It is a brand new year and time for a new word of the year! I feel a little (ok, a lot) behind in getting this written, but better late than never, right? Since learning to enter into rest last year, I have come to realize that my life can be planned as much as I choose to make it so, but it’s the moment by moment obedience to God’s gentle whispers and not my own plans that bring rest. And sometimes that means that things don’t unfold the way that I may have scripted. Which somehow makes this year’s word so much richer with meaning than it might have before the journey God took me on in 2024.
Every year for the last several, I have chosen to begin the New Year with prayer. Asking the Holy Spirit to give me a word to frame the 365 days ahead. And the word for this year is TRUST.
As is my usual practice with a new word, I decided to do a little word study and headed to the dictionary to study the definition. There were a number of applications and definitions, but the ones that stood out to me were the following:
- As a noun, the “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; one in which confidence is placed”.
- As a transitive verb, “to rely on the truthfulness or accuracy of: believe; to place confidence in: rely on; to hope or expect confidently”.
- As an intransitive verb, “to place confidence: depend”.
The assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone. To place confidence – the quality or state of being certain – in another. Wow.
That all sounds amazing and it begs the question – How does one come by that kind of assurance? That complete certitude and dependence. And who or what would be worthy of that kind of devotion?
The Sunday School answer to that last question is that God is worthy – but how many of us actually know Him like that? Proverbs 3:5 tells us to trust in the Lord with our whole hearts – and I think as followers of Christ we often say we have trust in God – but looking at this definition, can we honestly affirm that we do? And what would that kind of trust look like? These are all questions that have been swirling in my mind since this word was dropped into my heart.
I used to think that trust was based on knowledge. The more you know about a person, the better you can trust them, right? And while I think there is a measure of truth to that, I’ve discovered that trust necessitates more than just knowledge. We can extend a certain level of trust to people that we don’t know well, but have an elementary knowledge of who they are – co-workers for instance. And the reverse is true – we can know a lot about a person without ever really trusting them. However, it is in building deeper relationships that we actually learn to trust in a way that changes how we live our lives and relate to the other person.
Knowledge is gained through familiarity with something, through exposure, experience, or association. It is the gathering of information. This collection of information is what we use as evidence, how we establish accuracy, and it can be the first step we take towards trust. But trust requires more than just a wealth of information. Especially if we are talking about it in context of how we relate to God.
When we have a relationship with someone that we have come to know intimately and choose to trust, relationship continues to feed that trust, even when knowledge is absent.
beatrice giesbrecht
I can know about God and not trust Him. That’s no different than compiling a list of facts for a research paper. Because knowing about God requires no risk. Gaining knowledge can be done from a distance and requires no action on our part. No responsibility. But if trust is built by relationship, then simply the act of compiling facts and becoming acquainted with the information isn’t enough. It’s taking that knowledge and doing something with it that makes all the difference. And when we have a relationship with someone that we have come to know intimately and choose to trust, relationship continues to feed that trust, even when knowledge is absent.
I love this quote by Joyce Meyer that I came across recently.
“Faith is something we have, while trust is something we do. God gives us faith…but it is up to the individual what they do with it. Trust is faith in action. It is faith that has been released.”
Joyce Meyer
Faith and trust are words that often get used interchangeably, but really they work hand in hand. Trust in its simplest form is faith in action. We can see this revealed in the pages of Scripture through the stories of countless others that have gone before us – the great cloud of witnesses and pioneers of the faith whose lives teach us even now – the ultimate example being found in Jesus. This beautiful, fierce, un-bordered, confident reliance requires us to do more than just stand still and believe. This belief must so transform our lives that our actions are ordered by it.
Have you ever participated in a “trust fall” as part of a team building exercise? Where one person falls backwards and trusts that the person standing behind them will catch them? Faith and trust are like that. They work together. Faith is our assurance that God exists and our belief in Him. In the trust fall example, Faith is the certainty in the existence of the “catcher” and His desire for our good. Faith is foundational for trust to exist.
But trust is an action that is optional. It’s a step that we have to take. It’s based entirely on what we do with our faith. Trust is placing our confidence in the God Who loved us and reached out His hand to us, much like a child places their hand in a parent’s so they can walk together. Trust is the action of surrender, of letting go and falling into the waiting arms of the One in whom we have placed our faith, believing that He will be there to catch us.
Trust requires a willingness to take a risk – taking action that leaves you open and vulnerable to the one in whom you are placing this confidence. I think this never became more apparent to me than when I became a mother. The first time I held my babies in my arms, looked into their eyes and felt their tiny fingers grip my own, I realized just how much I wanted to be someone they could rely on. The trust that my children place in me is not something that I take lightly and it is incredibly humbling!
I’m reminded of the days of introducing my babies to solid foods. I knew they were ready when we could see their curiosity and that they were interested in our food. They watched us obviously enjoyed what we were eating, but that knowledge wasn’t enough to sustain them. Each time I would put something new on their plate or offer them a spoonful of something, they had to take a risk and try it for themselves. Their knowledge of my love for them and my track record of giving them sustenance before that moment wasn’t enough. They each had to take the risk to leave the comfort of milk behind and try this new food for themselves.
Psalm 34:8 calls us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Not just know about or observe, not look at someone else’s experience and be happy to watch them – but to actually experience for ourselves. To experience something, there has to be a letting go to take a step – or sometimes a leap – into something new.
Trust is an action. It requires bold steps and relying on Someone outside of ourselves. Taking a risk to go all in, to live in a place of trust without borders, when knowledge abandons us, and the questions may be greater than the answers. Trust unfettered, unhindered, unbounded. Trust that anchors us “where feet may fail”. That is the kind of trust I want my life to reflect.
So, this year I’m committed to growing in trust, though it feels intimidating to say so. Placing my hand in my Father’s greater one and choosing to depend on Him in whatever comes. Because He’s never failed me and in His unchanging Love for me, I know He never will. Will you join me?
Trust In God – by Elevation WorshipBlessed Assurance, Jesus is mine
He’s been my fourth man in the fire, time after time
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood
And what He did for me on Calvary is more than enoughI trust in God, my Savior
The one who will never fail
He will never fail
I trust in God, my Savior
The one who will never fail
He will never failPerfect submission, all is at rest
I know the author of tomorrow has ordered my steps
So this is my story and this is my song
I’m praising my risen King and Savior all the day long
Of Shattered Things 