Finding Your Way to Trusting God: Part 3 — What It Means to Trust
What does it really mean to trust God? I think if we all examine our lives, we may say we trust God, but in reality, we are still dependent on what society says we need: a good job, a house, status, luxury cars, continuous affirmation from others. If we truly trusted God, all these things society tells us we should have instead would become things that we do not need to find meaning or fulfillment. We are reminded in scriptures and real-world examples that God is the only one who is entirely trustworthy. Friends, family, coworkers, society, and things will eventually let us down, but God will always remain constant. Thus, what does it really mean to trust God? Well, here are some of my thoughts on what it really means to trust God.
The addiction to control: We are addicted to the need to control everything in our life. From what we drive, where we live, what job we take, how we want people to view our “life” on social media. There is a deeply rooted addiction to control anything and everything. Why is that? Is it because we believe that if we let go of control, we don’t know who will hold all the pieces together? Or is it because we believe that if we let go of control, our insecurities will be visible to the world? Maybe, it is the deeply rooted fears that we think if we can just control, everything will get better. Well, it doesn’t. Our worries are still there. Our fears of being alone. Our fears of not accounting to anything. Our concerns that we will never break addictions to porn, alcohol, drugs, status, money, you name it. Our doubts that no one would ever love us if they knew the authentic us. However, when we break the addiction to control everything, we begin to recognize that God is there holding everything together. We come to realize that God washes away all those fears. Why? Because he is always there, and we are never alone. He calls us worthy and designed us with a purpose. He has broken all the chains that have once held us bound to addiction. He knows everything about us, and yet he still loves us unconditionally. Henri J. M. Nouwen wrote in The Inner Voice of Love, “The more you relinquish your stubborn need to maintain power, the more you will get in touch with the One who has the power to heal and guide you.” It is time to let go. It is time for healing. It is time to walk the path God has designed you for.
Bearing the burdens: How many times have we prayed that God will take away an addiction, a fear, or whatever is holding us back, but we drag it back with us into our lives? Why are we taking these burdens back with us? This is such a prime example that we do not fully trust God, and believe me, I have done this for my entire walk. I’ll pray for chains to be broken. I’ll pray for fears to fall down. I’ll pray that I may find strength in tough times. However, instead of leaving my burdens at the foot of the Cross, there I am letting them drag me down. In the darkness of my fears, my faults, my failures. It is like I do not even believe in the fact that Jesus carried all my burdens to the Cross and died for every single burden that I have so that I can experience the life I was meant for. How do we overcome this? Well, I think Hannah Whitall Smith put it in a significant way in The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, “Most people take their burdens to Him, but they bring them away with them again and are just as worried and unhappy as ever. But I take mine, and I leave them with Him and come away and forget them. And if the worry comes back, I take it to Him again; I do this over and over until, at last, I just forget that I have any worries, and am at perfect rest.” I know it can be hard just to let go of all our burdens. However, if we truly trust God and his power, we will continue to take all our troubles and lay them at the Cross and LEAVE THEM THERE. Over and over again. Trusting in him to carry all of our burdens, so that we can truly experience life.
Running away: It seems that every time I fail, I tend to run away from God. Why? Because here I am failing for the one billionth time. I continue to promise myself that I will stop, but here I am, failing again. I have gone years fighting this, yet it seems that I am always right back here messing things up. Over and over again, I slip, and it looks like there is no hope. It is so easy just to give up. However, Judas gave up. He betrayed Jesus, and instead of being like Peter and running back to him in hope, he hung himself. We are edging to being like Judas by running away from God when we fail. However, when we are like Peter and return to God, we can experience true healing. We begin to trust in him that he will rework us in his mercy no matter how many times we fail. Another quote from Henri J. M. Nouwen (seriously he has some of the most powerful words in modern Christianity) in The Road to Daybreak, “I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made. I love you with a love that has no limits…Come back to me — not once, not twice, but always again. You are my child… Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you anymore, that there is no way back. It is not true. I so much want you to be with me. I so much want you to be close to me…Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but which you will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy.” That is what God has to offer when we decide not to run away. He is right there ready to rebuild you in his love and mercy.
Just three things we can do to drive ourselves to trust God more. I challenge you to take one of these things and try it for a week. Hopefully, you will be amazed by how much God will show up in those moments, and you can witness the abundance healing of God when we just have the faith for him to move the mountains.