Having Trust In God

The definition of trust out of the Merriam’s Webster Dictionary sates: assurance reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. It is somewhat of a similar definition when it comes to having complete trust in God. It is an attitude and a state of being that says: I don’t care what is going on around me; I am going to place my dependence on the Lord and not waver. I am going to stand on His assurances.

God describes the word trust by using the word rest. It has to do with resting in God’s plan for your life, God’s promises, God’s love, God’s faithfulness, and God’s goodness. It is making the decision that you trust the Lord no matter how difficult times get or how many bad things are happening in your life. God is so worthy of our trust but we have to take that step to truly believe that we can rely on Him.

One passage that gives us an idea of how to “rest” in the Lord is found in Proverbs 3:5-6. King Solomon discloses, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Here we can see that Solomon with the leading of the Holy Spirit is letting us know that we are to “trust” or rely upon God with our entire heart. When we are able to let go of the steering wheel and allow the Lord to take full control, it will prevent us from so much wasted effort. Solomon is saying that we shouldn’t use our own judgment but instead we should trust God in everything that we do. What that does is lets Him guide and lead us in the right direction.

When you realize that you can rest in the peace of God when the storms of life hit because you know that He will never leave your side, you view tribulation differently. As human beings we tend to panic when we experience hard times but when you have complete trust in our Heavenly Father your firm foundation will not waver.

God does not want us to live a life of struggle in fact He requires that we cast all of our burdens on him. Matthew 11:28-30 details, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This passage out of the book of Matthew is giving us a direct quote from our Lord Jesus Christ. He is telling us to come to Him with our burdens, and He will give us rest. Then He goes on to tell us that His “yoke” (burden or bondage) is easy and His burden (load) is light (light as far as weight). So in other words when you give Him the worry, the stress, the physical pain, the sickness, or disease what He gives you in return is hope, peace, love, comfort, etc.

The Word of God tells us that He is the God of hope. Romans 15:13 reveals, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Play close attention to what the Lord is filling us with: joy and peace.

When we can rest in the Truth of God which is found in His Word we know that no matter what difficult things we face, it will all work out for our good, Romans 8:28. God is faithful and has the most absolute trustworthy character. Numbers 23:19 is clear when it states, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

The Lord is letting us know that he is reliable in those difficult situations. If God said it in His Word you best believe that you can take it at face value. There are so many powerful Bible verses that are saturated with God’s great promises. The thing is we need to make sure that we are following the Lord’s stipulations and spiritual principles when it comes to His Word if we want His promises to apply to our lives.

I just wrote an article on this very topic that will give you an understanding: Build Your Faith-Being a Doer of the Word.

The enemy knows the Lord’s Word better than most Christians and he wants to hinder you from receiving God’s promises. His job is to make us feel like we can’t trust God which in turn will extinguish our faith in Him. Remember, without faith it is impossible to please the Lord, Hebrews 11:6.

The fact is that in your Christian life you are going to face spiritual warfare, it is inevitable. The devil is after your faith and trust in God so when unfortunate things happen in your life, he applies pressure to them. He does not want you to understand how faithful God is during times of trouble. That is why it is vital that you study the Word of the Lord so that you can have His promises saturated in your heart and mind.

Let’s take a look at two passages of Scripture pertaining to having trust in God.