I’ve always encouraged people to trust the Lord. I think it has been one of the most common things I’ve told people to do over the last 15 years or more. I do it because I believe that trust is the most powerful part of our walk with God when we are learning how to grow up in Him. I get many reactions from that statement. Some people are encouraged to stay true to the course and remain faithful to God even in difficult times. Others are quite the opposite, opposing the thought that I would say something so simple as trusting the Lord.
Many people believe that they already trust the Lord, but I promise you this, until you can walk with God and have nothing distract or hinder your relationship with God, you still have some learning to do when it comes to trusting the Lord. Those words can be somewhat offensive when a person doesn’t understand a deep relationship of trust. People get tired of waiting for God to do the things the Bible says He will do. If God is God, and we believe He is, then why doesn’t He remove the difficult things and give us peace? But God is much more loving than that. He is much more caring than that, and He has a better purpose for you.
To give us what we want all the time would make God an unfaithful father, something God is not. Part of trusting God is to realize that He knows how to give us what we need when we need it. He sees the big picture from beginning to end. Therefore, He desires to raise us up into the fulness of Christ, and we have to trust Him to do that.
Learning how to trust God is where your life begins to change. You begin to find intimacy in your relationship with God. It becomes a very deep and intimate relationship that will never fail you in times of trouble. Trusting God with your life means you have to let go of your life and give it to God. Our life here on earth is a gift; it’s not ours. Understanding that will help us acknowledge that we need to trust God with our life as we give it back to Him.
Our lives belong to God, and it’s by Him that we find our strength to live. So learning to trust God is learning to give Him our life with the full assurance that He knows what to do with it. He will take care of us when we are strong and at our most vulnerable times.
Trust is such an intimate place because it’s a place of vulnerability—a place of humility, a place where it’s just you and God. You look at what is in front of you and know that you can’t win; you realize that you will fail by yourself. You realize at that moment that no man or woman on this planet can help you. You need God! And that is where you find Him!
To know God is to trust Him and to trust Him is to put your life in His hands, with complete confidence that He will keep your life. That is a very intimate place in your heart that neither man nor woman, friends or family, nor even a child’s love can fulfill in you. That place is reserved for the life of God in you.
Men and women alike today have a hard time trusting one another as it is. It’s because we are accustomed to each other’s frequent failures. It’s simple; people will always let you down. That is just man’s weakness, and it’s normal in this world. Where we go wrong is allowing the perception of people and their failures to enter our relationship with the Lord. Sometimes we view God the way we view people. We think that God will fail just like people do. But this is far from the truth. This is why I spend so much time talking about receiving a heavenly perception. When we perceive God from a heavenly perception, we will trust God in all things because in Him is NO darkness at all; He cannot fail. To see Him this way, you must trust Him and let Him prove Himself to you.
Trust is a personal experience with God that no one can take away from you. It’s a place with God that builds such confidence that you can’t be shaken no matter what happens. You know that God is faithful even when you’re unaware of His work in your life. Usually, trust is learned in the most difficult times of your life.
Every ounce of your being wants to question God about the process and the time frame in which He is doing His work. Questions arise in your heart toward God. Questions like, where is God? Or why is God just sitting by and watching this happen to me? Does God even care about me? These questions come from a lack of personal experience with God. Yes, these questions are built on thoughts of unbelief and a lack of trust in God, but it’s more than that.
You need to be put in situations that cause you to cry out for God because you realize how much you need Him. At the end of yourself, He will be there to reveal Himself in His most glorious way. At that moment, you will learn to trust God like you never have before. That’s an intimacy that only you and God can share. That’s an experience that you and God need to have together.
I tell everyone that learning to trust God has been one of the most intimate times of my life. Standing on truth and being obedient when you don’t see the end of a thing can be very trying, but that’s where God proves you to your fullest, and He becomes the one God of your salvation. That’s where He becomes Lord of your life, in word and deed. That’s where you can stand amid the biggest storm and not be moved, knowing God has you in His hand, where you acknowledge Him above yourself and His will above your will. Where you know God, and He knows you. Knowing that, no matter what it looks like and what your thoughts are. You know that before it’s all over, God will save you. Anyone can say they trust God, but it takes an experience with God to walk in a trust that will not fail you.
No one ever said trusting something that you can’t see was easy. But once God is established in your life as the one true God of heaven and earth, you will find your walk with God to begin to excel in ways that you never dreamed of.
As the words of the great proverb say, “trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In ALL your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”
proverbs 3:5-6