Trust is Learned

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~5 min read

Hi there! Welcome to Well Lit Soul. Where we seek God, face darkness, and shine brighter. This season of the blog is all about learning. So today’s blog is called “Trust is Learned”.

I was born and raised in the United States of America. I have lived and grown up in a society where we were given very specific instructions on how to build a life for yourself. Go to school, study, get good grades. Go to college and/or the military to further your education and skills. Get a job and work to provide for yourself and your family. Ideally, become rich. Retire. This was the roadmap that was set before me and my entire generation, and at least 2 generations before and after me. The goal or objective is the same. Learn to be independent and self-sufficient. Get the knowledge, skills, and experiences you need to earn an income, build wealth, and take care of yourself.

Well, I did that. I went to school and stayed long past the standard requirement. 24 years if we’re counting all of my formal education. I got my first real job at 14 and have been working to earn and save money ever since. It’s a way of life that I have adopted and lived in alignment with for decades. It’s like a factory setting for my mind. But as I have been navigating a lot of changes in life this year, that default setting has been called into question as it relates to my faith. 

I have found that this way of life is actually quite contradictory to faith. Because I operate as though I am responsible for the things I have. I worked and earned these things, therefore I am self-reliant. And because of my own actions I end up with an “I made this happen” mindset. But what I have really been seeing this year is that nothing I have is because of my own will or abilities. Everything I have comes from God because He saw fit to give it to me in accordance with His will. 

It’s tough because my mind is programmed to think and believe that my stability comes from my degrees that can secure a good job with benefits. That my security comes from regular income and the various forms of insurance I can use when things go wrong. That my peace of mind comes from the money in my various accounts for a rainy day or to provide the necessities and comforts I seek. And without those things, I will end up sick, homeless, and generally destitute. But I recently revisited some of Paul’s teachings about the rich. He says in 1 Timothy 6:17-19,

17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. 18 Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. 

I had been living where I said I trusted God but then operating in a way where I was actually relying on myself and my earthly riches. Like I said before, it’s contradictory. The faith math isn't mathing. The trust receipts are nowhere to be found.  

So now, I’m in a place where I’m trying to figure out what a new life can and should look like. Beyond these traditional paths that have been set before me. To live in a way where God is my stability, my security, my insurance, my peace of mind. Where He is the plan and the back-up plan. And even if it means that I go without in a physical sense, it doesn’t mean that God has failed me or let me down. Paul said it best when he spoke to the saints in Philippians 4:11-13,

11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

This is where gratitude, contentment, peace, patience, and trust all collide. When we are more focused on what God has done for us rather than on what we want Him to do. When we rest in what we do know rather than all the things we don’t. Then, we can have security knowing He provided in the past and will continue to do so as long as we are faithful to Him. That’s when we learn to trust Him, rather than ourselves and our riches, to take care of us when we don’t know what’s coming. Then, my job is not about earning a living and providing for myself, but rather faithfully learning and doing the will of God and trusting Him to supply my every need. Because the riches are not certain, but God always is. And without Him, then I really and truly have nothing.

Connection Question: How are your trust receipts? What scriptures challenge you to trust God? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to connect with you about it.