The Importance of Trust

What separates great leaders from average ones and what makes a leader one that others want to follow?

There is one common trait important throughout the world and is that we must be someone who can be trusted.

• A High Trust Leader is an individual who has unquestionably strong personal credibility, has the ability to create and grow trust with others interpersonally, and who is then able to extend that trust within an organization.

• High Trust Leaders have learned how to interact with others in ways that increase trust levels while avoiding the pitfalls that deplete trust.

Relationships of all kinds are built on trust and sustained by trust. They can also be broken down and destroyed by a lack of trust. Our ultimate focus of trust is in the Lord Himself. We say that we trust God because of his character and because He is dependable, trustworthy, credible, truthful, reliable, consistent, unchanging, faithful, good, loving, kind, just, and loyal. To walk with God, we must trust Him. And to walk with each other, we must trust each other.

Early on the prophets urged people to avoid trusting each other because nobody could be trusted. Jeremiah said in 9:4-6 – “Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity”.

So, initially the prophets did not do much to encourage trust. But when the prophets came to know the love of God, this changed.

They began to teach that God required the same love in human relationships. So, Micah told his hearers that God requires kindness from his people (Micah 6:8) and the word ‘loyalty’ or steadfast love was used in the Proverbs (Proverbs 3:3; 16:6; 20:28)

People become trustworthy through being trustful towards God. The security which we discover through our relationship with God enables us to be secure in our dealings with others. The Hebrew word translated secure means confident and not anticipating danger. If we are personally secure individuals, we will not anticipate danger in relating to others. Simply put, trust means confidence. The opposite of trust is distrust & suspicion.

Just remember that in order for us to work together and have healthy relationships at home and in the church, we must trust and be trust worthy.