Trust Must Be Cultivated

Trust is like all forms of fruit: it needs to be cultivated and it passes through various stages of development before it reaches full maturity. The words of David in Psalm 62 well illustrate the development of trust: “He [God] only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be greatly shaken” (v. 2, nasb1995). But after making exactly the same declaration of trust in God, he says, “I shall not be shaken” (v. 6, nasb1995). Between verses 2 and 6, David progressed from not being “greatly shaken” to not being shaken at all.

We need to be as honest about ourselves as David was. Before our trust has come to maturity, the best we can say is, “I shall not be greatly shaken!” At this stage, troubles and opposition will shake us, but they will not overthrow us. However, if we continue to cultivate our trust, we will come to the stage where we can say, “I shall not be shaken”—period! Nothing will be able even to shake us—much less overthrow us.

Trust of this kind is in the realm of the spirit rather than the emotions. We may turn once more to the personal testimony of David for an illustration. He says to the Lord, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in Thee” (Psalm 56:3, nasb1995). Here David recognizes two conflicting influences at work in himself simultaneously: trust and fear. Fear is superficial, in the emotions; trust is deeper down, in the spirit.

Mature trust is like a deep, strong river, making its irresistible way to the sea. At times, the winds of fear or doubt may blow contrary to the river’s course and whip up foaming waves on its surface. But these winds and waves cannot change or hinder the deep, continuing flow of the waters below the surface, as they follow the path marked out for them by the river’s bed to their predetermined end in the sea.

Trust in its full maturity is beautifully exemplified by the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 1:12 (nasb1995):

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

By all worldly standards, at this stage Paul was a failure. Some of his most influential friends and supporters had turned against him. Of all his close coworkers, only Luke remained with him. Demas had actually abandoned him and turned back to the world. Paul was infirm and aged, a manacled prisoner in a Roman jail, awaiting unjust trial and execution at the hands of a cruel, depraved despot. Yet his words ring with serene, unshakable confidence. Beyond the horizon of time he looks forward to an unclouded day—“that day” when the righteous Judge will award him “the crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8).

For Paul, as for David, trust was the outcome of an act of commitment. It is expressed in his own words: “He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him.” “Trusting” was the result of “entrusting.” Years previously Paul had made an irrevocable commitment of himself to Christ. Subsequent trials and sufferings gradually brought forth an ever-deepening trust that had now come to its full fruition in a Roman dungeon, its radiance all the brighter by contrast with its gloomy setting.

Faith as Trustworthiness

We turn now to the second aspect of faith as a fruit: trustworthiness. Linguistica

Faith

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