Trust
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August 07, 2011 |
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 "I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples" (John 15:1-8).
Because one-sided trust is not complete, complete trust is established between two people when both parties trust mutually. A servant of the Lord must have assured belief and reliance on the Lord, and he must also attain a level where the Lord can trust him and entrust him with the flock. This is complete trust that must be established between the Lord and His servants. It is in this way that servants can become one with the Lord. A servant who has become united with the Lord is likened to the branch that abides in the vine and then bears much fruit. Then, the servant can glorify God. Let me now speak about three aspects of trust.
The first aspect is the trust between you and Father God.
Your trust in God can be measured by your measure of obedience to the Word of God. To the extent you obey what the Bible tells you to do, not to do, to keep and to cast away, your trust can be recognized according to that amount. A person who completely trusts God lives by His will all the time whether someone sees or not.
It's because he believes God is alive and sees everything. He also believes the good will of God is in the Word of God. At times living by the Word of God may seem to cause you to suffer loss or even be a threat to your life. Despite even such realities in life a person who really trusts God, still follows the will of God.
Daniel and his three friends trusted like this. They wisely refused to eat the choice food from the king's table to avoid eating the things sacrificed to idols. They chose to give up their lives rather than to bow down to the image of an idol. They would bow down, serve and worship only God. Daniel didn't cease praying even though it resulted in him being cast into the lion's den.
How trustworthy they must have been in the sight of God! God Himself had considerable trust in them. They fully obeyed His will without fear and were willing to go through fire and water in obedience. God protected the three men even in the blazing furnace and they were not injured at all. God also guarded Daniel in the lion's den. After that God provided for them to sit in the higher positions than they had before.
The second is the trust between you and the Lord.
Your trust in the Lord can be measured by the belief in the Lord who will return to take you back to your home in Heaven. The Lord has entrusted His servants and workers to care for the souls He bought with the price of His blood. He asked them to perform the duty of testifying that the Lord resurrected and He is the Christ. And He promised He would come back at the destined time.
If you trust the Lord, you can never forget this Lord-given duty even for a moment. The Lord has assigned each one with different tasks according to his talents. When the Lord returns, each of you will have to give Him an exact accounting of your duty. In Luke 12:48, He says, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more."
If you really trust in the Lord, you have to follow His way. First of all, you have to resemble the holy and blameless Lord. Next, you have to sacrifice yourselves for the souls in the same way that the Lord did. If you completely trust in the Lord, then He will trust you too, and He will give you much strength and wisdom.
After the Lord's resurrection and ascension into Heaven, His apostles became assured the Lord is the Christ and boldly preached the Gospel under the life-threatening situations. Your trust in the Lord is necessarily followed by His trust in you. He accompanies you with strength and authority and then strengthens you to fulfill your duties as recorded in Mark 16:20.
The third and final aspect is your trust in the shepherd.
By what can you measure your trust in the shepherd? To the extent you follow fleshly thoughts, your trust in the shepherd decreases.
For example, suppose you think, 'Why is the shepherd saying something like that? He is not telling the truth as I have known it. Who told him things that are not true?' All those thoughts fall into the category of 'fleshly thoughts'. Such people think they are right in their thoughts, so they cannot say "Amen" to the words from the shepherd.
What kind of person can be considered to have trust in the shepherd? At a single word from the shepherd, a person who trusts in the shepherd doesn't get ready to do something with any fleshly thoughts at all. A servant who fully trusts the Lord always accepts his messages by the spirit and thinks of everything in goodness. Even if he finds he has different thoughts and opinions, he thinks he is the one who is mistaken and that the shepherd is right. He may also think, 'There must be a reason he is saying it. He is telling that point to enlighten many others and lead us to the truth and the spirit.'
Those who accept the message by the spirit and understand it in goodness can later gain the spiritual meaning of the words of the shepherd they couldn't understand immediately. Such an understanding is gained because they trust the shepherd, and then believe all his words and obey. The continuity of those experiences makes your trust in the shepherd more complete. The shepherd can also trust those servants and pastors who trust him.
The apostle Paul had a few trustworthy workers. Prisca and Aquila, his fellow workers in Christ Jesus, supported him in spirit and finances. He confessed in Romans 16:4, "for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles." This verse tells us how much Prisca and Aquila loved the apostle Paul and how deeply Paul trusted them.
I hope that you will trust God, the Lord, and the shepherd who always walks with God by obeying the word of the Lord and cultivating your hearts into the truth. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will receive answers to prayers and enter the most beautiful dwelling place, New Jerusalem.
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