Lion Heart ENCOURAGE - Trust

Lion Heart ENCOURAGE – Trust                                                                                  2025-03-03

Note: Apologies for the delay in ENCOURAGE posts, I was locked out of my site management tool, and I was unable to post.

Intro:

Hey man of God! Knowing God deeply definitely has a cost. Thankfully, His love doesn’t. His love is the foundation of all He does. It’s the foundation of sending Jesus. It’s the reason He has done for you what He has.

Now, let’s respond to that love, with the sweet incense of our reciprocal love to Him. To place Him first in our lives is a commandment. And this commandment benefits us in that it protects us, but it blesses us as well.

Encouragement: Trust

Proverbs 26:6 AMP‘He who sends a message by the hand of a fool Cuts off his own feet (sabotages himself) and drinks the violence [it brings on himself as a consequence].’

Proverbs 10:26 AMP

‘Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, So is the lazy one to those who send him to work.’

Vinegar is acidic in nature and can erode enamel, causing discomfort and damage to teeth. This imagery suggests something that is irritating and harmful.

Whereas a lazy person, is someone who fails to fulfill responsibilities, causing frustration and disappointment.

Now these images are both pretty descriptive, and both relate to trust in a relationship. Once you remove trust from a relationship it can’t function as a good relationship. But rather it becomes a liability and a disappointment and can even degrade into open warfare.

When we first enter into a relationship, there is a certain level of ‘good will trust’. This is trust that we just give to someone without knowing them or knowing where things will end up. It’s like we’re saying, if I want this relationship to even get out of the starting blocks, I need to deposit a certain amount of trust in the relationships bank account. This get’s things going. This sets the relationship off on a good footing.

Then, over time, the things we do or say, or refrain from saying or doing, continue to deposit or withdraw from the relationship trust account.

What we do and say will determine the level of this trust account.

Trust is foundational to any good relationship. But it’s important to note that Trust, or being faithful, is a choice.

Let’s get some guidance from the Word:

• Proverbs 3:3-4 – ‘Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.’

• Philippians 2:3-4 – ‘Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.’

Here we see the bibles wisdom in encouraging us to ‘never let faithfulness leave you’, and that we shouldn’t do anything out of selfish ambition. That includes how we conduct ourselves in relationships.

Selfish ambition most likely will undermine faithfulness. Selfishness will result in an imbalance in the deposit/withdrawal equation in that trust account.

When we enter a relationship, are we only focused on our needs? Are we constantly looking for ways that we can benefit?

Now it’s not negative to want something from a relationship. It’s part of why we engage in relationships. We all need something, even if it’s just the fellowship or comradery that comes from being with someone. But if our relational ‘ambition’ is unbalanced. If it is selfish only, we’re going to rob the relationship. We’re going to leave it overdraw and the trust bank account will run dry.

Pro 3:3-4 makes clear that love and faithfulness are a choice.

How are you doing on the trust meter? Are you making regular and positive deposits into your key relationships? Especially those that you have with your tribe?

Remember, trust is foundational to a good relationship. Without it, the relationship will crumble.

Words spoken and not followed through, draw down on that account. Commitments made and not kept, draw down on that account. Actions taken that expose our tribe, or belittle our people, draw down on that account.

Our faithful actions and kind and sincere words play a key role in maintaining that trust bank account in the positive. I encourage you to choice faithfulness in your relationships, and to banish selfishness. This will make for a strong foundation to grow from.

Now if we turn our attention to God, isn’t it just amazing, He made the ultimate deposit into the relationship with you and I, knowing that most of the world will betray Him. Knowing that most of the world will not seek to give back, to love back.

But with the hope and foreknowledge, with knowledge that His ‘deposit’ will give us an opportunity to legally and legitimately return to Him, God made the investment, He gave all He could! He filled the account! He paid the debt.

Of course, it’s important to note that there are two sides to any relationship. No relationship can be one-way only. In the case with our relationship with God, there is His offer and our response.

He makes the offer, but it’s up to us to respond. Will we respond in love and faithfulness?

It is clear from the Word, that the two main qualities/responses God requires of us, is Faithfulness and Holiness!

It thus remains for us to now respond to His initial deposit!

Prayer Request:

Let’s spend this week praying for the men in our lives. Our fathers, brothers, friends and colleagues. That God may prepare their hearts to receive more of his love, and that they may in turn respond in love and faithfulness. Let’s lift each other up in prayer this week.

Please fwd this message to those who you think can benefit!

Your Brother in Christ,

Stanley 

(100% human generated content) 😊