I wonder—can I trust you? Can I trust you to love me? Can I trust you to
support me? Can I trust you to be my friend? The Bible uses other words
sometimes such as to believe or to have faith. We’ve been taught that we can’t
trust what we feel; can’t trust what we think; can’t trust anybody. Who can we
trust? In whom can we have confidence and have faith? Sometimes we invest a
little trust in someone and we make a connection. We begin to move. Things
begin to change. Great things, beautiful things begin to happen. Trust
completes a circuit and allows energy to flow.
Then we may go to church where we hear, "Trust God" or "...my refuge and my
fortress, my God in whom I trust." We were taught not to trust strangers and
there is nothing stranger than God. You can’t see Him. He moves in mysterious
ways. And when we can’t trust God with skin on, called our neighbors, our
friends, our families, then who can we trust? Yet, trust we do—in some pretty
amazing things. I trust when I insert the key in my car that it is going to
start. I trust the left faucet on my sink to put out hot water. I trust
something invisible and intangible called electricity that I know very little
about, but I trust it very much. I trust the invisible principle of
mathematics that says if I do certain things correctly I have an answer that I
can rely on.
In Lessons In Truth, Emilie Cady said that we are not automatons or
robots. We have free will, the will to choose what we think, what we believe,
what we will do, what we will have faith in, and God honors that free will. It
is up to us. If we don’t trust God to work through us, it won’t. Without trust
the circuit is open and energy cannot flow. We have effectively blocked it by
our mistrust.
There is a universal spirit that enlivens and loves every being. We need to
trust in that super wisdom, that super power, that indwelling spirit. Jesus
Christ said in the 14th chapter of John, "Let not your heart be troubled,
believe in God, believe also in me." How often our hearts are troubled. We are
afraid of our bodies, our lives, one another. We are afraid to do something
because we might fail. Spiritual awareness within us is saying, "Yes! Believe
in God the Father, but believe in the Son, the Christ of God and His action in
your life." This power is omnipresent. It’s in your body, your finances, and
your relationships ever ready to make its presence known.
In order to trust we need to be willing. Willingness sets the whole thing in
motion. It makes it possible for something to happen because it is the
directing power of the mind. There are always opportunities to grow and often
growth hurts. If we are willing to trust, then we know that God is everywhere
present in that situation—in our bodies, minds, and work. We begin to realize
that we are spiritual beings created with intelligence and one with God and
His Universal Spirit That’s a connection.
I once had an opportunity to be face to face with a brown bear cub. I did not
trust that bear. He had such a wonderful smile but lots of sharp teeth. A
tentative touch becomes more sure and trust builds as we experience success.
It builds when you find out that God doesn’t bite! You know how we ended that
relationship? Holding a cup of coffee, I leaned forward to pet this beautiful
creature. The next thing I knew, his face was in my cup drinking the coffee!
We really made a connection.
We can trust the action of God in us. Distill this intellectual knowledge and
successful experience into true understanding. One way to do this is through
meditation in which you become personally aware of the presence of God within
you. Sometimes it may seem humanly impossible to trust this stranger called
God, and perhaps humanly it is impossible. But that’s all right because the
teachings of the Bible, the teachings of Jesus Christ, the things we can read
for ourselves, the truths we can find for ourselves in all the world around us
show us that we have a potentiality that transcends human.
What appears humanly impossible becomes spiritually possible. We become aware
of higher aspects of our being and we realize that we are not only human, we
are spiritual beings, beings of Life. As we build trust in God we are
introduced to our real and eternal self.
So, be willing! Affirm often, "Lord, I am willing to trust." Stretch forth
your hand to the little brown bears in your life. Gently, easily, experience
success. Read how you can trust, in the Bible or in other places, and then
begin to convert that intellectual awareness to true spiritual understanding
through prayer and meditation. You will soon know, "My refuge and my fortress,
my God in whom I trust."