It Is Always a Trust Issue

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not to your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will direct your paths.

 Have you ever known someone who had “trust issues?” That meant that in some area of their life they were not completely confident toward someone or something. If we were being totally honest, as believers we too would admit that we have trust issues when it comes to our relationship with God. We all say we trust Him, but when push comes to shove, we pull back in some areas of our lives.

One well-known minister of the gospel refers to those areas of our lives in which we do not totally trust God as “strongholds.” This is an interesting perspective because we usually think of strongholds as specific areas of our lives where mentally we have allowed the enemy to build walls that keep us from experiencing God’s best. We tend to frame strongholds individually: in finances, not believing God can help us in meeting our needs; in health, not believing God can bring healing; in relationships, in not believing God can bring restoration. In reality those are all surface issues. This minister was spot-on; regardless of the specific issue, all strongholds find their root in not trusting God.

The go-to verse for dealing with strongholds is 2 Corinthians 10:5 (King James Version): “⁵ Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ…” When we associate strongholds with mental blocks we tend to emphasize the portion of scripture, “casting down imaginations.” But when using this minister’s definition of strongholds we should emphasize the phrase “exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” Strongholds as described by this minister result when our knowledge of God is limited or lacking. There would be no strongholds if we had an accurate, complete knowledge of God; meaning if we had a revelation of the character of God and the goodness that emanates from His character. Here are a few scriptures that reveal just who God is:

• The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. Psalm 145:9
• Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
• “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Psalm 34:8

The greater our revelation of the goodness of God, the more the stronghold of distrust will begin to crack. When that happens the mental strongholds we have allowed to build up in our minds will have no place to hide. Trust in God comes from knowing He is 100% for us and has a victory plan for  all the difficulties we will ever face. For that reason, we can declare with confidence what David wrote in Psalm 27:13: I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. When we place our trust in God’s goodness, we will see victory in every challenge that confronts us!

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