Today, our society has become more skeptical of everyone and everything.
People don’t trust the government.
Employees don’t trust employers.
Customers don’t trust businesses.
And let’s be honest... many parishioners don’t trust their churches anymore.
When you get down to the bottom of the decline of trust today, you’ll find that our society’s “truth decay” is a big part of it.
Truth and trust go hand in hand.
You trust people who tell you the truth, and you don’t trust people who don’t.
And if you don’t believe in absolute truth, then you can’t trust anyone or anything.
Our lack of trust causes tremendous stress in life.
We were born to trust. God wired us with the capacity and desire to trust in something greater than ourselves because he wanted us to have a relationship with him.
If you don’t trust God, you’ll create something else to trust.
It may be a diploma on the wall, money in the bank, your spouse, your ministry, or a hobby.
This desire to trust in something larger than ourselves is nothing new either.
The biblical writers were keenly aware of it in their cultures as well.
The Bible says in Psalm 20:7, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (NIV).
Pastors can struggle with a lack of trust.
It’s easy to begin to put our trust in the latest church strategies or our denominational support system rather than the God of the universe.
The Bible has a word for whatever we place our trust in rather than God.
The Bible calls it an “idol.”
God’s Word says that for our own good, we need to stay away from idols: “For your own good … do not sin by making for yourselves an idol in any form” (Deuteronomy 4:15b-16a GNT).
Don’t let idols rule your ministry.
Model for your church what it means to trust God.
