Introduction: We live in a self-fulfilled, self-reliant culture. Everywhere we look around us people are doing it "their way". It's literally "every man/woman for himself" even in homes around our country. The reason we have come to trust so much in ourselves, is that we don't think anyone is trustworthy anymore.

When a culture becomes a lying culture, or a Pinocchio Nation, it is extremely hard or difficult to trust anyone anymore. Now, when people say to us: Just trust me, we say, "Yeah, right!" How as Christians shall we live among a culture that is difficult to trust? How can we trust friends, family members, and particularly others in the Christian community, if we do not easily trust others?

All around us there is scandal: women killing their babies (that was a trust relationship); godly men perverting their office with wicked and evil sexual crimes again youth (these were men others trusted with their deepest confessions); and the general climate of distrust in your average American marriage because of allowing a third part to penetrate the perfectly peaceful pattern God has established: pornography, etc. (this breaks down trust between two people). So, at the end of the day, the world feels more comfortable with just trusting oneself, and not having to worry about having being hurt. In such a culture, people are looking for hope, but feel isolated and lonely by the fact that the only person they can be sure that they can trust is themselves, because they have a vested interest in looking out for number ONE!!!

We don't think about it, but our trust in the Living God is the beginning of our learning to be trustworthy people in a distrusting world. I mean, we cannot always trust others, this is part of the reason for the Book of Proverbs, we have to be wise in this world. However, we can learn to show what trust is all about and what it looks like, by God's grace in our own lives!

Even more primary than obedience is trust! Trust is the propulsion of obedience. Trusting is obedient to God, but it is trust that causes our obedience. Trust is very important to think about: Illustration: Trust is a bank where you deposit your riches and hope to go there and find them awaiting you; trust is close friend with whom you share intimate secrets; trust is a marriage where two people can be naked and unashamed together, sharing two lives selflessly and honestly.

Verse 5: "lean not on your own understanding- do not "support yourself". Verse 6: "in all your ways acknowledge him"- "know him"; "be aware of his presence"; "have fellowship with"- - practice his presence in every aspect of life. This implies reverence (fear of the Lord) as well as obedience in all situations.

TRUST: Not self-reliance, but faith in the Living God! Not "cherished independence", but a joyful "dependence" upon the Living God!

• God gives us gifts to serve him- - not confidence in ourselves, or in our gifts, but confidence that HE is trustworthy - that we can be confident in HIM.
  
  
• "Just Trust ME" says the LORD. My very words that you have are Living Words. They are Living Words that will bring transformation to you!
  
  
• God IS Trustworthy
  
  
• Doubt is the opposite of trust. Doubt is the way of the simple and the fool.
  
  
• "God with us" is every reason to trust him!
  
  
• Israel and Solomon the author of Proverbs forgot trust, gained confidence in the wisdom God had given to him and trusted in himself.
  
  
• We forget to trust; we lack trust; we sometimes don't trust anyone but ourselves!
  
  
• Christ did not! Christ trusted the Living God and God showed himself trustworthy!
  
  
• Wisdom come from revelation in God's Word, but also from discipleship. That is, a continuous trust in the Living God and seeing from our experiences the great faithfulness that comes because God is the Ultimate and Most Trustworthy One!