THE ART OF TRUST
However, when we trust in God, we have everything we need—fulfillment, a pathway to reach our potential, and even more than all that—a hope that eternity is just around the corner of time. God will complete what He promised. We know this because He is trustworthy. Our trust in Him without having seen is called faith (Heb. 11:1).
Peter and Paul understood that we are going to struggle with trust in relationships. We are going to struggle with thinking of ourselves first and others second. But they give us a solution to this problem in Ephesians and 1 Peter:
“Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” (Eph. 4:2–3)
“So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (1 Pet. 5:6–7)
Humility, patience, mercy, and unity must all be present in healthy relation- ships.
When we trust God first, He gives us the ability, through our humility before Him, to live in peace with others because we understand we all have faults. Trust can be built especially when both parties are trying to prove their own trustworthiness instead of expecting the other to do so first. Isaiah 26:3-–4 promises, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock.” A Scripture that many of us quote, yet use as a last resort sometimes says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take” (Prov. 3:5–6).
In relationships, trust is earned by proving our own trustworthiness. First and foremost, God gained our confidence even though He had nothing to prove by loving us before we knew or loved Him. Jesus died for us and demonstrated his trustworthiness. In a relationship, we can prove our trustworthiness because of him. By humbling ourselves, we can live in healthy relationships with others, building trust because of the fruit we produce in living according to his Word.