By: Nadine Judge
Trust is such a funny word. It has so many different meanings for different people and has different meanings in different contexts. Do we trust everyone and everything blindly and implicitly?
How do we measure trust? Research shows that there are different levels of trust as well as different intensities to trust.
One “size of trust” does not fit in every context and with every person. I don’t have the same level of trust in a stranger as I do with my husband. So how does this “trust” thing work?
In researching the topic of trust, it seems there are between 3 to 5 levels of trust. So, there are levels of trust.
Let me see if I can explain this easily. I have a fundamental level of trust when getting onto the road in my vehicle, that most people will and want to obey and abide by the rules of the road. If I did not have this fundamental or basic level of trust, I would not leave my driveway at any time at all. If this trust is broken by various incidents during the day, my fundamental trust is not destroyed. Maybe shaken a bit, but not destroyed to the extent that I will not leave my driveway again.
We trust employers to do as they say and when they don’t, we have the option to leave the company and go somewhere else.
Our trust in friendships is about truth, honesty, and commitment to friendship, and often when this trust is broken it is hard to continue in the friendship.
In a marriage, trust is a very fragile and important element. We need to know what our agreed values are, our agreed rules and our agreed commitment to marriage. Our partner knows our hopes, dreams, goals, ambitions, fears, and doubts. There is vulnerability and transparency and knowing that this person will not take advantage of this, builds our trust. When we trust someone at this level, our marriage unlocks greater and bigger things for each of us. Trust can only be broken if one of these elements (and I’m sure you can think of more) is broken. Therefore, if we trust someone, we need to know what we trust them about. When this trust is broken, outside help is often needed to see if the relationship can be restored.
I am sure we could spend a lot more time talking about trust in our relationships, but today I would like to talk about Implicit trust. To trust implicitly means to trust without reservation or questioning. There really is only one person we can trust implicitly and without questioning, and that does not mean we cannot question, but we don’t need to question why we trust this person.
Who else could that be but the one who knows us best? This is not your mother or your father or someone else who you could name in your relationship circle. This is the one who created you before you were even born.
Psalm 139:13 – 15 (NIV) says:
“For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.”
Psalm 139 from verse one, shows how intimately God is with us.
I almost do not have to write anything more, but simply let the Scripture speak.
“You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Talk about someone knowing our “hopes, dreams, goals, ambitions, fears, and doubts” and still not leaving us, or cheating on us or lying about us, these things, and others that you can think of that cause us to lose our trust.
God loves us fully, completely, and totally and we know this because of the sacrifice He gave to bring us back into relationship with us.
We have that wonderful verse in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world (that means all of us), that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone (you and me) who believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (back in relationship with God).”
I love the verse that says “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:7-9 (NIV)
There are so many verses that show us that we can fully trust God, with all our bumps and lumps and scars and bruises and dark thoughts and hearts, He is trustworthy because of who He is – now how many relationships can you put into that category?
Take the leap today, and tell the Lord that today, you will start trusting Him the way He deserves to be trusted and then, start practicing that. Then see how greater things and opportunities are opened for you, how you become a better person, how you have better relationships around you, all because the One we trust in can be implicitly trusted, without reservation or questioning.