How You Really Can Trust God Above Everything Else

When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose Word I praise. In God, I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4, NIV).

As time passes, I find I am more aware of my choice to trust God or to trust other people, my feelings, or my ability each day. There are days I trust God and there are days I trust everything but God. However, let me assure you, so far, God has been the most reliable.

If you look on the United States currency, you will find the words “In God We Trust.” But for some of us perhaps it should say “in money we trust.” We all put our trust in something. At times, it might seem easier to put our trust in a financial status instead of into the hands of a powerful God. However, the stock market has proven itself to be risky and God has proven to be trustworthy.

To choose to trust God in times of adversity is a hard thing to do but we have been given the choice of who or what we trust in as we live our lives here on earth. When I say we must make the choice to trust God, it is just not the same thing as choosing what to wear today or what color nail polish you desire. To choose to have the faith to trust God has to come from God. It is humanly impossible to really trust God without God giving us the faith to do so.

The writer of Hebrews tells us to “set our eyes on Jesus who is the author (source) and perfecter of our faith”. Wouldn’t it be great if we could Google a site and order a gallon of faith? If that were possible, we could then take credit for having faith. If we have to trust God for our faith, then God gets the credit. Our responsibility is to be willing to trust God and then let God do the rest.

Margaret Clarkson said this when speaking on acceptance of adversity in our lives, she said:

“Always it is initiated by an act of will on our part; we set ourselves to believe in the overruling goodness, providence, and sovereignty of God and refuse to turn aside no matter what may come, no matter how we feel.”

This is why I try to teach about God’s goodness, His sovereignty and all the attributes of God. We must have the knowledge of who He is before we can trust Him.

For years, all I knew was that Jesus died for me. I lived half my life with Jesus on the cross when in reality He is sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding on my (and your!) behalf. Jesus is powerful and in control of everything and I can put my faith in Him because He loved me enough to leave heaven to die for me. Jesus promised never to leave us and has given us the gift of being able to cast all our cares on Him because He cares for us.

This does not mean we will have a pain-free life but we will have a “peace-full” life. I want to be transparent here and say I probably have a harder time trusting God when things are going great than when life gets difficult. God wants me to trust Him at all times.

I love this quote from author Philip Power:

“The daily circumstances of life will afford us opportunities enough of glorifying God in ‘trust’, without our waiting for any extraordinary calls upon our faith. Let us remember that the extraordinary circumstances of life are but few; that much of life may slip past without their occurrence; and that if we be not faithful and trusting in that which is little, we are not likely to be so in that which is great”.

What is going on in your life at the moment? Are you having a difficult season or are things going pretty well? In every season, the smartest thing we can do is to trust God to accomplish His purpose in and through us. My prayer for you and for myself is that we will choose to live by faith in a God who has offered us His life! He left the choice up to us!