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We long as Christians to trust God every day, but we struggle. How can we trust God completely every day?
Trusting God fully only happens when we humbly hand over our lives to God. We must stop trying to handle everything on our own, and instead come to God on our knees, saying, ‘we can’t do it without You.’ As we humble ourselves, focus on God, trust in His sovereignty, obey His Word, and rely on His promises, we are enabled to trust God completely each and every day.
Instead of talking to our friends or family whenever a situation arises, we must learn the act of turning to God, the source for all control and truth in life.
It’s when we grow in our ability to go to God, that we can learn what it means to trust God completely.
How does this happen? By intentionally investing in your relationship with God.
In actually pursuing God with everything inside of you.
Here are the five components that have helped me to trust God completely.
1. Humilty | How Does God Teach Us To Be Humble?
Humility is the vessel in which God grows His people and cultivates them into followers who are obedient, lovers of God and good, and trusting in Him in everything.
God teaches us to be humble by the Cross. For when a person turns their eyes upon the Cross of Calvary, the sacrifice that was made for our sins by the perfect person Jesus Christ, we can’t help but be humbled.
We were destined for hell, destined for an eternity separated from God. Through an act of love, grace, strength, and mercy, God stepped down into humanity and provided a way unto salvation.
We had no way out of our situation and He provided it.
It didn’t matter how hard we tried, no matter what we did, we were all destined for hell until God’s act of loving-kindness.
Furthermore, we wouldn’t know about this wonderful act of God without His Word. Another element controlled by God in His Sovereignty and it had nothing to do with our own strength or power.
As we meditate on these realities, they grow the heart in an understanding of how much we truly rely on God and how little we rely on ourselves.
Humbly Relying On God Daily
The humble He guides in justice,
Psalm 25:9
And the humble He teaches His way.
God promises to guide and teach us when we have hearts that are humble before Him.
When we humbly enter each new day, each new decision, each anything with a humble heart before the Lord, knowing we rely on Him, we can’t help but trust Him and stay on track.
For where would we go when we know that God is the only source for truth, strength, wisdom, and insight?
As sinful people we need to come back to humility over and over again, reminding ourselves just how much we rely on God and how little we can actually do on our own.
Keeping a humble heart a priority is crucial in trusting God.
2. Focus | How Do I Lean On God?
Leaning on God requires us to know where the greatest battle we face lies in our lives as Christians.
This war begins and ends in our minds.
It is here, in the mind, where wars are won and lost before anything ever materializes in the physical world around us.
How To Think Godly Thoughts | Biblical Thinking Explained
Thinking godly thoughts requires more than just desire, it requires the right Christian attitude and mindset.
Let’s jump into a powerful passage of Scripture that God uses to speak this truth plainly into our lives in a radical and transforming way.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
If you grew up in church or have been a Christian for a while, you know the above passage well. So why do we find it so hard to implement?
It’s often not our lack of knowledge of what the Scriptures say that leads to our failure, but the lack of healthy fear in our hearts toward an Almighty and powerful God who commanded it.
Let’s break down the passage of Romans 12:2 with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective, asking God to reveal His truth in it.
Romans 12:2 tells us clearly that we cannot be conformed to the pattern of this world.
What does that look like? How does a person end up conforming to this world?
By the lacking of a renewed mind.
A person who is conforming to the world around them will look like the rest of the world. This person will speak like the world, live like the world, and think like the world.
Does this describe you?
Let’s pause for a moment and do a deep dive into self-assessment.
Do You Live Like The World?
- Do you watch what the world watches on TV?
- Do you speak what the world speaks?
- Do you think what the world is thinking?
The world is crippled by sin, fear, and destruction. Thoughts, actions of the world are easy to identify. Compare and contrast not others, but yourself to the world.
Reflect on your own life, your own behavior, and be honest.
I love doing this kind of thing because introspective thought is healthy and is required from time to time in order to know whether or not we are slipping off the path and will that God has for our lives.
We all fall down, but it’s what we do next that truly defines us and reveals our faith. We have to start thinking Biblically and shed off the world. But how is this accomplished? By letting God into your life and thoughts.
How To Let God Into Your Life & Thoughts
Romans 12:2 tells us that instead of being conformed to this world, we are to be transformed through the renewing of our minds.
This renewal by reading the Bible and praying is how we let God into our lives and thoughts.
It’s simple but so difficult for most Christians because God isn’t a priority in their life. That’s why humility is step one, we must humbly rely on God, making Him a priority.
How do we renew our minds?
We don’t do it by attending church once a week. Instead, God does the work of renewal inside of us when we are obedient spending time reading His Word and seeking Him through prayer.
It’s through these two habits we find the transforming power of God that will continually renew our mind, refreshing our souls and building strength within our spirit.
Many Christians often find reading the Bible difficult. Why? Because we’re lazy?
No.
It’s because we jam-pack our schedules with everything else in the world and give God the leftovers.
It’s not surprising that we can’t find time with God when we’re busy from sun up until sundown every single day.
When we’re not busy, we’re plopped in front of the TV because we’re too tired to do anything else.
Does this describe you?
On average people spend 2.8 hours per day on leisure activities such as watching TV (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). This translates to 19.6 hours per week. That is equivalent to a part-time job!
Now, I’m not suggesting we spend all that free time reading the Bible and praying. I’m also not saying 2.8 hours is a long time.
What I’m saying is, God needs a God-sized place in our lives if we ever want to come into that place of truly trusting in Him.
What kind of walk with God would we have if we gave just a small portion of that free time each day to getting to know Him better through reading His Word and prayer?
What if we cut down our other activities that pack our schedules and gave that extra time to God?
How much impact could that have on our ability to trust God if we knew His character better by reading His Word?
Let’s take a moment to pause and think about our daily schedules. Yep, we’re doing another self-analysis.
Where Can You Find Time For God?
- What if you woke up thirty minutes earlier?
- Could you cut down on television watching in the evening?
- What are you willing to sacrifice?
The biggest reason we get hung up on the topic of reading the Bible and praying is we cannot see the benefit of doing it.
If we saw the benefit of reading God’s Word, we would not have such a problem making it a priority.
Check out this #lifegoal Bible verse. It’s a picture of where we as Christians should want to get when it comes to humility and reliance on God’s Word.
My soul clings to the dust;
Psalm 119:25
Revive me according to Your word.
This guy is in a rotten situation, but He has a heart for God’s Word and knows the power that resides in the Word of God.
How To Trust God To Lead You
If we desire to learn how to trust God in our lives and lead us, we must make the decision to make Him a priority every single day. We accomplish this by growing in self-discipline, building good godly habits, and keeping our focus on God.
One helpful way to find motivation in this effort to trust God more is to dwell for a moment on the benefits.
How would our lives change if we were more trusting of God?
Marriage?
Family?
Friends?
Work?
Overall well-being?
While the benefits are nice, ultimately Romans 12:2 isn’t merely suggesting to us great self-help advice…
Instead, God is commanding us through Paul.
Paul tells us NOT to be conformed to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewal of our minds.
All that is left is to ask yourself if you’ll obey.
What Happens When You Let God Into Your Life?
Real and lasting change happens when we let God into our lives. As our minds shift away from the world. As they are continuously renewed and cleansed through the Word of God and daily prayer, our thinking will be aligned with God.
Pause for a moment and think about that.
We can have minds that are aligned with God Almighty! The Creator of our lives, the Sustainer of all who possesses ultimate knowledge! What a beautiful thought.
Yet, it gets better!
Romans 12:2 finishes out by telling us what this wonderful result is in a full and rich way.
We are then able to test and approve the will of God.
What kind of will is that? God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.
Knowing God’s will and doing it, results in us in seeing good things God is doing. This in turn builds our trust in God and enables us to trust Him fully.
How does good, pleasing, and perfect sound to you?
Where would that fit into your life?
Could you imagine for a moment if your marriage, your relationships with your children, and others were all aligned with God’s good, pleasing and perfect will?
What would that look like? Let’s take another moment to ponder the possibilities.
- Children who grow up to love God and others because they saw their parents doing it.
- A spouse who loves and respects you because they’re living with someone who is Christ-like.
- Thoughts that please God because you are no longer conformed to the world.
- No fears, including that of death, because the Scriptures have taught you to be fearless.
- No anxiety because it’s God who you trust more than any feeling.
- When something goes wrong or terrible, staying calm knowing God has your back.
Our minds, when aligned with God through daily renewal, are transformed into partakers of the divine.
2 Peter 1:3-4 tells us that we are partakers of this divine nature, and we are also equipped with everything we need to live a godly life.
This godly life is a life that trusts completely in God. That means in when difficulties come our way, we rest confidently in God and who He is.
3. God’s Sovereignty | Trusting God in Difficult Times
Our ability to trust God during difficult times requires us to have God have a God-sized portion in our lives. That means He is a part of everything we do, everything we think, and everything we are in our lives.
With this reality firmly planted in our minds, we can then accept that God uses the pain in our lives to draw us closer to Him and increase our trust and faith in Him.
If you’ve been alive for any amount of years of this earth, chances are you’ve been through some pain and hardship.
It’s a normal part of life, but what’s the purpose of it when it comes to trusting God?
Let’s take a look at some Bible verses to unlock some truth here when it comes to trusting God in difficult times.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:2-4
Hardship and painful moments are an inevitable part of life, but according to James 1, they reveal our faith. It’s in these critical moments that we really find out where our faith is and in whom we have placed our faith.
If our faith is in doctors, we’ll cling to their words.
If it’s in science, we’ll cling to what the scientist says.
If it’s in the news, our eyes will be fixed on the television sets.
But if our faith is in God . . . we will listen and trust Him.
Pain works the same for everyone, but the results are all over the place. Why is that? Because everything hinges on the response, which is tied to our faith in God.
If we pick up a worldly vice when the pain comes, what happens?
It depends.
For example, if John just found out his wife left him and he goes to the bar to throw a couple back with his friends, his whole life changes, even if it’s not visible to the eye.
Whether he’s getting behind a wheel of a vehicle or just goes home and crashes on just the couch after a few beers. Regardless, John chose the things of this world over the things of God and there will be an impact whether or not it’s visible.
For the Christian who desires to trust God and do so more each day, they must build the godly habit of going to Him in the good and the bad that comes in life.
To do this, we must understand the purpose of hardship and how it influences our ability to trust God more in his sovereignty.
How do you trust God when bad things happen?
We trust God when bad things happen by letting the hardship grow us, knowing that God is in control. Our trust grows as we rely on Him for strength and ultimately see God deliver us through the valley.
James 1:3 tells us that the testing of our faith (hard times) produces patience in our lives.
Patience is a part of trusting God. Patience is knowing that God is in control of every aspect of our lives.
While God doesn’t cause bad things to happen to us, He can and does use them for our good, teaching us and growing us more.
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
I can’t think of the Romans 8:28 verse without memories flooding my mind.
I’ll tell you about one of the biggest Romans 8:28 moments of my life.
How To Take A Step Of Faith | A Short Story Of Faith in God
My wife and I adopted our two nephews after five years of guardianship. My in-laws and my sister-in-law (nephew’s bio mom) were not pleased with this choice, though we felt led to do it.
Leading up to the court date there were many arguments and then a long period of silence.
The family was in shambles, but my wife Crystal and I kept going forward in faith, feeling led by God to proceed.
Then, on the day of court, the judge asked us all to speak with the family advocate. The advocate spoke for a few minutes, then we all broke for a short recess with lawyers.
Upon coming back into the courtroom, the biological mother and father decided to sign over rights without a court hearing. We were blown away.
By that same evening, my wife and I both visited with my in-laws and my sister-in-law. Lots of tears, hugs, and tender love.
Even as I recount the details, it sounds unbelievable, but it’s the truth.
Nobody knew God was going to resolve everything at that moment, but He did. Then He went further and made everything turn out better than anything any one person could’ve expected.
I can still remember the feeling of the hot tears running down my cheeks in the courtroom as I felt the presence of God washing over me as the end came into existence. The end of threats, the end of worry, the end of it all.
I could almost hear God saying, why were you worried, my child? Why did you doubt for even a moment?
Yes, I believed I was doing the right thing but that did not remove the fear for me, it only gave me the courage I needed to press on despite the fear.
The point is, trusting God is a step of faith, and it’s in those hard times we face we see our faith revealed. God uses hardship to grow us in patience and show us that we can trust Him in all things because He is in control of all things.
If God Loves Us, Why Does He Allow Bad Things To Happen?
The bad stuff that we see go on in our lives and the world around us is a result of sin entering the world. In the creation account, God said over and over “it is good” and everything was good that He had made. It wasn’t until Adam and Eve’s sin that sin entered the world and began the process of corruption.
Once we can mentally get into a place of acceptance of God’s discipline in our life through hardships, we begin to see the benefit.
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? 8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:7-11
In Hebrews 12:10 we see that while this discipline is painful at the time, it will produce a harvest of righteousness.
While God doesn’t cause the pain, He can and will use it in our lives to teach us that He is in control.
4. God’s Peace | Peace That Surpasses Understanding
Jesus said a lot, He went through a lot, and He has an open invite for peace to anyone who is willing to listen.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33
Read the verse again slowly.
“So that in me you may have peace.”
Focus on that part for a moment.
It’s in Jesus Christ alone we can find true peace in the storms that come in life.
Without peace, you cannot trust God every day.
What Is the peace that God gives us?
Peace isn’t found in a pill, it won’t be found in a cure to some illness, it won’t be found anywhere outside of Jesus Christ. Why is that? Why did God design it this way?
For this answer, let’s take a look at Scripture.
Colossians 1:16 states, ‘For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.’
It’s always been all about Jesus.
It is only through our relationship with Jesus Christ that we will find peace in this life. It’s only through Jesus we are enabled to trust God fully with our hearts.
The seas and storms may rage, but the peace God keeps us steady, not in our strength, but in His alone. We are then able to handle the strongest gusts that come our way in life. Not bending to the left or to the right.
It’s through Jesus’ Words, and through His life example that we can find the peace that encourages us to trust God no matter what happens.
4. Relying on The Promises | Trust God By Seeing His Promises
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
When a person has humbly given their lives over to Jesus Christ, pushed away from the world, is renewing their mind daily with prayer and Bible reading, something interesting starts to happen.
Not only have they gained the ability to see the world differently when it comes to pain, fear, or turmoil, but they are starting to see reality, or better yet, truth, for the very first time.
Not only are they fulfilling the Lord’s greatest command in the new testament to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37); this person is also seeing life through the eyes of God.
I believe all of this working together, through the power of God, enables a person to deal with anything coming at them because they can rely on the promises of God in Scripture.
Not only do they know the Scriptures, but they trust them and believe God will fulfill them.
This unlocks something like a superpower.
Let me give you some examples.
Stage 4 terminal diagnosis.
When a child goes off the Godly path.
When a spouse suddenly passes unexpectedly.
Sudden loss of a loved one.
You and I both know people who have gone through tragedy and hardships we couldn’t fathom, and yet, their faith is stronger than ever. They are a walking testimony.
How?
They trust God’s promises and know He has complete control over their lives.
Learning the promises of God requires us to go to Him and His Word.
God’s promise to never leave us
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8
While the verse was meant for Israel directly, it’s a promise that is part of God’s attributes and character that we learn throughout the entire Bible.
It’s a promise that all of us, even us lowly gentiles, can grab hold of and hide in our hearts.
God is never going to forsake us that are saved. It’s through His mighty work on the Cross and through His blood that we have been cleansed and redeemed.
Take comfort in knowing that God is never going to let you go once you are His.
You can start trusting God by holding onto the many promises that are outlined through the Scriptures.
You might not know when God will fulfill His promises to you, but you can rest assured knowing that God is working in your life and He cannot lie.
Even when God feels far away, remember that He isn’t far and He is never the one who moves away.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…
James 4:8a
As you cling to these promises of God, and the others you find in your own studies of the Bible, your trust in God will grow.
It did for me and I know it can do the same for anyone who is willing to seek Him. He promises you will find Him when you seek.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7
Want more promises of God? Download this free resource – Promises of God In The Bible (PDF)
Conclusion
How can Christians learn how to trust God? By humility. By aligning their mind with God, learning from the pain, embracing the comfort God has to offer, and holding tight to the promises of God.
Over the course of our lives as Christians, we will experience many blessings that God has for us when we walk closely with Him. He never says it’ll be easy, but He does promise to be with us.
It doesn’t matter the circumstances we go through, we have an eternal hope of Salvation, an eternal hope that is founded and rooted in Jesus Christ.
It’s through His kindness, His love, His mercy, and His grace that we have the opportunity to live. Not to live for ourselves, but to live for God, to live for others.
Make today the day you start living life fully trusting God.
Sermon on Trusting God
Additional Resources
NKJV Study Bible by Thomas Nelson
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