Living Trustworthy Lives

When we understand where to place our trust and know how to live out that trust, we can move on to the activity of trust within imperfect relationships. Building and establishing trust in relationships begins with first living a trustworthy life.

Only when we live trustworthy lives grounded in God who is perfectly trustworthy can we then begin to build trust in our imperfect relationships. That happens when we consistently:

  1. Focus on pleasing God not people. (1 Thessalonians 2:4)
  2. Determine to be trustworthy with the Gospel. (1 Thessalonians 2:4)
  3. Rely on the Holy Spirit. (2 Timothy 1:14)
  4. Be dependable at work and at home. (Proverbs 31:10-11; Titus 2:10)
  5. Learn from those proven trustworthy, though not perfect. (Moses, Nehemiah, Daniel, and Timothy)

Since our trust lies rooted in God, we must purpose to show that we truly trust him as we move forward in establishing trustworthy character. When trust is secure within us, rooted and grounded in that which cannot be taken away, we can then move on to building trust with others.

Trusting in Those Who Fail

Before moving on to how to build trust, we must address the struggle of trusting those who fail. We build trust in new relationships, and that takes a lot of work too, but it’s the building of trust with those who failed us — those who broke our trust — that usually proves to be the more difficult challenge.

I want to trust others after they’ve hurt me, but I struggle getting their breach of trust out of my thoughts sometimes. The easiest way I’ve found to not think about it, or at least to think about it less, is to avoid the person. Yet, not only is that not always possible, it doesn’t line up with scripture.

So, I must do the tough work of choosing to trust those who fail me simply because I know it pleases God. That’s where my relationship with him — where my trust being established in him — becomes crucial. There’s no way I can trust those who have failed me if they are the source of my ability to trust.

“The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.” (Henry L. Stimson)

“You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.” (Anton Chekhov)

“He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.” (Lao Tzu)

Examples of Reestablishing Trust

For me, hearing about stories of trust helps me better understand how to reestablish it in my own life. Consider the following examples.

  • God trusted Jonah despite previous disappointment. Jonah ultimately comes through, but he never really gets the point God is making. He never really understands that God is a God of Second Chances. (Jonah 3:1-2)
  • Jesus reinstated Peter after his predicted denial. Not only did he reinstate him, but Jesus trusted Peter with tremendous responsibility in the spread of the Gospel. (John 21:15)
  • Barnabas gave John Mark a second chance even though Paul disagreed with doing so. (Acts 15:37-39)

Ultimately, we choose to trust others because we know that trust exists at the heart of relationships. God trusts humans with tasks purposed for his will because he desires relational partnering. Because he trusts in this way, knowing he’ll be let down, we too can continue working to build trust even with those who have and likely will again let us down.