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Trust in a World of Suspicion

This morning I want to return to our Covenant Sunday Verse:

Proverbs 3:5–6 (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.

And for the next serval weeks talk about Trust. Here’s a definition:

Trust

The sense of well-being and security which results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence. The feeling of being safe or secure. To be unconcerned.

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament

Trust sounds easy but it is so difficult especially in our world where we are surrounded by reminders that people cannot be trusted

  • Security cameras everywhere you go
  • Locks and security systems
  • Website passwords
  • At the airport they x-ray your luggage and your body
  • Security guards and metal detectors at every public venue
  • Visit your child at school you have to show license and sign a disclosure
  • Want to volunteer anywhere you have to get a background check

So many reminders around us that people cannot be trusted. This suspicion of everyone and everywhere has seeped into our subconsciouses.

Add to all that our individual experiences that have eroded our trust in humanity

  • Products that don’t do what they’re supposed to do.
  • Friends that betray you.
  • Marriages that fall apart.

All eroding our capacity to trust people. Sounds easy but man is it hard to trust!

Three reasons it’s hard to trust people:

  1. People are selfish
  2. People are weak
  3. People are misguided

Trust is a hard sell in our world today but Scripture calls us to trust; but not to trust indiscriminately. We are told in Scripture that there are things we should not trust: Bow, wealth, yourself, humans, princes, riches, own cleverness, chariots, deceptive words, idols, neighbor, friend, family

There’s a slew of things you cannot trust but there is someone you can trust. Over and over we are called to trust in the Lord.

Trusting God is not optional.

It is a command and I think there is good reason. When we don’t trust in the Lord our lives fall apart

When we don’t trust:

We become unfruitful

Mark 4:18–19 (NIV) — 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

We get weighed down

Luke 21:34 (NIV) — 34 “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.

Living a life of anxiety and worry is antithetical to the Gospel

In the sermon on the mount Jesus spends a considerable amount of time telling us not to worry!

Matthew 6:25–34 (NIV) — 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Paul says anxiety has no place in the life of a believer.

Philippians 4:6 (NIV) —  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

God demands our trust.

God views our distrust of him as seriously as he views our disobedience.

Jerry Bridges, Trusting God

It is an offense to God not to trust him:

Psalm 78:19–22 (NIV) — 19 They spoke against God; they said, “Can God really spread a table in the wilderness? 20 True, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, streams flowed abundantly, but can he also give us bread? Can he supply meat for his people?” 21 When the LORD heard them, he was furious; his fire broke out against Jacob, and his wrath rose against Israel, 22 for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance.

But why trust God?

Remember those three reasons we don’t trust others. Those are the exact reasons we can trust God. There are three qualities of God that distinguish him from everything and everyone else:

  1. God is Sovereign
  2. God is Love
  3. God is Wisdom

God in his love wills what is best for us. In his wisdom he always knows what is best, and in his sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.

God wants us to trust him because he knows how freeing it is to live a life of trust:

Hear the great benefits of a life of trusting God in this passage:

Romans 15:13 (NIV) — May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He wants us to live a life of joy, and peace and hope.

In a world of suspicion God calls out to us, “Trust me.”

Let me close with this prayer worded by Timothy Keller:

Lord, 

I worry because I forget your wisdom.

I resent because I forget your mercy.

I covet because I forget your beauty.

I sin because I forget your holiness.

I fear because I forget your sovereignty.

You always remember me. Help me to remember you.

Amen.