7 Checkpoints: Authentic Faith - Trusting God

When we break up into our Breakout Sessions tonight, we are going to do a few things:
1) Define the word “Trust”
2) Talk about why you might trust someone or why you might not trust someone
3) Give some examples of trusting and not-so-trusting relationships in your life
4) Talk about what it takes to be a person who can be trusted

Read the Authentic Faith Dilemma on pages 12 & 13
Jared
Lauren

It is so important that we all have a correct understanding of what faith, authentic (real) faith, is. Confusion in this one area is the primary reason teens abandon their faith in God.

I led the discussion in church this past Sunday, basically doing the same thing that I’m doing right now with you, except it was adults. I told a little story. I want to tell it to you now.

The toothpick…. I can’t tell you how important and vital it is to your life that you get it now (not the toothpick, but the principles that we are talking about here at The Grip). It’s a much harder road if you wait to get it later. However, I am confident that at some point in your life, you will get it….

Why do you trust someone?
How do you develop trust for someone?
Do you just trust people blindly? Is that really trust or is that being naïve?
Do you hope for the best and expect the worst? That would be an interesting trusting relationship, always looking over your shoulder for that knife to stab you in the back.
How do you show someone that you trust them?
Can anyone really be trusted?

These are all questions that most of you, on some level, have probably thought about. Maybe you are struggling through this right now in your own life and relationships that you have that should have been trusting, but you have been let down.

Do you trust me? I can ask you that question and you can say, “Yes”. But do you really trust me? Maybe it depends on what you are trusting me for.

Let me tell you a story about a friend of mine named Doug. He and I didn’t go to the same school, but we went to the same church. That’s how we knew eachother. He always bragged about his girlfriend that none of us (us being all of his friends) had ever met. So finally, proof was required of this supposedly really pretty girl that Doug was dating. So Doug pulled out a picture from his wallet. Later he said they broke up, but he had a new girlfriend. Again, none of us knew her. Eventually, he showed us a picture in his wallet. He was right, she was pretty and we didn’t know her. But he was wrong about one very important thing. Somehow the truth got out, Doug’s mystery girl was not his girlfriend, but his cousin. She was pretty, and Doug thought he would impress us, but then when the truth was known it didn’t look so impressive after all.

How do you know when someone is speaking the truth? How do you know whether or not you can believe what other people say?

Sometimes people promise great things, and never follow through. Other times people try to be as bad as they possibly can even though aren’t. For some reason they think that people will be impressed with how “rebellious” they are. It’s so hard to trust what people say as being the truth sometimes.