trust

Let's start with a personal weakness of mine: I sometimes find it hard to picture God concretely, like as a real person. I know a lot about Him, but it's hard to know Him, especially when I can't see Him. Luckily, I believe He gave us relationships with other people to teach us about Him. So when I'm having trouble imagining God, I think about the people I know personally who sort of embody certain characteristics of Him.

Today, I'm thinking about trust. Trusting God to do what is best for me, and for the people I love. So I’m thinking about the people I know I can really trust. What is it about them that makes them trustworthy? Six main characteristics came to mind:

1. I know them. This might seem like an obvious one, but think about it. I have a basic trust in humanity just because I like to believe that most people are good, but I would never give a stranger the keys to my car. I know all the people I trust very well, and the more I know them them more I know I can trust them.

2. They are consistent. They don't change on me. If they say they'll be there, then they are. They've never not been there for me when I needed them. 

3. They are honest.

4. They are wise and/or knowledgeable. When we were younger, my dad would make up these silly rules for us. Like, don't jump on the banister. He said that he knew it would break because he had done it himself when he was younger. But we ignored the rule. What did Dad know? Turns out... he was right. The banister broke, and we got in trouble. Or what about when Mom said, I think you should do this, or not do that? What does she know. It's not like she was ever a teenager herself. Oh wait. Mom was right too. Maybe I should trust the people who know a little bit more than me about life. :)

5. They have power. You know that trust-fall game, where you fall backwards and trust the person behind you to catch you? I would never play that with a little kid as the catcher. I would crush them. They just don't have the power or ability to catch me. I like to play it with people who are strong enough to support me and hold me up :)

6. They love me. I am absolutely confident in the love that these people have for me, and that above all else allows me to trust them completely.

So then, if God is perfect in every way, I can safely assume that He is perfectly consistent, honest, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving.  And I can assume that the more I know Him, the better I will be able to trust Him. So, let's learn more about Him and how He is trustworthy :)

1. I can know Him. Coming to know Him is a lifelong pursuit, something that takes consistent prayer and scripture study. But I know that it is so much easier to trust someone I have a relationship with. Nephi in the Book of Mormon is comforted by his relationship with Heavenly Father. He writes, "I know in whom I have trusted - My God hath been my support." {2 Nephi 4:19-20} The more I come to know God, the more I will be able to trust in Him. 

2. God is perfectly consistent. "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?" {Mormon 9:9}  I can't have faith in something or someone who changes. Luckily, I read in scripture: "For I am the Lord, I change not." {Malachi 3:6} He has always been there when I needed him, and He always will be. He will always regard me and do what is best for me. He has promised, "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." {Joshua 1:5} God is really the only thing that is perfectly consistent and constant, in a world full of change. In the words of the modern-day hymn Be Still My Soul, "In every change, He faithful will remain."  :) 

3. God is perfectly true. In the Book of Mormon, the Brother of Jared believes God before He even speaks, because he knows that He is "a God of truth, and canst not lie" {Ether 3:12}. I can trust in God and His promises, because He can't lie! :)

4. God knows everything. Jacob in the Book of Mormon wrote, "He knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it" {2 Nephi 9:20}. I can trust that, as Lehi testified, "all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things" {2 Nephi 2:24}. Because God knows everything, I can trust that He knows best. I can say with Mother Teresa, "I don't know what God is doing. He knows. We do not understand, but one thing I'm sure, He doesn't make a mistake." Or as Mormon wrote, "I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore he worketh in me to do according to his will." {Words of Mormon 1:7} When I remember that God knows everything, it's easier for me to trust Him and do His will, because I know that He knows best :) 

5. God is all-powerful. I know that "God is powerful to the fulfilling of all his words." {Alma 37:16} and that "there is nothing too hard for [Him]." {Jeremiah 32:17}. This gives me the courage to act. Nephi knew that if the Lord gave a commandment then He would also give a way for that commandment to be fulfilled {1 Nephi 3:7} and that if God commanded him to do all things, he could do them {1 Nephi 17:51}.When his brothers complained that their task was too hard and their enemy Laban too mighty, Nephi reminded them that "[the Lord] is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even his tens of thousands?" {1 Nephi 4:1} He reminds them that "the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him." {1 Nephi 7:12} Knowing that the Lord is all-powerful and completely in control gives me the courage to act in faith and trust in Him to take care of me. He will catch me when I fall. He has power over all the earth - nothing and no one is more powerful than He. :) 

6. He loves me. How do I know this? Because He sent His Son to atone for me and to die and be resurrected for me. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" {John 3:16}. Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount—that is the measure of God’s love for you."  When I think about the people I love the most, all I want is for them to be happy. I would never do anything that wasn't what I thought was best for them. This is how God feels about us, only He knows perfectly what is right.  God loves us so much that He wants only the best for us. His whole work and His glory is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life {Moses 1:39}. That's what He wants more than anything. We are "that we might have joy" {2 Nephi 2:25}. I can trust that "He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him." {2 Nephi 26:24} 

My Heavenly Father is the only one whom I can trust perfectly. He not only desires my eternal happiness more than anything, He has the knowledge and the power to make it happen. I just have to trust in Him and let Him do what's best for me. Trust Him. It's so hard, isn't it? As C.S. Lewis put it, "The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ." 
What's sometimes even harder than trusting God with my own life is trusting Him with the lives of the people I love. When I see things happen to them that are difficult, I have to trust that God loves them with an infinite love too, and that He is taking care of His child. 
King Benjamin taught, "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." {Mosiah 4:9}. I don't understand everything, but I know absolutely that God loves his children, and I trust Him to do what is best for us {1 Nephi 11:17}. 
When I trust my Heavenly Father, I have hope that the future will be bright. As Jeffrey R. Holland taught, "Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come" {Hebrews 9:11}." :) 


Real quick - how will my actions show that I am trusting in God? Henry B. Eyring taught that, "You show your trust in Him when you listen with the intent to learn and repent and then you go and do whatever He asks... If you go and do what He would have you do, your power to trust Him will grow and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that He has come to trust you."

What a wonderful love God has for us :) :) 




Read my earlier thoughts on trust here, here, here, and here.