Who Should You Trust?
The Bible tells us that we should only put our trust in God. It is not wise to trust ourselves, other people including friends, family, lovers, and even those in high positions (see Proverbs 28:26, Micah 7:5, and Psalm 118:9, 146:3). You don't believe me? Here are just a few examples from the Bible:
- Adam and Eve betrayed themselves and God when they allowed the serpent to convince them to eat from the exact tree God directly told them not to eat from.
- God had just rescued the Hebrews from slavery and showed them His mighty power and they still betrayed Him and made an idol and worshipped it.
- Rebekah helped one son, Jacob, deceive her husband and other son, Esau, steal his blessing from his father.
- King Saul, tried to take David's life because he was jealous the people were giving David more praise than him, and David had just taken down Goliath, who was a threat to their nation.
- When David became king, he had an affair with one of his most loyal soldier's wives and got her pregnant, and on top of that, to hide the whole thing he had the solider put in the frontline of battle so his life would be taken.
Now, that doesn't mean that we should walk around emotionless or guarded, it actually means the opposite. Although the Bible tells us to not trust people it does tell us to love one another, to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:31), and to walk in wisdom, and we will be taken care of (Proverbs 28:26). We go about giving our trust to God by doing the right thing and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and He will give us discernment on what to do. We as people don't know the true heart or motive of man so this is one of the reasons God wants us to trust Him so he can give us insight on people, and He can lead and guide us on what to do.
There is a good example of how the Holy Spirit can give insight on what to do in the book, Knowing God Intimately by Joyce Meyer. She shares an experience of when she was interviewing someone for a job position for her ministry and the person was saying all the right things but something in her spirit wasn't sitting right with her but she went against that feeling and hired them anyway because everyone else on her staff agreed that they were a good fit and later the person was causing so many problems and proved that feeling she had to be right. She could have avoided the whole experience if she would have trusted God and listened to what the Holy Spirit was trying to tell her.
Trusting God doesn't always mean avoiding tough situations. Sometimes He will put you in a tough spot or instruct you to remain in a tough spot. If God tells you to stay in a hard situation it could be because He is trying to strengthen your faith, or He could be using you to strengthen someone else's faith by showing them that there are still good people out there. God knows the heart of man and why they are behaving the way they are, so He may want to help them and use you to do it. Trusting God isn't always easy, but we have to trust that He knows what He is doing and know that He will give us the ability and grace to do it.
For example, Joyce said in her book, Knowing God Intimately, there were times when she would get impatient with someone in her ministry and want to fire them, but God will tell her no, that He wants her to work through the tough times with them like God does with her. God does this because He knows the heart although it doesn't always reflect on the outside. This is what trusting God looks like: we live our life and do what we think is right and if God knows otherwise, we will redirect our steps and get us back on the straight path or get us back in His will.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5,6).
After listening to a speech by psychologist and Christian self-help author, Henry Cloud, I liked his explanation of what trust looks like; he explains how trust is a way of life. He told a story about a man he met on a plane. He said, he doesn't trust anyone, and Mr. Cloud challenged his statement by stating he is trusting the person flying the plane to get him to his destination, and he is trusting the person who served his food. So, like it or not we are trusting someone on a daily basis you just have to decide who that is. I think trusting God is the same, meaning we go about living our lives, but with an acknowledgement of Him first. That is one of the reasons we pray, to acknowledge God and include Him in our daily lives. We pray before we get on a plane to get to our destination safely, and we pray over our food before we eat. I think acknowledging God can also be doing what we think is right and what is in our heart, and if that happens to be the wrong direction, God will make our paths straight or redirect us in the right direction.
For example, in 1 Chronicles 17:1-15, God had to redirect King David, because King David was concerned that he lives in a cedar palace and the ark of the covenant of the Lord that contained "the gold jar of manna, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant" is under a tent (see Hebrews 9:4). I think David thought it was unfair for him to live in this nice place and God's word was in a tent, so he wants to honor God and have a house built for the ark of the covenant, He looks to the prophet Nathan for wisdom and Nathan tells him to do what he thinks is right because God is with him. Later Nathan had a dream and God told him to tell David that he was not to have the house built. So, Nathan told David what God had told Him. Here, David acknowledged God by wanting to honor His sacred word with a nice place to dwell and by getting wisdom from someone God speaks through. Nathan's advice was to tell David to do what He thought was right but because it was outside of God's plan God redirected David by telling Nathan to tell David not to build the house.
Another example that shows that God will redirect you or make your path straight when doing what is right is when Joseph was engaged to Mary and found out Mary was pregnant. He assumed that she was pregnant with another man's baby and was going to leave her, the Bible called Joseph a righteous man, so he did right by her by being silent about the situation and not bringing a disgrace to her name. The Lord sent an angel to Jospeh in his dream and told him that Mary was pregnant with the son of God, and he is to continue with his original plan and marry her. Joseph was gearing off path when he was about to break things off with Mary, but he went about it righteously by not bringing shame to her and God redirected him by giving him truth and guiding him on what to do. (Matthew 1: 18-25).
Notice that Nathan told David that God was with him, and Joseph being called righteous, tells us that because of God's grace he had faith in God, because we as humans are not righteous on our own. We don't have to do life in our own strength because God is with us and gives us grace to do what is right in love; therefore, like Joseph, doing what is right even though things seem like they are going wrong for you is showing God despite the situation you trust Him.
In conclusion, you should Trust God, the word of God, the Holy Spirit within you and other believers.
Thank you for reading this article I hope you found it helpful and informative.
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