Does God Trust in YOU? Or "How Do You and I Define Love?"

So what is this thing we call trust? In most if not all relationships it is the foundation. If there isn't trust it is really hard to move on. We might like someone or even "love" someone, yet if there is not trust, what do you do?

The one definition of trust which I like best was written by a mentor and friend of mine, Darald Hanusa:

"Trust is the feeling of comfort that comes from knowing that another person will look out for our best interest, no matter what."

It may be interesting to know that Dr. Hanusa is a cognitive, behavioral psychologist and that part of his life work has been working with men whose pattern of life has been abusive and controlling (selfish) behaviors and facilitating their change to men whose behaviors are assertive and caring (empathic).

How do you or I learn to "trust" someone who has been hurtful and harmful? How do you or I get a feeling of comfort from a person who has in the past hurt me or has not "looked out for my best interest"?

The short but not easy answer is learning to trust again because that person has changed their behaviors from demanding and forcing to behaviors of asking and allowing me to be me, no matter what--even if I say NO.

Trust is a primary feeling of knowing in my heart that you no longer want to hurt me to get your way. Not an easy task. How does one gain your trust or if lost, how do you get it back?

"Thoughts of your mind have made you what you are, and thoughts of your mind will make you what you become from this day forward." (Catherine Ponder)

"As we think in our hearts, so are we." (King Solomon)***

Let me illustrate with this story.

When I was a little boy I slept on the bottom bunk and my brother was on top. My big brother, who I literally looked up to use to tell me: "Donny, at night there are alligators under the bed and if you get out of bed they will get you and eat you." I believed my brother. I trusted him. And I cried because I had to go pea. I wet my bed. And my big brother would call me a baby for wetting myself. I eventually would get up and go pea in the toilet and I wouldn't get eaten--not by alligators anyway.

I learned not to believe or trust my big brother. For most of my childhood I did not trust my big brother. Now I trust my big brother with my life. I learned to feel trust in the feeling of knowing he would look out for me, no matter what.

Once when we were kids and swimming in some lake in Texas I was going down for "the third time" and brother Bill held me up till the lifeguard got to me. Once I shot him in the mouth with a BB-gun and he pulled the BB out of his mouth and laughed. Once when I was in Viet Nam and my best friend Earl died Bill wrote me and said I would always have a place to stay with him when I got back to the "World". Once I did stay with him and his wife for several months, several transmissions and several .... well I won’t say of what. Through it all, my big brother Bill acted in such a way that I no longer feared him, I trusted in my heart that he was looking out for my best interest.

Who do you trust? (Wasn't that an old TV show?)

Who do you trust--really?

Do you "trust in God" or "trust your spouse" or "trust your boss" or "trust your children" or do you even "trust yourself"? It's on our Money: "In God we Trust". I wonder on God's money does it read "Trust in People"?

Trust is a "two way street" and it takes both "knowing that another is and will look out for our best interest, no matter what".

Whether you are the "truster" or the "trustee" it is a feeling of comfort that comes from knowing, really knowing that the best interest of the other is the goal. The goal is not what I want or even what the other wants; it's what is best for the other-- --NO MATTER WHAT.

For this reason God so "had the best interest" of the world in mind that He gave his one and Only Son to die so that WHOSOEVER TRUSTS IN HIM may not perish, but have everlasting Life.

Do you trust that? Do you trust that God was willing to die for you? God trusts that you will.

*** Note: "As thou thinketh in thy heart so are ye" by Dr. Harold Sala
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7, NKJV
Some 3000 years ago the wise man—perhaps Solomon himself—said it so well: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”Simply put, you become what you think—negatively or positively. Your thinking shapes your attitude, and your attitude is like the wood carver’s tool that molds you into the image you become.
A 27-year-long medical study documented what the writer of Proverbs observed a long time ago. Dr. John Barefoot of the Duke University Medical Center and author of the study says that people who are depressed, lack motivation, and generally feel hopeless, have far greater health problems than those who are positive and upbeat.

Furthermore, he says that individuals who think negatively of themselves and others have a 70 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 60 percent greater chance of premature death than those who are generally positive. (“Mood Affects Your Health” Family Circle, November 1996, p. 58).
He would agree with the words of Proverbs 23:7 in the Bible that says “as you think in your heart, so are you.” OK, what’s new? Solomon knew that 3,000 years ago, but now we’ve documented it. Dr. John Barefoot believes that you just can’t afford to worry, and if you find yourself feeling “blue” for more than a couple of weeks, you need professional help.

The study also revealed something important, something that the thousands of letters which have come to me over the years bear out. When you have a relationship with God—“religious involvement” is what the study called it—you have a more positive mental attitude, and your attitude determines your altitude: whether you get above your problems or sink lower and lower.
The study shows that when people live with “bad feelings” their negative attitude tends to lead to excessive smoking, drinking, food binges, and dangerous activities which only feed the downward spiral.
What does a God-connection have to do with your attitude? Plenty.