Trusting God

One of the things I struggle with is trusting God with everything in my life.   There are areas where I truly do trust Him, and I have no issues turning it over to Him.

With other parts of my life, I am not so successful in doing so.  In those areas I stress, get worried, can be short tempered about them, and generally do not feel secure about them.  In those areas of my life I can be defensive and not ready to share them with others.

I don't think I'm alone in this.  I think most of us have areas we are not ready to let God into, and certainly not trust Him enough to have control in those areas.  There are those "special" spiritual people that we know in our lives (or have heard about, read their books, etc.). They are the ones who seem to have a sense of peace in their lives.  I think that one of the keys to their sense of peace is that they trust God.  They do not worry about health, finances, family, etc.  They know that God is in control, even when they don't fully  understand what God's plan is for them.

God does actually ask us to do this as well, as scripture clearly states.  Here are a couple of verses that talk about how we are to trust God:

Psalm 18:2


The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Proverbs 3:5


Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.

Micah 7:7


But as for me, I will look to the LORD;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.

There are many more verses to quote, but this gives you a pretty good idea.  I particularly like Micah there, for if you read the whole chapter, he is talking about how wicked the days are, how can any man "have confidence in a friend" and such.  Certainly sounds like some of the rougher parts I've had in my life.

Since I've struggled in this area, I decided to bring if before God in prayer.  I wanted to earnestly seek his guidance in this area, and see what He would reveal to me.  I understand from reading the Bible that I should trust God (one does not need to be a Bible scholar to figure that one out) but the question I have was how do I go about it?

Here is what I've found:



1.  Release control.

As I prayed about this, and sought what God had to say I realized that I had to strip away some illusions I had about myself.  One of those illusions is that I control anything.  As I prayed through this, I realized that there is nothing I truly control.  I don't control my work, my family (certainly not my wife :) ), or my circumstances.  Even my own body does not always obey me.  I certainly am learning that as I get older!
And that is not to take away the fact that the decisions we make impact what happens in our lives.  They do, and we need to take responsibility for our choices.  But ultimately I can struggle with something as much as I want, but if God does not will it, then it won't happen.

I know this is something easy to write out, but it is much harder to put it into practice.  I don't know if releasing control is something that I will ever completely master.  But I do know this: when I do release control and strop struggling I find I have a lot more peace and a lot less stress in my life.

2.  Turn it over to God.

The second part of this is to turn that area of our lives that we want to grasp onto with all our might and turn it over to God.  By that I mean that I consciously release any struggle for control of that thing and give it over to God.  The best indicator of what I need to give to God?  Just pick the thing I'm most stressed about, and that is most likely what I need to give to Him.

There are many ways to turn it over to God, but I way I've found most effective is to do so in prayer.  I actually hand the thing that is most stressing me over to Him, and I can feel an almost immediate sense of relief.

3.  Seek God's wisdom.

The final part of this in trusting God is to see what He says about the subject. Obviously there is God's word to turn to, as that there is much wisdom in there. However, the Bible can't be read as you read an owners manual. Although that would be nice sometimes!
Another way to seek God's wisdom is through prayer. I know I struggle finding enough time but it can't be stressed enough how critical this is. I know when I spending time in prayer, I feel closer to God and I seem to find answers faster. When I pray less, I don't feel as connected to God and I find myself turning to things that are not helpful.

I realize what I have written here isn't revolutionary. My only goal was to pass on what's helped me, and will hopefully help you on your journey.

God Bless!