Bold to Trust

What does it mean to trust? To trust is to have hope. “To have belief or confidence in the honesty, goodness, skill or safety of a person, organisation or thing” (Cambridge). Therefore to trust is to also take a risk. We can be betrayed, hurt, rejected, disappointed and fail. Yet despite all risks … we are to be bold in our trust. What does it mean to be bold? “To be brave, not fearing danger, daring and courageous” (Cambridge). Did you get that? “No fearing danger”. Because that’s what we’re doing when we can’t face up to trusting …. We are actually living in fear.

But to be bold, doesn’t mean to disregard wisdom, it doesn’t mean to be naive to facts. But it is an attitude to adopt, a decision that you’ll be prepared to face the fears of disappointment, hurt, rejection, failure – whatever your trust issue is. But I say it again, it is not to be naive. If say a friend of yours was in an abusive relationship, and she went back time and time again only for the abuse to continue, would your advice be “it’s ok, just trust him”. No of course not. Because the facts indicate that it’s going to happen again. Yes the partner would have within him the ability to change – but never romanticize notions that put you in jeopardy. If he changes he changes, but until then – the facts clearly dictate a real danger there. So don’t neglect wisdom, Proverbs 2:11 (CEV) “Sound judgment and good sense will watch over you”. Now maybe that’s an extreme example, but its an easy scenario to visualise. What’s not so easy to visualise though are areas in our own lives where maybe we are vulnerable and weak to defend, where maybe we just need to take a bit of time out and consider some facts. Maybe there are some situations or people in our lives that are hurting us which we need to address. We’re to be happy and whole, not half whole and half happy. We’re called to completeness, but we can’t be complete (by letting God fill our lives), if we’re holding onto hurts. Because those hurts actually take up space in our hearts, space that is meant to be filled by God. So therefore to be able to trust boldly you need to first address any outstanding areas of hurt or forgiveness. Because if you are holding on to either, they will act as walls and you’ll always have a struggle with trust.

Ultimately trust always comes back to God, do we trust that God has good plans for us if we’re disappointed? That he’ll be our healer if we get hurt? That if we fail, God can still turn a situation around for good? That the past doesn’t dictate the future and that history doesn’t have to repeat itself, but if it does … that we will be alright. Hebrews 4:16 (Amp) “Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy [for our failures] and find grace to help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when we need it]”.

Abraham was a man who boldly trusted, (Gen 22:1-18), he knew the God he was dealing with. He had a personal confidence in God, knowing him to be good and faithful. So that even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son, Abraham set out to obey. Now we know how the story goes, at the last minute God spoke to Abraham asking him to sacrifice a goat instead. God always responds to faith and because Abraham’s faith was tested and he showed his complete trust in God, God declared that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham’s seed. Hmm amazing what can happen in our lives when we live with bold trust aye, knowing that what ever circumstances arise, God is always in control.