Why There Should Be No “Trust Issues” with God

I once saw a picture of a sign that read, “Raisins in cookies are the reason I have trust issues.” Does that resonate with you? I actually like raisins in cookies, but when you’re expecting chocolate chips, the presence of dried, shriveled grapes is a bit of a rude awakening. Without thorough inspection, raisins look like chocolate chips, and so we are led to a false conclusion about the taste that we’re about to experience. Now, this unpleasant occurrence does not really lead us to struggle with trusting other people, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been burned in other ways that make it difficult for us to be vulnerable.

You may have been open with someone about your personal tastes only to be mocked in response. Perhaps you divulged some of the dark sins in your past to a family member only to have her react with horror. It could be that you put yourself out there by telling a friend of some past trauma that still haunts you only to have him belittle the experience. Or, maybe you expressed to a church member a few of the doubts you’ve been experiencing only to have it spread around your small group.

If these, or other similar experiences, are familiar to you, I am sorry. It must be difficult to trust people in the wake of feeling such sting. But I want to point you to a contrast that we find in the character of God that I think will encourage you. Consider Psalm 62:8,

Trust in him at all times, O people;

pour out your heart before him;

God is a refuge for us

How does this text help us when we’ve been hurt by people we’ve chosen to open up to? It reminds us that God is perpetually trustworthy. There is never a time when He can’t or shouldn’t be trusted. In fact, there is nothing in your heart that you have to shove into a dark closet or lock away in a high-security safe. When it comes to God, there is nothing in your heart that you should mark as “off limits” to Him. As David says in this Psalm, it should be “pour[ed] out before him.” Certainly, that imagery does not call to mind a person meticulously combing through His heart to select what He will and will not reveal to God. It is a free-flowing spill of the things inside us that we are scared of sharing with others. 

When you come to God again, confessing the same sin for the five hundredth time, He will not stiff arm you. Rather, He meets you there with His abundant mercy poured out through Christ. When you come to Him admitting how weak and needy you are, He doesn’t tell you to get over it. Instead, He supplies you with His sufficient grace so that you can take the next step in faithfulness to Him. No matter how difficult the trial or how ugly the sin, God can be trusted to act in your best interest. We know this because David says, “God is a refuge for us.” We are safe with Him. Nothing we pour out to Him will He use against us.

I remember hearing a sermon where the preacher said something to the effect of, “If I were to project all your thoughts onto the screen for everyone in the room to see, you would run out of here and never come back.” He was attempting to help his audience feel the heaviness and severity of their sinfulness—and I think he was absolutely right to do so. But the reason why we would run away and never come back is because we would expect our dark thoughts to be met with much hostility and fear from at least some of the people in the room if we returned. This is not the case with God. Because “Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous” (1 Peter 3:18), we are safe with God. Let this reality propel us toward God, unburdening our hearts as we seek full vulnerability in His presence.