Trusting in the Lord with all our heart is vital to living a life that delights Him and one that is delightful for us to live. Did you ever jump off something into the arms of an adult, trusting they would catch you? Or had a child jump to you, trusting you would catch them? It seems that once they know you will catch them, it becomes a fun game for them. I can remember my littles ones jumping off the bed into my arms for a hug. I also remember not knowing they were going to jump and it knocking us over and that become a whole different kind of game. To be able to play this game, they trusted in me and my ability to catch them, they had confidence I would enjoy that hug as much as they did. This trusting game delighted us both and help build a relationship where they knew they could trust me.
"Trusting in the Lord with all your heart" is a little like jumping into His arms, trusting He will catch you. The good news, is you won't knock him down, He is always expecting you to jump.
.To get a picture of what trust is, let's start with the dictionary. In our verse, "trust" is a verb, so that is the definitions we will look at.
Definition of trust
1a : assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something
b : one in which confidence is placed
From <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trust>
1 Believe in the reliability, truth, or ability of. From <https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/trust>
Trust: bə-ṭaḥ Verb- be bold confident, secure, sure, careless one, put confidence, make to hope
Batakh is, properly, "to cling to," and so passes to the meaning of "to confide in," "to set one's hope and confidence upon." From <http://biblehub.com/commentaries/proverbs/3-5.htm
So trust means to believe in the ability, strength, truth and reliability of someone. To trust in the Lord means knowing the truth of who he is, knowing His ability, strength, and reliability This kind of trust is not passively saying " I trust in the Lord" and going about your own way. This trust requires action on our part. It is an assured reliance, bold confidence, clinging to who he is and what he says. Trusting God is knowing that He loves you, He’s good, He has the power to help you, He wants to help you, and He will help you.
We make a choice to love the Lord, to praise Him and to serve Him, but trusting God is more than making a logical choice. It is not something we can muster up by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps or psyching ourselves up. Although we must make the choice to trust, trust is the one part of a relationship that must be earned.
Whoo-Jodee! Are saying that God has to earn our trust?
Yes and no. The process of building trust requires time and patience. The children trust you to catch them when they jump, because of your history together. They know you have taken care of them, they know you like hugs and to play games with them. Because they know you and have experienced being with you, they learn to trust you. We trust in the Lord because we know and have experienced His trustworthiness and because we have faith in His nature. And since trust is emotional as well as logical, we need to see His character in action. It is not that He has to earn our trust, but we have to learn to trust Him, trust with all our heart. Heart here is lib-be-ḵā; the inner man, soul, comprehending mind, feelings, affections and will.
We take what we know to be true from His word and apply it to our lives, that is faith. When we see that it is working, trust is built. We pray in faith and believe, and when we received the answer, trust is built. We see Him in working in the lives of others, trust is built. We look throughout history and see His faithfulness, trust is built.
This kind of trust doesn't come to us overnight, nor is it always easy and fun to learn. To trust in God’s wisdom, power, and goodness, for direction and help in all our life, means we will face challenges where we need His wisdom power, goodness, direction and help. It is in these times of need, we have to come to a place within our self where we say, I want to trust You. I don’t know what to do, but I trust you do. I don’t understand why, but I trust you know. We pull on our knowledge of Him, review past victories and defeats, and choose to trust Him in each situation. That is trusting Him with our mind, our emotions and our will, in other words "with all of our heart".
It is here, in that place of trust, we jump! It is here, that life become delightful! It is here, we experience joy and the peace that passes all understanding! And it is here, in this place of trusting Him with all of our heart, that we delight our Lord!
But what about the times we jump and feel like He didn't catch us? Those times we did trust in Him and felt like we were let down? That is where the next part of the verse come into action, "and lean not to your own understanding". Join me next time for more.. Until then...
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