Do you have trust issues?
I remember what it was like to trust eagerly and quickly. It used to be so easy to believe that people would like me, that people meant what they said, that people wanted the best for each other.
But as time has gone by and friends I thought I’d have forever turned against me and loved ones have hurt me, trusting others has gotten more and more challenging.
Lately I’m struggling even to trust God. And I know I’m not the only one.
Can you blame us?
If anyone was ever justified in having trust issues, Samson was definitely one of those people. His life goes from bad to worse in this chapter. Can he trust anything?
A clear winner
The first thing that jumps out to you about Samson is probably his violence. If not that, then his weakness for women. Maybe even his enjoyment of poems and riddles. But what we don’t always notice is that Samson was incredibly lonely.
And it’s no surprise because one by one, without fail, the people close to him gave up on him or betrayed him or attacked him.
After being betrayed by his wife over a silly game, Samson throws a brief temper tantrum. He comes back to find his wife and her family have betrayed him again – she’s married to someone else.
Naturally, Samson lashes out (via animal cruelty, among other things). This gets the attention of the Philistines, and they kill Samson’s ex-wife and her dad. Samson responds by attacking them. After beating them soundly, he retreats to a cave to lay low.
Until he is betrayed by his own countrymen, his brothers in Christ, his fellow Israelites. They hand him over to the very people he was hiding from.
There is Samson, completely alone, left behind by family and friends and country. Who else can he trust? Who will come to his aid now?
“The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on him.”
verse 14
He can trust God. God comes to his aid. By God’s strength, Samson kills all of the Philistines that had come to kill him. God even works a miracle to replenish his strength afterwards (verse 19).
And just like that, Samson doesn’t seem so alone anymore.
And neither are we. It doesn’t matter who we are, who has violated our trust, or who has left us high and dry. We will always have a hiding place in our God.
Everyone else can and probably will betray us. But God never will.
“Even if everyone else leaves you, I will always be here.”
I struggle to trust God when things aren’t going how I expected them. I struggle to trust God when my prayers aren’t answered how I wanted, or when it isn’t easy to escape an addiction, or when I have a bad day.
But the very definition of faith is believing and trusting even when you can’t see results. It’s believing that God is who He says He is. It’s trusting that God’s words are honest and genuine.
Because He said it. It’s all written down, right there in the Bible, in thousands of languages and hundreds of versions.
He said He loves us and died for us.
He said He has all power.
He said He’ll never leave us or forsake us.
He said all things are possible in His strength.
He said He went to prepare a place for us.
We’re not going into this blind. There’s no wondering whether He’s for us or against us. There’s no plot twist sneaking up on us.
God said we can trust Him. The God, the Creator, the One who never lies, said we can trust Him.
So we can. So we will.
What do you think? What helps you when you have trouble trusting God?
Delicate Pages 