I had the opportunity to speak on God’s trust in us this weekend and I find that I am still in awe of this. In my preparations, I found reference to Numbers 12:7 (NLT) ‘But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust.’ This is tucked in amidst verses that say how God communicates. He communicates with Moses face-to-face because he trusts Moses. Wow. I want that too. I want full-on communication, communion with God.

What do we see in the Bible that might show us how to increase our trustworthiness?

The Parable of Talents in Matthew 25, sometimes called the Parable of the Bags of Gold, speaks directly to the trust that God has with his servants. The man in the parable is going away and trusts three servants according to their ability. That is noteworthy – God trusts according to our ability with him. He never misplaces his trust in us. We should be confident in the things and acts that he trusts us with because he only does so to our ability.

Act in trust. That confidence then means that we act as he has instructed. Bags of gold do not multiply without some kind of action. Since these were servants of the man and not hired day laborers, they had worked under the man, trained under his supervision for some time. Therefore, they were ready to do as trained. Two of the servants acted on the trust of the master.

Trust builds trust. Upon the return of the master, two servants had increased the master’s holdings, by double. The master was so pleased that he ‘put [them] in charge of many things,’ (Matt. 25: 21,23). The trust that they acted on also demonstrated the trust they had in the master, and as such they were given more trust. Being faithful with little increases our faithfulness (Luke 16:10), and the same happens when we respond to God’s trust.

Be courageous. The one servant who had been entrusted one bag of gold hid it away in fear. He knew that needed to act but did not. I think that trust is only as strong as we want it to be. Certainly, it takes two to have trust, but if we want to increase trust, then we have to courageously give and accept the trust that is in the relationship. The third servant did not value the trust that had been placed in him, didn’t accept or recognize the trust instilled in him. He did not trust back in equal or greater measure to continue the steps forward. When trust is tenuous, we need to be courageous to make trust stronger.

Get intimate or personal. The third servant also indicated that he knew the master. He knew the master was ‘a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed,’ (Matt. 25:24). The man claimed to know the master. Since the master in this parable is King Jesus, I too know the master. But we clearly know two different people. This servant knew of but did not know his master. He had not been intimate with the master, but instead saw the master as harsh and unjust. In getting personal, even vulnerable with God, we increase trust and begin to know him more. We need to dig into those hard passages and figure them out.

Increasing our Trustworthiness

We have been trained up to meet the challenges that we have in life. Even better, we have the Spirit accompanying us in these challenges, so we are ready to act in trust. Acting in trust in turn builds trust and the cycle builds upon itself in relationship with God. At times, we may find ourselves over our heads, but God gives trust in appropriate measure and so with courage we move forward. It is in knowing him that we know he is trustworthy and faithful. In this intimacy, opening up and seeking to know, we will build trust.