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Faith

How do you know you can trust someone?

good-shepherdIf you want to know whether you can trust someone, one of the best tests is to see what he or she does when under attack or in a stressful situation. If the person stands and defends the people who are in his or her care, that is a good sign of trustworthiness. If the person turns tail and flees, you may want to find someone else to trust. As Jesus said in John chapter 10, “A hired hand who is not a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and runs away.”

According to Jesus, another way you can recognise a true shepherd — someone you can trust — is that he calls his own sheep by name and they listen to his voice. A trustworthy person is someone who demonstrates over a period of time that he knows you personally and cares about you, and allows you to get to know the sound of his voice. Trust is something built up over time through a course of trustworthy actions; it is not something that can happen overnight.

So dependability, genuine caring for those who are following, and preparedness to undergo personal sacrifices for the sake of those who are following — these are signs of a leader who can be trusted. In a world where so much is uncertain and people who appear to be good one day turn out to be corrupt the next, it is hard to know who to rely on and who to believe in. There is only one person who can be trusted in all circumstances, and that is Jesus.