“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  Psalm 56:3

Recently we met Will and Put.  They are the decisions and actions that will help us to overcome being afraid.  But when we finally decide to give Will direction and allow Put to go to work, what is it that they are to do?

The next two words in Proverbs 56:3 give us a glorious clue!  First, let’s take a look at the word, “trust”:

1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc…of a person or thing; confidence.

2. confident expectation of something; hope.

4. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: ‘God is my trust.’

7. charge, custody or care.

11. Archaic. reliability.    Dictionary.com/trust

Trust is something that we all claim to do, especially when it comes to describing our faith in God.  That said, how many of us have really taken the time to explore just what “trust” means?  How many of us have attempted to understand better what is truly required to trust something, trust each other or trust God?

According to the definition of “trust”, the word “comfort” is in its roots.  So for us to  understand the foundations of “trust”, we need to explore the definition of “comfort” while keeping in mind that its roots come from “to strengthen” (Id./comfort):

1. to soothe, console or reassure; to bring cheer to.

2. to make physically comfortable.

3. Obsolete. to aid, support or encourage.

4. relief in affliction, consolation, solace.

5. a feeling of relief.

11.  strengthening aid; assistance (Id./comfort).

The definition of “comfort” brings up an important consideration.  What do we “trust” in?  We know from its definition that it involves relying on something or someone.  It can also mean that we display trust when we show or feel a confident expectation in something: hope, as the definition states.  We are also “trusting” when we put something we treasure or value in the charge, care or custody of another.  The act of entrusting indicates that we are relying on someone to care for what we have given them, while also proving that we deem that very agent reliable.

In further consideration, how might comfort be related to trusting?  Well, the easiest way to think about it is in the realm your emotions–where you actually employ “trust”.  Think about it, when you are uncomfortable with someone and their abilities or their reliability, you are not likely trusting them. And while this is not an analysis of whether you should trust a specific someone, it is important to looker deeper into the definitions of “comfort” so you can better discern whether you are feeling any consolation, relief, aid, support, encouragement, solace, or assistance with what or in whom you are claiming to trust?  Is what you are turning to for aid likely to strengthen you?  If so, then you have placed your trust in it.  But, if when you turn to it, it doesn’t result in a deeper sense of comfort or relief, then at the heart of the matter you are not in a state of trust.

Now we learned early on that “fear” has all sorts of friends that aid its presence in your life.  Trust also has friends, so let’s find out who they are as we try to understand better who and what we are trusting:

confidence, certainty, expectation, faith, hope, positiveness, entrustment, duty, guard, ward, safekeeping, depend on, look to, confide in, rely upon, take at face value, assign, confer, delegate, grant, lend, give over   Dictionary.com/thesaurus/trust.

When we are feeling certainty about another person’s follow through and dependability, we are engaging our trust of them.  When we can delegate something to another confident that they will do what is asked of them, we are believing in their commitment and ability to get it done.  When we turn to a friend or loved one to confide in or lean on, we are trusting them with our concerns and needs.  When we trust, we are hoping for a positive experience with who or what we are trusting.  However, we also need to be fully aware of what does not constitute “trust.”  Many times we want to say that we trust something or someone when deep down, we don’t.  Let’s look at the bullies or enemies of “trust”:

disbelief, distrust, doubt, uncertainty, mistrust, irresponsibility, know, abstain, disbelieve, reject, hold, keep, borrow, hinder, obstruct, impede, oppose  Id./thesaurus/trust/antonyms

The value in identifying the actual enemies of trust comes in understanding that those feelings can help us discover when we are not really trusting.   Let’s dig a little deeper by looking at “doubt”: “to be uncertain about; consider questionable or unlikely; hesitate to believe.” Id./doubt.  But it goes further, “to distrust; to fear; to be apprehensive about.” Id.  All of us have experienced the bullying hands of doubt, but how many of us stop and reflect on what that is really saying about how we feel in that moment?  How many of us examine our apprehension about someone or a situation with an eye on the truth and a willingness to get to the bottom of those anxious feelings?  How quickly do most of us dismiss certain questions that pop in our minds, held back by the fear of offending someone that we want to trust? And quietly honestly, how often do you allow doubt to enter your thoughts about God?

Trust does not require us to condemn all doubt or uncertainty, but rather, it asks us to engage, consider and choose what is required to truly trust when we say we do.  Trust requires our conscious awareness of what is undermining it.  Understand God is not a fan of hypocrisy; He doesn’t like it when we pretend to be something that we really are not.  Why?  Because that level of pretending has a component of deceit in it.  And deceit is falsehood, and in falsehood, you will not find truth.

Truth and trust are close friends.  You cannot trust the truth if it really isn’t true. If you gave something you cared about to another to be in charge of, and then found out that they didn’t care for it as you had asked or hoped…would you be able to so easily “trust” them again?  Most likely not, even if they said they were sorry.  Doubt and uncertainty, mistrust and distrust, would reign in your thoughts and feelings.  Their prior actions, the truth of what they did or did not do, would hinder and oppose your ability to trust.  The truth would prevent you from placing your full trust in their ability, integrity and reliability in such matters because of the truth behind their previous actions or words.  Truth and trust go together, and that is why we must be honest about our feelings and what they are impacting.  Relationships, including ours with God, are hindered when dishonesty and distrust are present.  Not addressing our fears is often what holds us back in relational growth.

“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  Psalm 56:3

It is incredibly important to understand that trusting God is exemplified by our willingness to rely on His strength, integrity, ability, etc…especially when we are feeling afraid.  Instead of embracing the feelings that fear stirs up in us, the antidote given in the Scripture is that we willingly turn away from our fears and towards trusting God. Understand that trusting God takes a willing effort to put fear and distrust somewhere far away from the center of your being–far from the very place where God should be.

The word “my” again illustrates that this is in our hands.  We cannot trust someone else’s faith, their experience with God, their claims of His great acts by acting as if those are our very own.  We can be inspired by them, learn from them, and utilize those lessons to grow our faith, but we cannot substitute someone else’s faith for our own.  We cannot ride the coattails of another into heaven.  And why not?  Because God loves each of us so much that He longs for you to trust Him…in all of life, and especially in that which makes you afraid.  He doesn’t want you to be hiding behind someone else’s faith unwilling to engage in or grow your own with Him.

And that is one of the truths behind fear.  Worthless fears do not encourage nor facilitate growth in your relationship with God.  They often keeping you rejecting His calls to walk outside of your comfort zone.  They will fill you full of the feeling that they “know” what will happen next, and hence, you should listen to them and stay where you are.  They obstruct, impede and oppose any progress towards freedom, hope, comfort, and solace that comes from trusting that God knows is best for you and will provide for you in your time of need.

So the next time you say that you are trusting God, take a good deep look at whether you really are?  Check and see if doubt, uncertainty, or a lack of comfortableness are visible in your emotions.  Are you really trusting God for strengthening aid, consolation and comfort, and believing in His ability to soothe and reassure you, or are you just wanting to tell Him your fears and then wallow in them as they build themselves up in your life?  There’s a big difference as one approach grows faith in God and the other grows faith in what you fear.

“Whoever seeks good finds favor, but evil comes to the one who searches for it.” Proverbs 11:27