Why is trusting God hard?

When we receive Christ as our Saviour and Lord, we trust Him to forgive our sins and give us a restored relationship with Himself and a place in His heaven. Most of us want to trust God in everything, but that's not easy because life is so unpredictable. It's easy to trust Him when times are good, our prayers are answered "yes", our friends and family are happy, and our goals, finances, health, and outlook are on the up and up. Then, suddenly, life throws us a curveball. Someone dear to us gets sick. We lose our job. A friend betrays us. Our security is shaken, and we feel like we've lost control of our life. Why is it so hard to trust that God is good when we don't understand what is happening or how it's going to turn out?

1. We don’t know Him – We don't trust strangers because we don't know their intentions. If God is a stranger, we won't trust Him. First, we need to build a relationship with Him and establish His trustworthiness. Last week, we saw that God has revealed His character to us through the Bible and that the Bible is reliable, trustworthy, and true in everything that it says about God. Knowing what God has written about Himself is the first step in getting to trust Him.
2. We can’t physically see Him – It's not easy to trust God because we can’t physically touch, hold, and feel Him.
3. Trust issues – If people that we used to trust have disappointed us and caused loss and heartache – especially our father – it can be difficult to trust God. But God is not human. He is our supernatural, heavenly Father – the father that we always wished we could have!

Why is it important to trust God?

We can't build a relationship with someone we don’t trust, and God is the most important person that we need to have a relationship with, because there are tremendous benefits to trusting God beyond the salvation that He gives us in Christ Jesus.

1. God will strengthen and help us – When we go through wearying trials and tribulations, if we rely on God, He will help us, guide us, strengthen us, and deliver us from hard situations. He is there for us! Psalm 28:7 – The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him.
2. We experience peace – When we trust God, we see that the situation that seemed to be out of control is actually within God's control, and it is no longer our battle. We can relax and be at peace. Isaiah 26:3 – You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Philippians 4:7 – The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Why We Should Trust God

1. God loves us – Today's Scripture reading from 1 John 4:7-21 affirms that God is love. Everything that He does is done from love. Verse 9 reads, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." That means that whatever happens to us, it's because He has our best interests in mind. Whether God’s answer to our prayers is no, yes, or not now, we can still trust Him. When He says no, it only means that He has something in mind that is way better than what we asked for. His chief purpose for us is that our own character should be moulded and remade in the image of Christ, and sometimes, the process can hurt.
2. God will never leave us – His faithful promise is "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Joshua 1:5b)

3.  God cannot lie

Numbers 23:19 – "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change His mind."

What He promises, He will do. During our lives, all of us have told at least one lie. If we trust each other even though we know that we have told lies, how is it that we don't trust the One who has never lied – not even once! We need to get to know what He has promised, so that we can trust those promises.

4.  God has plans for us

Jeremiah 29:11 – "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

5.  God's capabilities far exceed our own

• His power – Nothing is too hard for God. “For with God nothing will be impossible.” – Luke 1:37 Jeremiah 32:17 – Ah, sovereign Lord, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.
• His foreknowledge – God knows the future; He knows the end from the beginning.

Psalm 139:4 – Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

God sees the bigger picture. We don't know what is going to happen, but God does. So why should we trust what we can't see and understand when we could trust God Who sees and knows everything?

Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

God is not surprised or baffled at our situation. It has not caught Him by surprise, nor does He have no idea what to do next. There is nothing that can shake Him.

How to Trust God

1. Stop trying to control everything. After we've done everything that we can do, the rest is out of our control. Trying to be in control just stresses us out. The best thing we can do is to let go and let God. Entrust and surrender everything to our Creator.
2. Tell God that it is hard to trust Him – Ask for His help. When we trust people, we feel comfortable being honest with them about anything. God is more reliable than even our most trustworthy friends, and we can tell Him anything. Besides, He knows it all anyway. We just have to admit it!
3. Ask for prayer from Christian friends – God never intended for us to face difficult times alone. God is walking with us every step of the way, and He gives us other believers to walk with us too. That is the meaning of the Body of Christ – the Christian community – the church.
4. Remember God and spend time with Him – We get to know people by spending time with them. The same goes with God. Spend time in prayer. He wants us to go to Him in every circumstance, or simply to spend time with Him. We should not let our circumstances shape our time with God, because God can shape our view of our circumstances!
5. Become familiar with what God has promised – Read His Word – get familiar with the Bible. If we know what He has promised, we'll understand how He operates and what to expect from Him.
6. Look for things to be grateful for – It's really hard to see past the difficult circumstances that can consume us, but looking for good things can change our outlook. Complicated things that are going on can overshadow the good things that God is always working out in our lives and in the world, so we must focus deliberately on giving thanks to God, even when things look grim. Giving thanks puts to rest the lie that everything is awful.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

In fact, thanking God that He is in control of our situation is an act of trust that actually releases God's power in our situation to do what He was intending to do. It also changes our attitude and gives us that supernatural peace that the world doesn't understand.

7. Don't stay worried – No-one can stop a worried thought from rising in our mind, but we can prevent it from staying there and developing into full blown anxiety and fear. Worry doesn't help – it actually makes things worse and prevents us from trusting God and releasing His power. We cannot trust God and be worried at the same time. All we have to do is to pray, "Thank You, God that You have all this under Your control!"

Prayer about trusting God

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your presence and love towards me as Your child. Lord, trusting You is not always easy for me. But today, I’ve learned that You are credible and that I can and should trust in You. Help me to grow spiritually and build a relationship with You by connecting with You daily. I want to start trusting You with everything, because I know that You are trustworthy. Thank You that my life is in Your control. There’s none like You, O Lord. I give You all the praise and honour. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.