One of my favorite stories from Michael Jordan’s docuseries “The Last Dance” was about his lesson on learning how to trust his teammates. As the best player on the team, he thought that he had to always have the ball in his hands. In close moments, he had to be the clutch player. The only problem with this philosophy was everybody knew that. When there were tight moments, all eyes were on him, making it very difficult for him to be as effective.
However, that was not the case in 1997 when the Chicago Bulls were playing the Utah Jazz. Their fifth national title was at stake and their second three-peat. In the final moments of the game, they were down and needed a big shot. Coach Phil Jackson drew up a play and everybody knew the ball was going to Jordan. Jordan decided to trust his teammate Steve Kerr with the winning shot. He told him he was going to be open and to be ready to knock down the shot.
Just as he envisioned, Kerr’s defender left him to help on Jordan, leaving Kerr wide open for the shot. Unselfishly, Jordan gave up the ball, the glory, the highlights, and passed it to Kerr who knocked down the game winning shot. A couple more great plays happened after that shot and the Bulls won their 5th NBA Championship.
Learning to Trust God
That level of trust doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time and learning how to trust starts with trusting God.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Proverbs 3:5-6
We are limited as mankind. We don’t know everything and we definitely don’t know the future. This could make it hard to fully trust what’s happening in our lives and what’s to come.
What makes this process a whole lot easier is putting our trust in God. He is the omniscient power that already has our lives laid out (Jeremiah 29:11). There’s no reason to worry about the future. As long as we believe and trust that God as our best interests at heart, He will deliver. We can’t trust anything in our lives if we don’t trust God. Trust means even in the face of adversities, still having the faith that God is going to make good on his promise for a great life (Mark 10:29-30).
“But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
James 1:6
In other words, when the world is tossing us around and throwing crazy stuff at us, we have to root our trust in God that he will prevail so we are not thrown around by the world.
Trusting Yourself
After you put your full trust in God, you start to learn how to trust yourself. I’m not saying trust in yourself over the will of God. But be confident and sure of how you move forward in life. If you know you are doing the right things by God, know for sure that all the gifts and knowledge He’s blessed you with are just that, gifts. Prizes that you should be proud of. You don’t have to walk around hesitant and doubtful. You are confident the Lord is providing you with opportunities to show His greatness through you.
Take that risk, invest in that business, apply to that school, launch that start up. If you root your faith and trust in God, then assure yourself that things will be in your favor. Even if things don’t go well and you make a mistake, take solace in the fact that God will be there to scoop you up and send you back on your way. Having this trust in God will help you stay determined when the road is so hard you just want to give up. Who knows, maybe the “mistake” is actually a blessing in disguise.
Trusting Others
The third progression in trust after learning to trust God and yourself is learning to trust those around you. Once again, you cannot trust others more than you trust God. In fact, the Bible warns a lot about trusting man:
“Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.”
Jeremiah 17:5-6
We need community
However, in order to move forward in life, we have to learn to trust man enough to be able to work with them. There is nothing in this world we do 100% on our own. We always need community or a friend in faith. However, these relationships won’t work without basic trust that someone else can get the job done. Michael Jordan had to trust his teammate to make that shot. You have to trust your partner to submit those forms on time. We have to trust our classmates to finish their parts of group assignments. Couples have to trust each other enough to talk about their feelings and problems, finding solace in the Lord and in their partner.
We can’t be so mistrustful that we take on all the burdens of a task and try to do it on our own. This will only lead us to frustration, wasted time, and misery. If we don’t try to delegate tasks, ask for help, or communicate well, then we will never get anything done. We are all working under one God and towards one purpose, His purpose.
“Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many”
Corinthians 12:14
Everyone has to do their part to make up the whole. Trust that God has surrounded you by good people and that you have the ability to make good enough decisions that you can trust them to do what they need to.
Trust is hard
Mankind is not perfect. They are bound to disappoint you and make it hard for you to trust others. But this is why you root your trust in God and not man. If you continuously trust that God is going to bless your life, then you won’t be so distrustful in other facets of your life. You will learn to scope out bad apples and have more confidence in yourself. It takes time to develop trust in yourself and in others, but learning to trust God takes only a few moments.
Today’s prayer: God please help me learn how to trust you more. Even when things go poorly or I am frustrated, remind me that you know the plans you have for me. You have my future layed out, so I don’t need to worry about them. My trust for you will outweigh anything negative or any setback in my life. The more I learn to trust you and lean on you in times of uncertainty, the more I can trust myself and be confident in the decisions I make. Help me learn to trust those close to me and please remove those with bad intentions. I want to learn to serve you better and trusting you is my first step. Amen.
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Proverbs 3:5-6
(5 )Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; (6) in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (7) Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. (8) This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
Jeremiah 29:11-14
(11) For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (12) Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (14) I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Mark 10:27-30
(27) Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” (28) Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” (29) “Truly I tell you,”Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel (30) will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. (31) But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
James 1:2-8
(2) Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, (3) because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (4) Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (5) If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (6) But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (7) That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (8) Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Jeremiah 17:5-8
(5) This is what the Lord says:“Cursed is the one who trusts in man,who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord.(6) That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;they will not see prosperity when it comes.They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,in a salt land where no one lives. (7) “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,whose confidence is in him. (8) They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.It does not fear when heat comes;its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Corinthians 12:12-14
(12) Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. (13) For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (14) Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
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