Show me a person who says he trusts others and I’ll show you a person who has seldom been hurt. When it comes to trust, the truth of the matter is that it is hard for most of us because we have all been hurt to various degrees by various people in our lives.
The older I get, the less I trust people and the more I trust God. God is the only One who has never hurt me or let me down. Yes, I’ve had hard times and experienced loss, but God was always with me and even used the difficult events to grow my faith and make me a stronger person. We can realize that God alone is trustworthy without becoming cynical toward mankind however. So how do we learn to trust again, even if the person we want to trust has hurt us before?
Before trust comes forgiveness. Now that may be even harder for us to deal with. Who doesn’t like to nurse a wound or hold a grudge? We somehow feel that we are getting even by doing this. Why in the world would Jesus tell us over and over in scripture to forgive others? That we must forgive others?
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.
Mark 11:25Mark 11:25
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
25-26 . Whenever you stand up to pray, you must forgive what others have done to you. Then your Father in heaven will forgive your sins. x your sins: Some manuscripts add, “But if you do not forgive others, God will not forgive you.”
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First and foremost, no one person’s infractions against us can measure up to our lifetime of sin against God. How dare we gladly receive His forgiveness only to withhold our forgiveness to an individual.
It goes much deeper than that also. God has not given us a list of rules to go by just to make our lives difficult. He created us. He knows exactly what makes us tick. he knows exactly what is good for us and what will harm us in the long run. As a loving Father, He sets guidelines for our own protection. When He commands us to forgive, He is in effect freeing us from the bondage that an unforgiving attitude has over us. As long as we harbor resentment and hatred toward someone, that person has control over us. By forgiving them, we are freeing our spirits from their control.
What if that person doesn’t ask our forgiveness? Sorry, but that is no ticket out. It would be nice if they would, but God tells us to forgive, period. Even if they never admit wrong and never ask. Is it easy to do? Not hardly. And we may have to pray everyday telling God that we are choosing to forgive that person until finally it sticks and becomes real.
Now back to trust. Scripture tells us to trust God and not to rely on man. God knows man will always fail us. Trust that has been destroyed can only be gained back over time and only as that person proves himself trustworthy over time. It is possible to trust again but we probably won’t do so blindly. And trust will never come again until we have found it within our hearts to forgive. With forgiveness comes great freedom, and with freedom comes choices, and one of the greatest of those is to trust again.
To refuse an effort of trust is to invite Satan into the trial that you are facing. Through the Grace and Love of Jesus Christ the gift of trust between people is a ‘task’ that we must strive to achieve in order to throw off the negative aspects of humanity, ie-anger, grudges, etc.