Sharing means Trust

Have you ever thought about your strongest relationships? What makes them strong? It’s more than just the people in the relationship. At the end of the day, you don’t have strong relationships with people you don’t trust. 

So, what is trust? According to the dictionary, trust is firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. It is not something that is easily given. As we build relationships, we determine who is trustworthy by what they do. Do the people around us gossip about things they’ve been told? If so, we won’t tell them our secrets. Do they put themselves ahead of everyone else? If not, we will be concerned that they only think of themselves and would sacrifice those around them for what they want. All these things affect how much and whether we’ll trust those around us. 

Once we know who we can trust, we share who we are with them. The amount of our sharing is directly proportional to the level at which we trust. We only share our secrets with people we believe will never share them and won’t judge. So, with whom have you built relationships where you can trust with any and every thing? Who are the people who can trust you with any and every thing? If we want people to trust us, we, too, have to be trustworthy (Prov 18:24). 

Of course, the Lord is trustworthy (Psa 25:1-3). We can tell Him anything and He affords us a chance to confess, repent and come to Him with a heart that wants forgiveness and acceptance. We can accept Jesus as personal savior and be accepted for who we are – secrets and all.  And because we are not meant to walk through life alone, He will give us people we can trust as well. 

God loves us so much that He will provide us friends who are closer than brothers (Prov 17:17). Those people we can depend on to listen to us when we hurt; to not judge when we mess up; to pray for us when we are going through and choose to love us in spite of the flaws, issues or scars we carry (1 John 4:7). Who are the people God has blessed you with in this way? I’ve been blessed with a few and I have to say my life is so much richer for having them (Prov 27:17). They help build me up and not break me down. They help to remind me of God’s great love for me. It’s one more example of how God provides exactly what we need.