Trust

Proverbs 3: 5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

I have read and quoted this verse countless times. So much so that I think I take it for granted without really understanding what it is saying. So I ask myself this question.

Why do I struggle with Trust?

First I need to understand the meaning of trust before I can ascertain why I struggle. So what is trust? The dictionary defines trust as “a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.” More personally defined, Trust is MY firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone.

So why do I struggle with Trust? I can safely say that it boils down to where my firm beliefs are rooted.

As a Society today we have become experts in framing entire belief systems that define almost every decision we make in our life on nothing more than acquaintances. Think about all the Noise we willingly ingest every day. We carry around devices that are pumping the noise of blogs, commentary, videos, news articles, and social media. We submit our senses to 24-hour news channels, and thousands of tv and radio stations, with talking heads yelling and arguing trying to give us their 90-second shallow solution to the many questions that trouble our world. None of them ever give us solutions or a direction. Instead, they blame a political party, race, religion, demographic, or gender. The noise is masterful at intentionally pitting adverse opinions against each other so it becomes a shouting match that is labeled “Expert Opinion”. One minute we're told to be tolerant and in the very next breath, they are fighting with each other.

We allow The Noise of Politicians, Sports Figures, Talk Show Hosts, College Professors, News Anchors, Entertainers, Bloggers, Financial Advisers, Doctors, Pastors, Evangelists, Prophets, New Age Gurus, and World Leaders, who are people with problems just like us, to define and direct our purpose. We awe and marvel at their status and are envious of them, so we strive to be like them believing that because of their status, they have it figured out; only to be devastated when they are knocked off the god-like pedestals that we have placed them on. So our trust issues grow. For most of us, the first thing we grab when we wake up each day is the SmartPhone on the nightstand to find out what we missed while we slept. The Noise is our addiction so we crave it and look for more and more ways to get our fix. We go from Facebook to Instagram, to Twitter, to Snap Chat, to TV, to TikTok, to YouTube faces glued to illuminated screens during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, during our kids' school performances, during church, at work, while we are driving, at the beach, at the park, at our kids' baseball and soccer games, on the bus, in the subway, as we walk, in bed, on dates, out to eat with friends, at weddings and funerals anxiously waiting for that next “ding” or “buzz” alerting us to our latest digital fix. We stop everything we are doing, tune everything out and ignore everyone around us frantically unlocking our device to inject our minds with the latest fix. The noise has become our reality, our direction, our lifeblood.

With all the noise saturating my mind in this world, how do I not lean to my own understanding and Trust in The Lord? I apply it by understanding Psalms 46:10-11.

10. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’ 11. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.” Be still. The meaning of Still in Hebrew רָפָה is “râphâh”, meaning “to sink, let drop, or relax.” In other instances, the word carries the meaning “to drop, be weak, to withdraw, or forsake.” It gives the idea of two people fighting until someone separates them and makes them stop fighting. It is only after I quiet the noise and cease my inner battle against God and surrender to God that I am able to hear God’s voice. The Noise wants me in constant battles. Battles against others, against myself, and against God. But God wants me to BE STILL abate the Noise in my life and rest in the arms of Jesus and allow Him to fight my battles.

Know that I am God. Know in this instance means “to properly understand by seeing or experiencing” and “acknowledge, be aware.” How does experiencing and acknowledging God impact my stillness? Experiencing God over time creates intimacy with Him and from that history of intimacy trust is built. When I trust God it allows me to surrender to His plan because I understand who He is and more importantly who I am in Him. It means all I need to have stillness and peace in my life, is His voice. His creative voice is so powerful that when I listen, the noise of my life, my anger, my fear, and my hopelessness are drowned out by the loving voice of my Creator revealing to me who He created me to be.

Trust enables me to quiet my thoughts and rest in the arms of my loving Father, and there in His Presence wrapped in His arms, I find peace even when my life seems to be falling apart, and the issues in my life seem bigger than I can handle. Psalm 46:1, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” Run to Him, be still, stop arguing with Him, and fall into His arms. We say we know God but only have an ESPN Sports Center acquaintance with God. Where we watch the highlights and base our thoughts and opinions of a 4-hour game around 15 seconds of highlights. We feel entitled to the benefits of God without the sacrifice of getting to know Him. We confuse our acquaintance of God as a relationship with God. What is the difference?

Well, let's start by looking at the meanings from Merriam Webster Dictionary.

Acquaintance: a person whom one knows about but who is not a particularly close friend.

Relationship: the state of being related or interrelated, an intimate or passionate attachment

When you have an intimate relationship with someone you are willing to give up everything for them. You desire to do whatever it takes to know everything about them. There is a bond, a connection, and a knowing. When you are in an intimate relationship it fortifies your resilience and fearlessness, empowering success in all aspects of your life. No matter what happens, you know you’re not alone. You know someone’s got your back… You are valued, loved, and adored. The world can hate you but you know that you have that person in your corner supporting you unconditionally. The unconditional support of that person, even in failure, gives you the confidence to make bold decisions. An intimate relationship is what God wants from us so in turn he can give us that boldness to speak truth and walk in His love. Because we have nurtured intimacy with Him we know who He is and because we know who He is we know He has our back. When we know God has our back we can walk in confidence that the direction we are going in is right. When we are going in the right direction we have peace in our lives, even when the world around us is imploding in on itself. Amid the turmoil, because we have cultivated a relationship with Him we hear his voice above the noise and because we have built a history of intimacy with Him we have learned to trust His voice.

Let the heartbeat of my life be “ God I want to know everything about you. Change me, examine my heart, I am so tired of the fear and hopelessness that has me running in endless circles, I need your peace. Break my selfish pride and replace it with your love. Teach me how to quiet the noise in my life so that I can get to truly know you intimately so that I can walk in your purpose. God, I am so worn out trying to figure life out on my own, I surrender to you, my Creator. I am so desperate for you.”

So to sum it all up Trust is nothing more than surrender.