“It’s ok, just trust God” “God’s got it, just trust Him” “all you need to do is trust God with this”….
So many people say this. I have said this countless times. It’s such a comforting phrase to throw out there, to remind us and ourselves that all we need to do is just trust God. But wait– rewind. How do we actually do this? How do we trust God with hard stuff? Grief, sickness, financial struggles, mental health, family, relationships, career, a home, a future? Everyone seems to talk about how important it is, but no one seems to talk about how we actually do this.
Because it’s one thing to say you trust God, but it’s entirely a different thing to actually do it when hard stuff happens. And I think that it is something that we learn as we go through different experiences in our lives, different battles, different growth. We learn to turn what we said with our mouths into something that we actually do in our hearts, and it is incredible how God teaches us. But here are some things that the Bible says, and things that I have learned from walking through difficulty, and I hope this can prepare you, or encourage you or give you something to think about.
Let’s start with one of the most well known proverbs of all time:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will keep your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5-6
The first step to trusting God, to putting your hope in the One who created it all, is surrendering your life to Him, recognising Him as Lord, and believing that He died on the cross and rose again on the third day to take your sin on His shoulders, so you can be set free and have a relationship with your creator, both now and forever. We can’t say that we trust God until we make that first decision to give Him our life, and we can’t say that we don’t lean on our own understanding until we decide to listen to what God’s word tells us. And what does God’s word tell us? That all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23) That while we were still sinners Christ died for us, (Romans 5:8) and that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). And that is the importance of trusting God, it is the whole reason that believing in and trusting in Jesus is so important- He has the power to save us from our sin. But He doesn’t force it on us, we have free will, and we have to choose trust and belief ourselves. And how do we do that? By confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. (Romans 10:9)
And that may seem scary, but it is such an exciting decision! And if you mean it with your whole heart, it will change your life. It is the first and most important step to trusting, and if you have made that step, not only am I so excited for you, but all the angels in heaven are rejoicing! (Luke 15:10)
But what now? What do we do, how do we keep trusting, when we have done this, maybe even done this when we were so young we can’t remember it clearly? Great question. As someone who gave my life to Jesus at a very young age, this is something that I have struggled with so much- learning to trust God in the day-to-day, the small things and the big things, and to surrender my life to Him. So let’s talk about it. Let’s jump back to Proverbs 3:5-6, because as usual for Proverbs, it has some amazing wisdom to share.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart– God isn’t just asking for our trust in the easy things. We all have our things that we find easy, the things that it’s easy to trust God and not worry about. Some people worry a lot about their health; others don’t. Some people get anxious about money, for others, it’s easy to trust God with finances. For some, it’s hard to let go control of their family life, for others, it’s easy to trust God with the people they love most. And we are all different, and find different things hard– and that’s ok. But God isn’t just looking for trust in the things we find easy, He’s looking for trust with all our hearts. Some things that I have found really hard to trust God with are dancing, health, finances, and my future. And sometimes it’s still a daily struggle to trust Him with those things, but honestly, it is so cool how all things work together for good for those who trust him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28), and sometimes I see glimpses of that, which is so encouraging. And it’s hard to trust with the hard things, but it is possible, I am proof of that. We can pray and ask God to help us trust Him everyday, or every minute if we want to, and it’s even ok to ask Him to help you to want to trust and surrender to Him. Sometimes that’s the first step. And the truth is, the Bible tells us that all things will work together for those who trust Him- and that is so comforting, because it is a promise. It may not work out the same way we think it will, in fact it will probably be completely different, but it will be so so good.
Lean not on your own understanding– it’s so easy to go through life leaning on our own wisdom, and the wisdom of the world. But the Bible calls us not to do things in our own wisdom and our own strength, but to lean on the wisdom of God. What is the wisdom of God? Great question! He gave us a whole book of it, called the Bible. It is so important that we are reading God’s word daily, because it is God’s living word, full of wisdom, for us. Something that I have been doing in the past few months is prioritising Bible reading and prayer first thing in the morning, before anything else. I have done this on and off before, but recently it’s been a priority, and honestly I can not recommend it more highly. It is a great step to saying practically that you trust God and don’t lean on your own understanding by reading His word first– before anything else in the day. If you don’t know where to start, Proverbs is full of pieces of practical wisdom, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are full of the teachings of Jesus, and my other personal favourites are Psalms, Romans, Philippians, Galatians, Hebrews, 1 Timothy and James. You don’t have to read much, just a few verses, a paragraph, or a chapter can be plenty. I honestly find such a difference in my day when I do this- calmer, more joyful, more focused on the important things and less grumpy and inclined to make slightly snarky comments, which is good for everyone!
In all your ways acknowledge Him– following Jesus is not a Sunday morning kind of faith. It is an all days of the week, every minute kind of faith. And that doesn’t mean we don’t mess up or go our own way sometimes, we are all human and we all make mistakes. But it does mean that we don’t just trust Him with the big things, but the small, day to day things as well. Because the amazing thing about God is that He cares about the small things in our lives, the practical things as well as the big, important, impressive things. Which leads me into my next verse–
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?
Matthew 6:25-30
I love this verse so much. Sometimes, life can be hard, and sometimes the day-to-day things can be stressful. Money can be tight, we can be stressed about health or food, or wearing the right things. But Jesus clearly tells us not to worry about these things, because He will provide for us. This verse has helped me so much over the years, and yes, sometimes practical things are really hard to trust Him with. There was a time in my life where I hardly had any money and I didn’t know where food and clothes would come from. I had a strong trust in God and I knew He would provide for me, but somehow I thought that I would be provided for with a big amount of money that would make life easy- but it wasn’t like that. Instead, at the time God was really challenging me to trust Him with every single dollar and use it wisely, to work hard and trust that each day I would be provided for, no matter how much or how little I had the day before. That was a time that trusting God looked different to how I thought it would- and you might have a time like that too, where God works in a different way to what you expected. But that’s ok- the Bible says that His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9), and He knows what is best for us, and just what we need to learn. A lack of money is really hard, but seeing how the flowers are clothed with beauty and colour and knowing that we are so much more important than them to our Father in heaven is such comforting knowledge.
What about our future? I have found it so hard to trust God with this. I love to plan out my steps, in fact I love to plan and organise in general, so I found it really hard to give those plans up to God and trust Him with my future. But the truth is, it’s ok to not have it figured out, and to wait on God. Isaiah 40:31 says
But they who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not grow faint.
More on waiting on God- Psalm 27: 14 says,
Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
Waiting on God is not second best, but something that really builds our character and our closeness to God. This does not mean that we should just sit around and wait for things to happen to us, though. We still need to do all we can to prepare our hearts for whatever we are waiting for. Jesus says on the sermon on the mount:
“Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find’ knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8
This is a key theme to trust- it is so important to trust God with all your heart, but it is so important to also seek Him in His word, in prayer, and in worship. Which brings me to the next verse-
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
Let’s say someone in your life is sick, or your are struggling with mental health, repetitive sin, or you desperately want someone you love to receive salvation. Yes, it is so important to trust God with the outcome, and know that He can work miracles, but we also are called to the amazing privilege of praying and asking God. And the beauty of trusting is that no matter what, we can have the joy that comes from God, knowing that the outcome is in the hands of the One who made the whole universe, even when hard things happen. Because the truth is that we live in a fallen world, but even the things that satan means for evil, God can turn to good. (From Genesis 50:20)
So, after all that, let’s hit some highlights of how we trust God every day, practically.
• Trust is something that we learn to do practically throughout our lives, when we seek God.
• The most important step to trust is believing what the Bible says about Jesus and about salvation, and giving our lives to Him.
• Trusting God is trusting Him with everything, not just the easy stuff.
• To trust God, we pray and ask Him to help us.
• The Bible promises that all things will work together for good when we trust Him, even though it may not be in the way we expect it to, because God’s ways are higher than ours
• We demonstrate our trust in God practically by not leaning on our own understanding, but putting Him first in our day and reading His word to gain wisdom
• We need to acknowledge God in everything, not just on a Sunday morning at church.
• God promises to take care of the practical things in our life, and tells us not to worry about them. And how do we do that? By praying and asking God to help us, and by making a decision in our hearts to trust.
• Waiting on God for healing or direction is not second best, but something that will strengthen our faith and character and purpose and trust.
• However, we are not called to be passive in our trust or waiting, but to constantly be seeking Him, choosing joy and by praying continually.
• God is in control and He has a good plan! Also, He has already won the battle- when Jesus conquered sin by dying and coming back to life. And when you believe that, everything else fades in comparison!
That’s all for now, if I have missed anything or if you have any thoughts, I would love to hear. I would also love to hear any stories of how you trusted (or didn’t) God, and the outcome!
~Hannah xoxo
