Learning to Trust God
As we embark on a new year, many of us hope for a journey filled with satisfaction, fulfillment, and success. However, achieving the year we desire requires more than mere aspirations. We must realize the importance of trusting God with our lives and learn how to live that out practically every day.
Life - The Great Car Ride
When it comes to car rides, we've all encountered backseat drivers, those individuals who can't resist giving unsolicited advice or expressing concern about the driver's skills. It's amusing to think about the various reactions people have when someone else is behind the wheel, as illustrated by funny memes circulating on social media. For example, one says, “Marriage is where you gasp while your husband is driving and he gets super annoyed over and over until you die.”
If you’ve ever been in a car accident with someone else driving, you know how your trust can be fragile and easily shattered when it comes to the idea of keeping you safe. Drawing a parallel to our trust in God, do we truly know God well enough to trust Him with our lives? Do we trust His capabilities and reputation to take us where we need to go? Children inherently trust their parents without questioning their driving abilities, embodying a level of faith we should aspire to in our relationship with God.
What Does It Mean to Trust?
Trust involves confidence, reliance, and faith in a person's character, abilities, and intentions. Applying this to our relationship with God, we need to trust Him to experience the year we've always wanted. Worrying, trying to control situations, and making mistakes are the consequences of not trusting. Learning to trust God allows us to relax on our journey, prepared for whatever the new year may bring.
What Trusting God Provides
1) Heading
Proverbs 3:5–6 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
This is the definitive scripture emphasizing the importance of trusting God for direction. Trusting God involves choosing to rely on His guidance rather than leaning on our limited understanding. The analogy of using a GPS versus navigating on our own serves as a vivid illustration. A GPS can alert you to traffic patterns, construction, detours and road conditions impossible to know in advance. If you choose to navigate on your own, you forfeit this navigation help and may cause you to experience unnecessary hardship and delays up ahead.
When it’s time for a decision to be made, don’t just rely on your own earthly and finite wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Make it a matter of prayer. Let God direct you. Listen for His voice, promptings and leading. Then He can get you where you need to go in the most efficient and productive way possible.
2) Help
Psalm 28:7 7 The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
Knowing God personally fosters a confident connection with Him, as we experience His strength and protection through life’s circumstances. Trusting in God is fostered by our ever-increasing relationship with Him. It says in Psalm 9:10, Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. When we know Him, we can trust Him. Then a song of praise will well up inside of us. This praise becomes a faith response before the answer even arrives, reflecting our trust in God's ability to turn everything around for good.
So get to know Him more by spending time with Him in prayer and in His Word. Seek Him and you will gain His perspective in every circumstance. Then, before you have arrived at your destination, start giving Him thanks and praise for His goodness, faithfulness and love. Regardless of what’s happening outwardly, inwardly you can be leaping for joy.
3) Health
Isaiah 26:3–4 3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.
Want to live in perfect peace? This includes emotional and mental health. The first step is fixing your thoughts on God at all times. Are you thinking about God and what He says in His Word during your hard times or are you more focused on the details of your situation? We must learn to trust in every circumstance at all times and we do this by staying focused on who God is and what He wants to do in our lives. When we do this, the scripture says that God will “keep” us in perfect peace. “Keep” means that God will guard our minds with a garrison. When our minds are focused on God, bad thoughts of doubt, frustration and unbelief that wish to cause us to quit the journey are defeated. He preserves our mental health if we will choose to keep our minds focused on Him.
In the midst of difficult times, you can experience perfect peace. Usually, that is a byproduct of a resolved situation, but you can have it, during the situation. How? By fixing your thoughts on God. If you focus on His character and qualities, instead of the details of your circumstances, you walk out your trust in Him to carry you through. Then you will experience Him as the Rock, a safe and unmovable refuge in times of trouble.
Jeremiah 17:7–8 7 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. 8 They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
We must have confidence in God. You only have confidence in someone who you are familiar with, have positive past experiences with and an understanding of their track record. We must remember back on how God has been faithful to us in the past. I am reminded of an old song that says, “He didn't bring us this far to leave us. He didn't teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn't build His home in us to move away. He didn't pick us up to let us down.” Use your past experiences with God to build your confidence in what He can do in the present.
When we trust the Lord, we are like a tree planted by a stream and it’s roots tap into that water for sustenance. It doesn’t matter if excessive heat comes or if there is a drought, we don’t have to worry or fear, because God will cause us to remain fruitful even in seasons that are designed to kill us and take us out.
Because you trust God, you have confidence that He is with you and will bring you through. You don’t have to struggle with fear or worry when unexpected things, out of your control, happen in your life because you are connected to divine resources that will sustain you through every trial.
4) Hope
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Relying on the power of the Holy Spirit produces an overflow of joy and peace in our lives which leads to hope. The Spirit produces in us a joy and peace that the world can’t give and the world can’t take away. Then we can rest with hope knowing that God is working out the details of our lives.
Then the Holy Spirit confirms this in our spirit and we begin to overflow with a confident expectation that God will work favorably on our behalf. This creates an inner assurance and keeps you at peace in your spirit. This is accomplished through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you. So learning to live by the Spirit will increase your joy, peace, and hope!
Trust over Fear
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, we can choose to trust God with the details of the journey ahead. Or we can choose to navigate through life’s challenges and detours on our own. One will lead to stress, worry and fear and one leads to joy, peace and hope. Make your choice wisely and enjoy the journey!
Psalm 62:5–8 5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Embrace Trust
In embracing trust, we embark on a journey where God takes the wheel, guiding us toward a year filled with satisfaction, fulfillment, and success. May we learn to relinquish control, lean on God's omniscience, and submit to His direction, so we can experience the year we always wanted.
Pastor Nick DiBenedetto
from the sermon series, “The Year You Always Wanted.” (1/7/24)