Trust is an interesting topic, uh, because it's something that everybody knows is important,
that everybody wants, but nobody seems to know how to get it.
Talking about trust, the first thing that comes to mind is Matthew, chapter 25, starting
in verse 14, which is the parable of the master and the bags of gold, or the talents of gold
depending on your translation.
So the way the parable goes, a master is leaving on a trip and he leaves money with his servants.
He leaves one with five bags of gold, one with three bags of gold, and the third one
he only gives one, and he gives them these amounts based on their ability.
You feel kind of bad for the last guy, but if it's based on his ability, we can guess
that he's maybe a little bit lazy or an underachiever.
The first two servants doubled their money by investing it and working really hard to
put the money to good use, while the third servant just buried all the money in a hole
in the ground because he was afraid that he would lose his master's money.
Now, when the master comes back, he celebrates with the first two servants, saying, "Oh,
you've given me back more than I gave you.
Let's party!"
but the third servant, who gave him back only exactly what he was given, the master calls
him wicked and lazy and casts him out.
You see, trust starts out a lot like faith.
You have no idea that someone will follow through on the thing that you're trusting
them with until they do or don't.
Ernest Hemingway said it very well when he said, "The best way to find out if you can
trust somebody is to trust them."
Now, after the initial investment of trust has been made on faith, trust is then built
by mutually honoring each other's investments.
Now, we're not just talking about money anymore.
We're talking about relationships.
When we trust somebody, we're giving them a piece of our heart and hoping that they
honor that and use that as an opportunity to help us grow.
If they then give you a piece of their heart, then you continue to trust each other more
and more, mutually investing and honoring each other until trust is grown and you can
trust someone with your whole heart.
Now, that's what it looks like in a lifelong friendship or a healthy marriage.
I want to mention that if someone ever breaks trust with you, it doesn't mean that you can
never trust that person again, it just means that the trust that you've built goes back
into reconstruction.
If you're wounded from someone breaking trust with you and you want healing in that friendship,
then open up your heart a little bit more again on faith and try and trust them with
little things again.
If they also want healing in that relationship, they will gladly reinvest in the little things,
and you can build your way back up to a full restoration of that friendship, but that takes
time and forgiveness.
If they have no interest in repairing that friendship, then they won't have any interest
in trusting in those little things again, and much like the lazy servant, sometimes
these people need to be cast out of our lives.
Now with people, there's givers and there's takers, but there's an often forgotten third
group of people called equal givers.
These people only give what's been given to them.
Now there's no trust or faith in giving somebody back what's given to them.
That's not trust or faith, that's fair exchange.
You see, this was the case with the lazy servant.
He gave back to the master exactly what he's been given, but he's called wicked and lazy.
You see, God doesn't want us to sit around while He does all the work, and then, then
we become faithful.
God wants us to invest in Him the same way that He invests in us.
It's a humbling thought, but think about how many times we've broken trust with God.
It's weird to think about, but God trusts us.
God's already made the initial investment because He wants to build trust with us.
It says in Romans 5:8 that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
He wasn't sure that we would use this new life that's been bought for us, but He trusted
on faith that we would honor His initial investment, and what's so good about that is every time
we break trust with God, He's already made the initial investment, and He's ready to
start trusting us all over again.
So if you really want to see God come alive in your life, trust Him with the big things
and the little things.
Invest in your relationship with God, and He will pay back double and even more than
double everything that you give up to Him because the Lord our God is faithful, was
faithful, and will always be faithful.
So now I'm going to trust on faith that you're going to click one of these links here on
the left side of the screen, and you can test my faith by asking a question in the comments
below.
Ask anything you want.
We'll do our best to answer it.
I think you'll do it, and then we'll build trust with each other.
It's us building a relationship.
I would like to be close with you.
We can do that by you clicking these links.
That's not, like, a bribe or anything.
We can still be friends.
You don't have to, but I mean, they're really good.
I made 'em just for you.
Like, I seriously did.
Check 'em out.