Only two things are necessary in order to trust someone. First, you must find someone who is trustworthy. Second, you must get to know him. The reverse is also true. In order to distrust someone, all you need is to find someone who is not trustworthy-and then get to know him.

One summer while I was in academy I worked in a service station and learned to distrust service stations! The people I worked with that summer had many ways to take advantage of unwary customers. They would twist a fan belt in a way that would break it-and then take it to the customer and say, “Look, I discovered that your fanbelt is broken. Lucky I noticed it, huh?” Then they would collect the commission on the sale of a new fan belt. They would “change” the oil in one car by refilling it with oil removed from another car and thus charge double for the oil. They were not trustworthy, and I got to know them. Since then, I have been suspicious of service station at-tendants.

One time I stopped for gas. The man came to my window and held up a broken fan belt. I said,

“You broke it; you replace it.”

He acted shocked. “What do you mean?”

I said, “I used to work in a filling station.” “Oh.”

And he replaced my fanbelt with no charge.

Now it is entirely possible that somewhere in this world there are honest filling station attendants. But in order for me to trust one of them ever again, I would have to know him very well.

A casual relationship would not be enough. Not only would he have to be trustworthy, but I would have to take the time to get to know him well enough to trust him.

The Bible says that God is trustworthy. But you will never really trust Him until you get to know Him for yourself. We have already noticed the one-liner from The Desire of Ages, page 668,

“When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience.”

Add to that a line from Steps to Christ, page 61:

“Obedience is the fruit of faith.”

If you must know God in order to obey, and if obedience comes from faith, then you must know God in order to have faith or trust in Him.

Sometimes we forget this truth, and we become involved in fighting sin and the devil. We try hard to obey, and we fall and fail time and time again. It is true that we are called to a fight-but it is essential to become involved in the right fight. “Fight the good fight of faith,” says 1 Timothy 6:12.

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” - 1 Timothy 6:12

How do we fight the good fight of faith? By putting forth the necessary effort to get to know God so that we will trust in Him.

How do we get to know God? The same way we get to know anybody else. In order to get acquainted with anyone, three things are necessary. First, talk to them. Second, listen to them talk to you. And third, go places and do things together. Those are the ingredients of communication.

We talk to God through prayer. We listen to Him speak to us through His Word. And we go places and do things with Him by becoming involved in Christian service, witness, and outreach.

Sometimes people stumble over the idea of having a relationship with someone they can’t see.

One time a man came to H. M. S. Richards and said, “I don’t believe in God.”

“Why?” Richards asked.

The man replied, “Because I can’t see Him.”

Richards said, “I don’t believe you have a brain.”

“Why?”

“Because I can’t see it.”

We take advantage of many things we can’t see. How long has it been since you saw electricity?

Have you ever seen a radio wave? Unless you live in southern California, you can’t see the air you breathe! We can’t see the wind. We can’t see germs and bacteria. We can’t see that mysterious thing called “life.” But we can see the results of all of the above!

Even though we cannot see God or hear His voice with our human equipment, we can still see the working of His power; and by taking advantage of the avenues of communication that He has given to us, we can come to know Him. It’s in knowing Him that we learn to trust Him, for He is worthy of our trust.