6/9 Strength for Today

Establishing Trust

Acts 27:3
“And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself.”

In the verse above, the Apostle Paul was in custody of Julius. He was being transferred to Rome to have his case tried before Caesar. Julius, the centurion in charge of making sure the Paul did not escape, allowed him to go the homes of his friends so he could clean up and get a little rest. This is nothing short of amazing! Imagine a prison guard allowing a prisoner to go home to get a little rest and clean up. This is exactly what happened with Paul.

The reason why Julius was willing to allow this to happen was because Paul had established trust with him. Paul lived his life in such a way that Julius trusted Paul to come back. Julius was putting his life on the line because if Paul escaped, Julius would have been killed.

Establishing trust is very important for anyone to attain the freedoms they want. Teenagers quite often want their parents to trust them, but have done nothing to establish that trust. This could be said about employees, or any person who is under authority. There are a few things you must do to establish trust with an authority.

First of all, be respectful of authority. Address authority properly at all times. The way you address authority shows the amount of respect you have for them. If you call them by their first name, then you don't have much respect for them or their position. You should ALWAYS address authority by their last name. Respect for authority also means that you obey what they ask you to do.

Secondly, have a good attitude at all times. Your attitude towards everything in life will help you to gain the trust of authority. If you are a person with a bad or complaining attitude, then you will have a hard time gaining trust. Those who approach every task of life with a good attitude will help to establish trust with authority.

Thirdly, be truthful at all times. Telling the truth, even if it means you will be adversely affected, will go a long ways in establishing trust. When an authority sees that you will always tell the truth, even when it hurts you, then they know they can trust you.

Fourthly, be dependable. Dependability is a key to establishing trust with authority. If you are not dependable, then authority has no reason to trust you. Authority can only trust those who are dependable to complete their tasks without oversight, and those who are in their place on time at all times.

Last of all, serve God. Serving God will help you to gain the trust of authority, for if you are right with God then you will be right with man. When you serve God, you will always do what is right, which will give authorities confidence that they can trust you.

You should make it your goal to establish trust with every authority in your life. Let authorities learn to trust you because you have worked at establishing that trust. Christians should be the most trusted people because of Whom we serve. Let your reputation become one that you are a person whom people can trust.