Becoming a Person of Trust

Trust might be the most important quality of a follower of Jesus. When you are trusted, you are able to develop healthy relationships built upon honesty and integrity. You are authentic, empathetic, as well as transparent, and reliable. You are who you say you are, and the people around you, whether family, friends, colleagues, or neighbors, can depend upon you. The question is, how do you become a person of trust?

Luke, in his story of Jesus, gives us a clue. In six verses, he tells us about the death of Jesus. In the middle of his story, he says, “Jesus prays, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’” It is a prayer of trust. It doesn’t evoke an emotional response like, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is not a story where you feel bad for Jesus when he says, “I thirst”. It is a story of Jesus trusting his life to God.

Let’s use the pattern of Read, Reflect, Respond, Return to explore what we might learn about trust.

Read Luke 23:44-49

“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun’s light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.’ Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God and said, ‘Certainly this man was innocent.’ And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.”

“Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,” -Luke 23:46

Reflect on Luke 23

While on the cross, Jesus prays a prayer of trust. He knew the comfort and affirmation of the scripture. He is praying a Psalm, “Into your hands I commit my Spirit” (Psalm 32:5). His prayer shows no distance or pain in relationship to God. It is not a prayer of resignation or defeat. It reveals to us who Jesus is and who he trusts.

Luke has Jesus praying from the time he is baptized to the time he ascends to heaven. After he is baptized, while he is praying, the Holy Spirit descends upon him. The Holy Spirit leads him into the wilderness to pray. It is in these moments of prayer that Jesus is checking his trust in God’s direction for his life.

In his sermon in Nazareth, Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, he has anointed me…” In Luke, Jesus not only possesses the Holy Spirit but promises the Holy Spirit to his followers. So, in The Acts of the Apostles, you can see how the early followers of Jesus were anointed by the same Holy Spirit.

Jesus is a Person of Trust

So, in his prayer, Jesus is showing he is a person of trust. When he prays, “Father into your hands I commit my spirit,” he is simply trusting his life to the God who has called him and commissioned him to ministry. Luke replaces the despairing cry of Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” with quiet confidence and trust. Just as Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness, “Father forgive them…” becomes a model for his followers, so his dying prayer of trust becomes a model. The same prayer is prayed by Stephen at his death (Acts 7:59).

According to Luke, not only the way Jesus lived but the way he died brought glory to God. The soldier at the cross says, “Certainly, this man was innocent.” With those words, Luke is saying that even Rome recognizes that Jesus’ death was a great injustice, that in executing Jesus they killed an innocent man.

Luke Doesn’t Rush to Joy

I find it interesting that Luke does not rush to the joy of Easter morning. For Luke, Easter can only be grasped by those who have stood at the cross and reflected upon their own involvement in mistrust that led to the rejection of God’s revelation in Jesus.

In quiet trust and confidence, Jesus commits his life into the hands of God. From his baptism to his decision to go to the cross, from his teaching about his death to the misunderstanding of who he was as the Christ, from teaching his followers to pray to forgive those who intentionally turned their backs on God’s love, in quiet trust and confidence, Jesus prays.

So, Jesus prays, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” The very spirit that called and commissioned him is being offered back to God in quiet trust.

Respond to Luke 23: Pray for Trust

Brennan Manning, in his book, Ruthless Trust tells the following: When ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at “the house of the dying” in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, “And what can I do for you?” Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

“What do you want me to pray for?” she asked.

He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: “Pray that I have clarity.”

She said firmly, “No, I will not do that.”

When he asked her why, she said, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So, I will pray that you trust God.”

Prayer Propels Trust in God

Jesus prayed to keep his focus on God. After ministering to the crowds, he would go into the wilderness, a lonely place, to pray. His prayer life was not only to keep him focused on God but to keep his trust in God.

As a follower of Jesus, what pattern do you have that keeps you focused on God’s love and God’s call upon your life? Trust, defined as a belief in the abilities, integrity, and character of another person, is thought of as something that personal relationships are built on. How are you cultivating relationships of trust? Who is helping you develop patterns and relationships of trust?

According to recent research in Harvard Business Review, trust is the foundation of most successful organizations. With that in mind, as a follower of Jesus, you set the tone and model trust for your family, your colleagues, and even with the people with whom you play. By recognizing the potential in others and helping develop that potential, you learn to trust others as they learn to trust you.

Let me challenge you to place your trust in Jesus. From his baptism to his death, he placed his trust in the one true living God.

Return

Give God thanks for the people you met today. Reflect upon how Jesus models trust for you. In what areas of your life do you trust God? In what areas are you having difficulty trusting God? How are you assisting others in trusting God’s direction for their lives? What will you do differently tomorrow as a leader who trusts God’s direction for your life?

Give God thanks for the opportunities you had to love others as you have been loved. Ask God to give you the faith to live and lead with quiet trust and confidence.