John 15:14-15 Jesus says, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”
 
Did you know that there is something that stands right in the way of building trust with others?
 
And, it has a lot to do with the first building block of true love. What we need to realize and accept is that God made you to need care from Him and others. Care isn’t something nice that happens from time to time in your life.
 
Understand this, please, God made you to exist in an environment of constant care. He built you with the need for every minute of every day existing in realized care.
 
Like a plant needs sunlight, you need care. Like a fish needs water, you need care. God made a fish to live its whole life in water, your whole life must swim in care. The moment that sin hit this world, the stream of constant care was broken.
 
Sin in the world robs people of needed care. And now people resort to taking care from others rather than living in the vulnerability of need. Our whole world thrives on the idea of selfishly taking care from others, rather than living in blessed neediness.
 
That sounds foreign even reading that, doesn’t it?
 
You need care and our world is so backwards. Often, when we are vulnerable with our need, we are met with emptiness or sometimes, abuse. There are times when we really need care, and it doesn’t happen. So, we choose to not want it.
 
This can be excruciating because God made us with a definite need for care. So, what stands in the way of trust? Fear.
 
I am afraid that what I needed, and didn’t happen in my life in the past is going to happen again. I am afraid that at my future point of need, no one will care, and I do not want to go through that again. So, I have learned to not need. Therefore, I do not trust.
 
Yes, fear is the huge barrier between trust and mistrust.
 
Even though significant people in my past have missed the opportunity to care, here is what God encourages me to do.
 
Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
 
God can be trusted, He has proven Himself trustworthy through the gift of His Son Jesus. You can lean on Him when it looks as though there is no care. He built you the way you are, and He knows that care is essential to you.
 
He knows that you function best inside of trusting relationships, and He is ready to help you grow into those. He says that you do not need to be anxious about what that looks like right now. Simply agree with Him regarding how He made you.
 
We get into trouble when we tell God that the world has changed us into something different then how He made us. God made you perfectly. He didn’t make a mistake. You are perfect for what God has in store for you. So, do not be afraid. Agree with God regarding how He made you and then ask Him to provide for your needs, He will.
 
1 John 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
 
Please do not let fear stop you from true love. True love is the best thing on this earth, because it is the essence of God. True love comes right from the Father’s heart because it is Him.
 
We have further to go. We are just half-way to true love. Care produces trust, that’s pretty easy to see, right? What does trust produce? Well, that will be for another day. For today, can you pray right now and confess fear and ask God to give you the courage to pursue true love?
 
Lord, thank You that we get to experience true love. We see true love clearly in what You have done through Your Son Jesus! Thank You so much for Jesus!
 
Blessings,
Pastor D