St. Peter's Episcopal Church

thoughts

 

Why is trusting God so difficult?

The Bible says this about trusting God, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). Furthermore, it tells us that "He who trusts in himself is a fool. . ." (Proverbs 28:26). Still, most of us have difficulty trusting God at least at one point or another in our walk with Him.


There are probably many reasons why trusting is difficult. God's ways don't always make sense to us. God told Noah to build an ark. It may have never rained up to this point and the nearest body of water was probably many miles away. It could not have made much sense to Noah at all (story found in Genesis 6-8). We want life to make sense. We always want to set our own terms and timetables.

 

When you're trying to make a big decision (like how to approach dating and relationships, or what college you should go to, or what type of career path you should pursue), and you're making a great effort to pursue God's will on that decision, do you ever feel like God is not holding up His side of the deal? You are trying to be faithful to Him, and give your life to Him, but it seems like He's forgotten you? Does it ever make you want to give up on doing it His way, and just be like everyone else? I know I've felt like that plenty of times.

 

Don't ever believe the lie that God doesn't care about you or that He's forgotten you. The world promises us immediate results: "Have it your way right away!", while God's timing is often much slower. The rewards for being patient and waiting on Him, instead of relying on the world to satisfy us, are incomparable!

God works on a different timetable than our minds comprehend. God promised Abraham a son from his own body through his wife Sarah. It was at least 24 years before this promise was fulfilled in the manner in which God had promised. In the meantime, Abraham and Sarah had difficulty trusting God and tried their own methods to fulfill the promise (read about this in Genesis 15-17). We want what we want and we want it. . .now! It is difficult to trust in a plan that requires us to surrender all control of the time for completion.

In order to trust in God, you must totally surrender your will, your ideas, your desires, and your future in to God's hands. Many of us are "control freaks." We don't want to give the control of any part of our lives over to another. If you don't believe that God loves you fully and really does have your best interests at heart and desires the very best for you, trusting Him is going to be extremely difficult. It takes a very special relationship to allow that measure of surrender. Most of us have a tendency to claim trust in God. However, at the first sign of any difficulty or trial, we think that God must not love us because He is allowing this difficulty to happen. The trial is exactly what God is using to test the level of trust that we have in Him.

In spite of the trials, we always have God's promise that the trials and tests that we go through are for our good (Romans 8:28, Hebrews 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:17, James 1:2). We learn that it is through trust that our relationship with God strengthens and our love for Him grows.

We can trust in many things. None, however, offer the protection plan, the long term security, or the benefits that trusting in God offers. All of the other things in which we place our trust can fail. God never fails! In the words of King David, ". . .Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. . ." (1 Chronicles 28:20).

2008.11.05.