At some point in our lives, we all have experienced or struggled with trust issues for some this may even be an on-going struggle.

What is the meaning of trust?

“Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.” – Oxford Dictionaries

We all came out of our mothers’ womb completely naive, innocent, and trusting but then this world robs us off all these qualities. We then end up having the problem we call ‘trust issues’. We all have witnessed in our lives or in the lives of others how this issue of lack of trust destroys relationships, friendships, marriages, ministries, business ventures and so much more. If our trust issues with humans could cause this much damage, we can only imagine the loss we encounter when we have trust issues with God.

Having trust issues with humans is one thing but having trust issues with God is another thing. It is a serious PROBLEM.

When we heard the good news of Jesus, by faith we believed in Jesus Christ as our saviour and we placed our trust in Him. Our faith comes from the message we heard (Romans 10:17); our belief in the existence of God and Christ as our saviour is a result of our own free will choice but our trust is developed through our relationship with God and constant meditation on His Word. We can’t trust God without believing in Him first but we don’t automatically trust God just because we believe in Him.

Trust comes with RELATIONSHIP.

Speaking from experience, our trust issues with God is a by-product of the negative interactions, rejection, and betrayal we experience in this world. We have the natural tendency to project on God the hurt the world causes us. Instead of dealing with the pain the correct way, we project our hurt and brokenness on God as if He gave it to us in the first place. It is a defense mechanism we employ in our minds to cope with the pain. As Christians, this is one of our greatest struggles and the enemy thrives in that.

How does Satan thrive in my trust issue with God?

1. In the absence of trust, fear overtakes. We know our enemy prowls around like a roaring like a lion, seeking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5). Lions sit and observe their prey during daylight hours but they wait until dark to launch an attack. Similarly, our enemy prowls around and observe us until we are weak and vulnerable to launch his attack on us. Trust issues if they are not dealt with on time, they will result in us being taken over by fear which was waiting around ready to consume us in our time of weakness. Fear is a spirit and it is clearly not of God (2 Timothy 1:7) which is why it has the ability to paralyze us from being all that God created for us to be. Fear is like a chain tied to the ankle. One can never move forward to grow in their spiritual walk and fulfill their purpose on earth if they are trapped in fear their whole life. And it means the world to Satan if he can trap even one person in fear from fulfilling their calling on earth and expand the kingdom of God.
2. Trust issues are one of the doors the enemy uses to come in our lives to steal our peace and joy which can only be attained through our complete trust in God (Isaiah 26:3). Our enemy knows, if he can manage to plant seeds of doubt in us and use our past in a way that makes us believe God did to us all that happened to us, then we are unknowingly and freely giving away the peace and joy Jesus paid for on the cross. If he can manage to turn our hearts against God then we lose the very things which God has so graciously bestowed upon us.
3. Trust issues with God make us extremely defensive, negative, questioning of everything God tells us to do which leads us to make decisions and choices from a defender’s point of view which completely destroys us as individuals and our lives. That’s what having trust issues with God does to us, it makes us DEFENDERS OF SELF. Those who defend themselves against God are dependent on themselves. Every step they take is dictated by their understanding of what appears to be best for their lives. Why? Because they don’t trust that God knows best for them. Trust is key to dependency on God. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5

How can we possibly live the abundant life Jesus promised us if we are living defending ourselves from God and not trusting Him with our lives? It is a battle we are granted to lose. What a waste of energy, time, and tears it is to live a defensive life toward God just because we don’t trust Him.

Why do I need to trust God?

Because YOUR ENTIRE LIFE & ETERNITY DEPENDS ON IT.

We were created to live completely and independently dependent on God.

If there is one thing God wants us to depend on in the whole universe, it is Himself.

Can I really trust God?

Yes, you can. I promise you can.

You and I can trust God because He has proved Himself to be trustworthy to our forefathers in the faith. Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Isaac, Job, Jeremiah, David to name a few. He never failed them therefore, He will never fail us. He will be for us as He was for them.

Our forefathers not only had faith in God but they trusted Him. They trusted Him completely to guide them to fulfill their destiny. However, that doesn’t mean they never struggled with trust issues. They did but they overcame it over and over again as they developed their relationship with God and His Word.  God’s Word is our weapon against our trust issues with Him.

How do I trust God?

• Study and learn from our forefathers. It is written, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” – Romans 15:4 We have to learn from the right doings and the wrong doings of our forefathers. For example, Noah had to completely trust God to build the massive boat God asked him to in spite of the mocking and insults of those around Him. Abraham trusted God like crazy to leave all that he knew and all that he had to become the father of many nations that he is today. However, if you read his story, you would know that there were times where Abraham had trust issues with God. As a result of his lack of trust in God, he relied on himself to bring about a child (Ismael) into this world whose generation causes pain and trauma to this day. These are just two of the many examples we have in the bible of those who walked trusting God. We learn of the rewards our forefathers reaped for trusting in God when everything else around them was telling them not to but we also learn the consequences they suffered whenever they had trust issues with God. Moreover, we learn that trusting God doesn’t mean sitting around with folded arms waiting for God to do all the work for us. No. Trusting God means we make moves with our trust in Him as our foundation and His Word as the light to our path (Psalm 119:105).
• Build your relationship with God. Whenever our relationship with God isn’t as it should be and our hold of the sword of the Spirit/the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17) isn’t as tight as it should be, our trust in Him begins to shift from Him to whatever it is that has caught our attention. We begin to trust more in the voices we hear instead of God’s. That could be the world’s voice, our own, our families, friends, partners or the enemy.
  

  We should always remember that when we don’t trust God, we are trusting something else.

  We all have to identify what that ‘something else’ could be for us and slaughter it with the sword of the Spirit. The sword only kills what is not of it. May we never lose a hold of it for it’s our ONLY way forward. We can’t move forward until we kill all that is thrown in our path for our destruction.

• Don’t make trusting God an option. Walk forward with the resolved mindset that your whole life and future depends on trusting God because it does. You’ll never succeed in life in God’s sight if you live your entire life depending on anything and everything but God.

Lastly, TRUST IS NOT A ONE TIME THING, IT IS AN EVERY DAY THING. Simply because we trust God today, it doesn’t mean we will trust Him tomorrow. Therefore, we should wake up each day and challenge ourselves to trust Him like we never have before.

 

GOD LOVES YOU, ALWAYS & FOREVER!

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