Trusting God

In our study on Wednesday we were discussing the question of trusting God and entrusting our lives to God. And the quesiton was: how does that work in your life? The easy answer to the question is: It works well? So I asked: how do you make trust in God work in your life? And it seemed that was another matter.

I think that trusting God has the same issues as trusting another human being. If you are desperate, you will trust almost anyone, anytime. So when life is in turmoil we are not only willing to trust God, we want him to take control and fix things. So what is it that lets us trust God, or anyone for that matter, all the time?

I think it is just like how we begin to trust another person. We don't immediately trust anyone. We get to know them and the more we know them, the more we are willing to tell them until the time comes that we know them so well that they may even know us better than we know ourselves. And I think it works the same way with God. We have got to know him and have a strong and personal relationship with him.

So, when I asked how we do that, several of the people in the class said simultaneously, we get to know God in Bible study. And I think that is exactly right. In Bible study, we hear how God and Jesus encountered humanity and we find ourselves in the story. It is in those times that we begin to understand what God wants from us. And the more we study, the more we pray and as we do those things, we draw closer to God and are therefore more willing to trust all of the time, not just when we are in trouble or things are out of control.

So then how do we literally put our trust in God and entrust our lives to God? Perhaps a way to do that is to start each day seeking God's guidance and asking God to guide us in all we do. Then as we encournter the challenges each day presents, we first seek God's guidance before we do what we think best. We can't anticipate all the possibilities, but God certainly has all the answers if we will just seek them.

Then as we are willing to entrust our lives to God we find that the Holy Spirit begins a transformation in our lives. It is then that we have given our will to God and been willing to be the people he created us to be instead of the people we have fashioned of our own ideas.

So do I know this is right? No, can't say that. But I can say that I have seen it work in many lives, so I am thinking it is a pretty good bet. But the challenge is this, getting to know God is a lifetime thing just as getting to know a member of your family is. So I pray that you will put your trust in God and see what God can do with, through and in you.

Blessings for the journey --

Marty