The Trust Factor
A daily lesson that focuses on achieving unparalleled success in life using ancient wisdom in modern times.
We will be discussing critical concepts as they are laid out in the book Sha'ar Habitachon - The Gate of Trust. Written 1000 years ago, the author reminds us of the values and wisdom that have allowed humanity to thrive throughout history.
The concept of trusting in a higher power that exists purely for our benefit, puts us in the drivers seat with absolute confidence to achieve greatness.
Eliminate: Fear, Hatred, Anxiety, Depression, Jealousy, Greed...forever!
* Note that some terminology will be in the original Hebrew or Aramaic which I will always follow with the English translation.
The Trust Factor
Episode 147 - Flipping the Script: You Don't Deserve More, You Owe Gratitude
Have you been looking at good deeds all wrong? This episode of The Trust Factor challenges everything you thought you knew about mitzvot (good deeds) and divine reward.
We're diving deep into a revolutionary perspective from Chovot HaLevavot's Gate of Trust that might just transform your spiritual outlook. The opportunity to perform good deeds isn't your gift to the world—it's God's gift to you. This complete reversal of conventional wisdom shows how we've been misunderstanding the spiritual economy our entire lives.
When you host guests in your home or give charity, you're not doing God a favor that deserves recognition. You're utilizing the resources already graciously provided to you. "You don't owe me more. I continue to owe you," captures this powerful shift in thinking. Your house, car, and possessions aren't yours to leverage for divine favor—they're tools entrusted to you for higher purposes.
Perhaps most fascinating is how your intention dramatically affects your spiritual reward. A seemingly minor good deed performed with joy and pure intent can generate greater divine reward than major actions done grudgingly. We explore how genuine repentance (teshuvah) not only erases negative consequences but transforms past mistakes into spiritual credits—a demonstration of boundless divine love.
This episode calls for nothing short of a spiritual revolution. Share these teachings, discuss them with others, and become part of a movement to restore authentic spiritual understanding in a world that desperately needs it. Subscribe now and join us tomorrow as we continue this life-changing journey through the Gate of Trust.
Good morning everybody. Welcome to the Trust Factor, the podcast that's guaranteeing success when you implement its divine, age-old teachings. We continue, my friends, with Shara B'tachon, chavot, halevavot, the Gate of Trust. We are making amazing progress, my friends, too good, in fact. I mean, I'm scared we're going to be coming to an end pretty soon, sooner than I expected, but we are going to continue. I give you that commitment. This is just the beginning of so many more wonderful ideas.
Speaker 0:I'm hoping to continue the legacy that is trying to be shut down by so many people who are hell-bent on making this world a corrupt place and keeping it corrupt. We have to share this message, my friends. We have to. This has to be a revolution. You know Charlie Kirk, may he rest in peace.
Speaker 0:His organization was called Turning Point. This has to be a turning point. We really have to make an effort. It can't be one person, it can't be a few people doing it on the side. It needs to be a movement, my friends, and the only way to turn this thing into a movement is to be active in it, and that means share it, that means talk about it, that means be proactive about it. If you ideologies, my friends, and if you're not going to do it for yourself, do it for your children and your grandchildren, because this world needs it badly, now more than, I think, ever before in history.
Speaker 0:Let's continue. We're talking about mitzvahs. We're talking about doing good deeds right, and we're saying when the creator gives a person the opportunity to perform a mitzvah, he should realize that this is a kindness that the Creator bestowed upon him. It is a reversal of what you have been taught. I don't care who we're talking about, if it's your parents, if it's politicians and media government, if it's your teachers in school. You have been lied to. You have been lied to. It is not a kindness for you to go out and do things for other people. It is an obligation.
Speaker 0:The question becomes do you have those opportunities? Are they being given to you? If they are being given to you from your creator, that's because he loves you and he wants to see you succeed. You know it's called opportunity. Opportunity knocks. If you're in business, you know that there could be a defining moment, a defining customer that puts you over the edge. You are given opportunity after opportunity to be able to grow your business, to prove that you are worthy, to prove that you can put out a good product or provide a top-notch service, you are given opportunity after opportunity to be able to step up and succeed. It's the same thing Opportunity knocks.
Speaker 0:God says here, I'm giving you an opportunity. What are you going to do with it? You know, we are programmed to think that I have a house and because I have a house, I'm going to host Torah, I'm going to host the poor, I'm going to feed people, I'm going to use my house for holy purposes and therefore, god, therefore you have to give me more opportunities, which is really true. At the end of the day, if you're utilizing what he has given you and you're doing good with it, then, yes, you have the right and the entitlement to ask for more, and you don't even have to ask because that's exactly what he does. He recognizes what you're doing, you're doing the right thing and he gives you more.
Speaker 0:But the outlook is wrong. The outlook, the approach is wrong. What's the correct approach? The correct approach is God, because you gave me this house. That's why I'm doing good with it. You've already given it to me. In other words, you don't owe me more. You don't owe me another house, a bigger house, a fancier house. You don't owe me more. I continue to owe you. Why? Because you've given me a house to be able to host people in. You've given me the car to be able to take people from place to place, to offer people rides, to be able to assist people in their times of need. You gave me that car, so, in my thanks and appreciation to you, I'm going to use it to do your work. It's not the other way around.
Speaker 0:Oftentimes, people get mixed up, and it's very common. You know, God, look at the way I'm living, look at the way I'm operating. I'm taking these worldly, material things and I'm elevating them. I'm doing good by them. I'm doing your work. Therefore, you have an obligation to me now.
Speaker 0:Wrong, the reason you're able to even do these things is because he gave you them. They are, just like he says over here, a kindness, and we are constantly in a position where we have to be grateful. He says thus he should not rejoice when people praise him for it, nor should he desire to receive honor from them on account of it, for this would lead him to be conceited about his actions and he would then lose his purity of heart and righteous intent to perform this mitzvah and others for the sake of God. As a result, he would diminish the quality of his actions and he would lose much of the reward of God. As a result, he would diminish the quality of his actions and he would lose much of the reward that God would otherwise have granted him had he acted with pure intentions.
Speaker 0:Now, my friends, you have to be careful here. If there is reward coming to you understand the terminology here If there is reward because you did a mitzvah, even if you did it with a sour face it's not ideal, it is not the right way to do it you will get a reward. God withholds nothing from you. You will get a reward for it. Are you going to get the best reward that you could get for it? And the answer is no.
Speaker 0:It all depends on your outlook, on your intentions, on the way that you approach the mitzvah. That is the defining trait. You could do what you might think is a small, insignificant mitzvah, even though we really don't know what's small and what's significant. But you may approach the insignificant one in your mind in a way that you are elated to be able to even do this mitzvah that you are so appreciative of the opportunity and you would get if you were supposed to get minimal reward for it because it might be a minor mitzvah. You will get tremendous reward because of your approach, that you're approaching it with love and joy At the same time. You could do the biggest mitzvah in the world but do it with a miserable, sour face and instead of getting tremendous reward you would get such a small reward. So the right combination here, my friends, is to recognize that you've been given a gift, you've been given a privilege and an opportunity to do something spectacular in this world. And if you approach it with that mindset of thank you for the opportunity and you're literally skipping to do it, and you're doing it with a smile on your face and you're beaming with pride at the opportunity, then you can be assured that you will receive the maximum reward. And many of these rewards, my friends, apply to this world as well. You get reward in this world and you get rewarded in a world of eternity. You double dip, my friends.
Speaker 0:The reward is endless and he is there to give it. He wants to give it. He doesn't desire to withhold reward. That's why, even when you're almost undeserving, you will still get. It's the punishment that he withholds, it's the difficulties and the negative consequences of your bad behavior that he withholds as long as possible. That's why we say he's patient and he's slow to anger. Those are the things that he sits on and he holds back and he doesn't want to exact punishment. He wants to give you the opportunity.
Speaker 0:Like we've said before, if there is good coming to you, there is nothing you can do to stop it. If there is bad God forbid coming to you, then he wants you to stop it. He wants you to say okay, I don't want the negative, I want to be able to reverse this trajectory, and all you need to do is step up and do the right thing. You have to feel bad for your actions, you have to verbalize what you did, you have to take it upon yourself to never do it again and move forward. That's it. When you've done that, then the negative that's supposed to be coming your way gets thrown in the trash. You understand that's how it works.
Speaker 0:When we do tshuva, when we repent, when we feel bad about the things that we did genuine feeling of remorse then what you did, more than that, what you did to deserve a negative consequence. When you feel bad about it and when you say with your mouth what you did and confess your actions to yourself out loud, and when you commit to not doing it again and you move forward on it, that's all it takes for God to rip up the bad decree. And more than that, like we've said in the past, that evil thing that you did, that wicked thing that you did, comes as a credit to your account. It becomes a mitzvah, it becomes a positive deed. How do you take a negative deed that you did? You clearly hurt somebody or you clearly hurt yourself, but you did a proper repentance. Now there's a way to do it. You've got to investigate how do I do it, so that I'm not fooling myself.
Speaker 0:Once you've done a proper what's called tshuva, a repentance, then that negative trait becomes a positive thing for you. It becomes money in your spiritual bank account. How? And the answer is it was specifically that thing that you did that brought you to the realization that you behaved improperly and brought you to the point of doing tshuva. And had you not done that, then you may not have done tshuva. So God even sees the negative that you did and gives it to you as a bonus to say I'm going to start you off with money in your account because you were depleted, but because you did tsh you did. I'm taking right away that negative and putting it as a positive back into your account. My friends, it doesn't get any better than that. Clearly, you have a God that loves you. Step up and have a relationship with him. Tomorrow we continue. Have an amazing Sunday, my friends.
