Trust and Obey
by Jill Southern
In the last few months God has challenged me on the issue of trust. Do I totally trust Him in every circumstance of life? My circumstances have suddenly changed in ways I don’t like. Can I really trust Him when I can’t see the way ahead, or when God says “Wait!”. It’s the unknown path and future which seem very daunting for some of us. Trust is a choice we make, and of course we don’t trust a person we don’t know.
We need to know God and the faithfulness of His character before we can truly trust Him. The more intimate the relationship is, the costlier the commitment of trust becomes. To trust someone is to voluntarily make yourself dependent on that person for some outcome or consequence, so the one whom we trust must be trustworthy.
When we trust, we let some of the outcomes of our life go outside of our own control. When we trust God completely, we come under His control. This can feel scary, but it’s the safest thing we can do with our lives.
To trust always involves us being vulnerable, so there’s no such thing as costless trust. The proof that we have trusted is that we make no contingency plans. If we set up a fall-back position, it calls into question the level of our trust.
Why do we find it so hard to trust? Trust depends on relationship, and our past hurts and disappointments may have made us wary and cautious. What we’ve experienced in the ‘fallenness’ of a world that’s broken faith with God can damage our ability to trust. In trusting, we come up against the root of our own ‘fallenness’, which rebelliously refuses to trust and depend on God. This shows itself in independency, self-sufficiency, and the need to exercise control over our own destiny. Trust strikes at the root of all these three things.
Because God has said “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, we can say with confidence “the LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me” (Hebrews 13:5-6).
There’s only one way for us to trust God, and that’s with all our heart. Our confidence in being able to trust God is a ‘heart’ trust. It’s trust that’s been proven to be right so often it brings a settled assurance and produces a state of inner confidence that we can trust Him again NOW, in this moment.
If we don’t trust God with some aspect of our lives, Jesus isn’t Lord of that area, because we have taken back our own control. God guards very jealously the integrity of our relationship with Him. God trusts us! We must reflect his trustworthiness in our lives.
As the old hymn puts it, ‘Trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey’. ‘And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You’ (Psalm 9:10).
Prayer: Lord Jesus, please strengthen me when I’m afraid and enable me to trust in You. Help me in those times when I wobble to put my hand in Yours very firmly and know that You’re utterly trustworthy. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
Jill Southern is the founder of Ellel Ministries Pierrepont and directed the work for 21 years. She has recently stood down from that role but still teaches on the NETS programme and has the passion to train and equip God`s people to fully walk in their destiny and calling. She is the Regional Director for Ellel Ministries International in South East Asia and China and is also on the Executive Leadership of the ministry.
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