Choose to Trust Yourself and Your God

I can’t help but realize how much I don’t know. It is pretty amazing, that us humans have this incredible ability to gain an infinite amount of knowledge, but there are so many basic things we can’t teach ourselves. We can learn the history of the world, we can learn twelve languages, we can teach ourselves to perform tasks, but we struggle to know how to trust. It is almost something life teaches us against. Maybe experiences shape this idea, or we see it in the society around us. Trust is something people universally struggle with. To fully trust in something is to put yourself in an extremely vulnerable situation, which is terrifying and beautiful all at once! Some of us have allowed ourselves to trust.. maybe without even realizing it. There are times when you can get so wrapped up in something that the facts are impossible to see. Then, there are other times when we are so aware and afraid of trust, that we paralyze our relationships. How do you learn to trust? You can’t open up a self-help book and gain a sudden ability to open your heart and let someone in. Yet, our world has given us thousands of these books. Go to amazon.com and type in self-help and you will receive 189,808 and counting results. Wow, that is a lot of help. But, if there has to be that much advice compiled over the years, it must not be working. So, I must offer up a simple solution. Throw out the self-help books. They may offer up some really great advice for small issues sure, I can agree with that. But, that is a quick fix. It is a simple solution to a really complicated problem so, why bother? And how does one choose from 189,808 self-help books? Well, you don’t I mean, you can’t!  I offer up this: Sort through the 189,808 books full of temporary, quick fixes or, open up the bible. After all, there is only one of those. Yes, there are different translations, but its all the same bible.

So, trust. How does one learn to trust? We have a hard time with this as humans. It is really hard to be vulnerable. We are told to be strong, to be leaders, to be better than others. None of those teachings allow you to make yourself vulnerable. Our relationships struggle because of this. Instead of abandoning our fears and apprehensions, we try to create a false ability to fix these problems. We lose trust in the search for answers that put us in the power position. We try to play God. We humans are control freaks after all, whether we admit it or not. So abandoning all the teachings of our society, and really looking in the bible we will see how our world has taught us to fear trust. Our world teaches us to help ourselves, the bible teachers us to seek help from our GOD. (“Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you”). The world says you need to hide your problems, and keep a confident facade, the bible tells us to be humble and honest. (God opposes the proud but favors the humble). So, looking into these false teachings of our world I see that they surround us. They are in our every day encounters. At work, at school, in television, in our books. It is so hard not to fall victim to these falacies!

How do I learn to trust in something real, and not accept what my society is teaching me?

Trust.

The impossible task! We just spent all that time debating why trusting is so difficult, but how we find so many problems when we don’t do it. So we need to learn to trust. We need to be able to trust GOD. When we can trust God, we are trusting in the life he has laid ahead of us. If we can truely trust in God, we are trusting in the job we have been given, the friendship we have, and the relationships we will build. And that is something beautiful! The fear is gone and the love and knowledge we are allowed to gain from trusting is born! It sounds easier said then done, so I can only encourage you read the bible. After all, it is there to teach you and be an example of encouragement! Get rid of the world’s false teachings and live a life of love and ability. God gives us an incredible ability when we trust in him and love him. He gives us the ability to love others.

I have dedicated 2009 as the year I learn to love. I gained a realization that I have fallen victim to false teachings and shaping of our society. I never had an example of love growing up with divorced parents. I was taught to build a wall around my heart so that my heart couldn’t be harmed. I was hurt in a relationship once I finally did let someone in. And all of this is because I didn’t know how to love God. I didn’t know how to see through to world’s problems and know God’s love is infinite and true. Learning to love is the same as learning to trust. You can’t have one without the other. So, take time for yourself this year and learn to love and trust! It may be the most rewarding thing you do for yourself. This may mean different things for different people. Maybe your marriage is suffering? Maybe you’ve grown despondent in a relationship or towards relationships in general. Maybe you are afraid. Let it go, trust in God

And of course read your bible! 1John 4:7-21 is a great start.

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