Following and Trusting : Encountering God Out of the Box

I’ve been called naive a few times in my adult life.

I winced when I first heard it.
Lately, I’ve noticed it could actually be a compliment in disguise…

(Jesus loves doing this kind of thing – turning hurtful words from others into His truth. I talk about this exercise in Part 3 of: God, Show Me What You See )

Here’s what I mean.

I grew up in a home where dignity and honour was the norm – it was just the air we breathed. People were trusted until they proved otherwise. The best was expected, not the worst. I didn’t realize what a gift that was until I started spending time with people who grew up somewhere very different — places where dignity was scarce, and “dog eat dog” wasn’t a saying, it was survival. Watching this contrast as I walk with people in my current season is teaching me something I’d taken for granted my whole life: not everyone has been given eyes that default to hope.

That’s when this verse started speaking to me differently:

“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted. Such people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live. They are detestable and disobedient, worthless for doing anything good.” — Titus 1:15-16 (NLT)

It’s a strong passage if you read it as a verdict on other people. But I am now seeing a fresh invitation here. I think it’s a mirror or perhaps a lens?

What you carry inside shapes what you see outside.

A pure heart doesn’t see purity because it’s blind to brokenness. No. It sees purity because it’s been made whole enough to recognize the good that’s actually there — and to extend belief to a person before they’ve earned it. That’s not naivety. That’s faith with its eyes open. That’s also seeing the person’s dignity – their true design from God.

Related to this…

A friend and I were talking recently about discernment — real discernment, the kind the Spirit gives, not the kind suspicion and self-protection fakes. There’s a difference between sensing the spirit behind someone’s words and assuming the worst about their heart. One is a gift. The other is just fear wearing a clever disguise.

So here’s where I landed, and where I want to leave you too:

Would you be willing to join me in this…?
Let’s check our own spirit and motives before we check anyone else’s?

We can ask ourselves:

• Am I living from belief, or from unbelief?
• Am I extending the same dignity to others that I want extended to me?
• When I sense something is “off,” is that the Spirit’s discernment — or my own wound talking?
• Ask the Lord: “What do you see?” in order to let Him draw any warning or affirmation.

These aren’t questions meant to shame you into self-doubt. They’re an invitation to come further into His freedom.

A pure heart isn’t a naive one. It’s a brave one — willing to keep believing the best, while still staying tender to the Spirit’s quiet nudge when something genuinely isn’t right.

You don’t have to choose between wisdom and hope. Ask the Lord for both. Sit with Him and simply ask: Lord, where is my heart pure, and where do I need You to make it new? Then listen. He’s faithful to answer.

Believing the best in people is not naive.
It is an act of faith, hope, and love.

Blessings of more of His Spirit, to walk in His love, joy, peace…

PS. And yes… people will let us down – no matter if we believe more in them than they do. I think this is why Jesus called us to forgive over and over, and why forgiveness makes no human sense. It can only be done in His Spirit. (See the forgiveness chapter in “God, Show Me More Of You”)

I’m so grateful that Jesus is literally the Way, Truth, and Life.
He is our marker.
He knows our hearts and loves our hearts.

Merri Ellen 🙂

He has more for you!

YOU are a sacred space.

Meet with a trained coach to walk with you.

Join other hungry women seeking the Lord together.

Enjoy the books: “God, Show Me What You See”
or “God, Show Me More of You“