Finding our way through the wilderness

Proverbs 3:5-6

New International Version (NIV)

 ⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart 
   and lean not on your own understanding; 
⁶ in all your ways submit to him, 
   and he will make your paths straight.

Day Twenty-Five

Trust Issues

As humans it is in our natural not to want to fully put our trust in anyone, especially if we have been hurt before. Most of us have been hurt and/or deceived by someone that we thought that we could trust. After this happens to us it is hard to think that anyone else could truly have our best interest at heart. So we become hard-hearted and reject helping hands even in our times of need. We began to feel the need to prove that we can make it without anyone else's help, turning a blind eye when someone who is really sincere wants to assistance us. We do all of this not because we are arrogant or because we don't want the help, but we do this out of the fear of being hurt again.

When we have trust issues in our daily lives they can directly correlate to our spiritual lives as well. Having trust issues can diminish our faith, for it is impossible to have faith without trust and vice versa. So though we proclaim our faith by our mouths, if we have trust issues we will not feel the same way in our hearts. Thus we cause a rift between God and ourselves, because God commands us to trust in Him and His ways.

First let us clarify what trust is. Trust is defined has an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or Truth or someone or something. Trust can also mean to place confidence in or to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of someone or something. These definitions show us that trust is the foundation of our Faith. We walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7) So we place our confidence the Lord's words and we rely on its truthfulness and accuracy. And we do so because we have an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, and Truth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So again this shows us if we have trust issues we have no faith.

So how do we solve our trust issues so that we can have a closer and more fulfilling relationship with our Lord?

Look at the scripture from above. It says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart." Notice it said trust in the Lord not in man or woman. Does this mean that we should not have any trust in our fellow brothers and sisters? No, however there is no perfect man or woman so they may let us down. The only person that we should Trust in with all of our heart is our Lord. When we trust in the Lord fully with all of your heart you don't have to worry about trusting in a anyone because we will be in tune with God's will and He will let us know who is trustworthy and who isn't.

The second part of this verse says, "…and lean not to you own understanding…" This verse is telling us not to trust even in ourselves. Contrary to popular beliefs our way is not the right way. We should not trust ourselves because when we make decisions it is based on the flesh not the spirit. And the flesh is filled with corrupt desires and it is selfish. (2 Peter 2:10) However when our will is aligned with God's will, He will provide wisdom and understanding.

The last part of this scripture is very important. If we take nothing else from this scripture we must understand this. "…in all of your ways submit to the Him, and He will make your paths straight." We cannot fully trust in the Lord without fully submitting to Him. We can't say that we trust him if we continuing live the opposite from His word, because if we trust that His word is true then why can't we abide by it?

If we do submit to Him the scripture says that He will make our paths straight. In other words He will lead us out of the wilderness and straight to our promise land. All we have to do is have faith and Trust Him and do so by relinquishing control over our life and in turn submit totally to His will and His ways.

Trust can be a hard issue to overcome, because it is our inclination to want to be in control of our own lives. However, impossible for us is but a small feat for our Lord. For he said Let not you heart be trouble, trust in God and also trust in me. (John 14:1) Give Him a chance, He will not disappoint you!

Please join us tomorrow as we continue our journey. Until then, God Bless.