesce to the requirements of Alcatraz often times attached surrender to a negative connotation. As we know, we do not have to be incarcerated to share the same sentiments as them. A violation of trust in the natural, most certainly can impact how we trust God.
Trust translates to hope, reliance and confidence in Hebrew. We can rely on the reliability and strength of God. There is no one to compare to His ability and attributes. We may find ourselves going down memory lane to attach occurrences of placing our hope in something and it not coming to fruition. Could it be, the pain is so intense, because we were never supposed to place our hope and confidence in people? It is wise to want to have truthful relationships with each other, but how much do we look at the individual over the God in them? It is God who keeps us; it is God who will allow us to carry out the act of being trustworthy. Our greatest flex as Believers in Christ is to show up with Him heavily impacting our motives and actions because we are becoming the new creature, who is now able to give Him Glory through our lives.
I ask you, is the question really whether to “Trust or Not to Trust” or does it have to do with us placing God in a category with those who have either violated our trust and ultimately the fact that they were never supposed to be the ones we placed our trust in? If we are painfully honest, we have betrayed our own trust by poor decision-making; yet when it comes down to it, we still will bet on ourselves, even if you never step foot in a casino! Trust in God is this maturation process of relationship and faith. It is this waltz dance that feels uncomfortable until we allow the rhythm of His Words to permeate our hearts. He is the perfect Instructor, who actually becomes the perfect Partner as He takes the floor with us and syncopates our heart movement and actions with His!
Divine Work & Pray:
WORK: Identify and Journal what has been incidents that have hindered you trusting God with all your heart.
PRAY: “Heavenly Father, You are the only wise God. Your plans exceed my ability to dream or fathom. I am absent of having a case against You. You have been throughout the Ages, constant and trustworthy. Your character places a demand on my life. I choose to remove the netting, because I choose to place my whole weight in trusting you. You are deserving of my trusting in You with my whole heart. Forgive me, for attaching logic and failed experiences to what is required of me. I thank you for the awareness of areas that have taken the wheel from You. There is no where I want to reach where You are not trusted and you are not in the Operator’s role.
In Your precious and matchless Name, I pray. -Amen.
