Trusting God – 4 Powerful Tips to Deepen Your Faith in God
By: Daniel Neilson Brown
When someone says put your faith in God when you’re going through a real hardship can be annoying, especially when trusting God is the last thing you want to be doing!
It can be frustrating when you’re in great need for Him to act NOW, especially when you see no evidence of anything taking place!
If you’re concerned about your future so much that it’s stealing your joy, there’s only one thing that will help… and that’s trusting God. In fact, if trusting God is what you were doing in the first place, you wouldn’t have lost your joy.
Jeremiah 17:5 says, “Cursed is the one who trusts in man.”
When you lose your joy, it’s because you’ve taken your eyes off the Lord and placed them on yourself. In other words, you’re trusting in yourself, and have become cursed. A few Scriptures later, we read, “Blessed is the man who puts his trust in God” (Jeremiah 17:7).
When it comes to trusting God, there are 4 powerful Scriptures that will help you keep your faith in God when circumstances are discouraging!
1. Take no thought for your life (Matthew 6:25)
Why do we think we don’t have to have faith in God? Do we think we can run our own lives? The prophet Jeremiah prayed, “Lord, I know it is not within the power of man to map his own life and plan his own course, so correct me, but please be gentle” (Jeremiah 10:23).
When we take too much thought for our lives in the way of worry, it weighs us down. We are meant to be free of worry, reasoning, and stress, and the only way to be free of those things is to have faith in God.
He wants to govern our lives. That’s why when we become saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts and wants full control. We must die to our flesh and begin trusting God. We need to give Him control, or else we’ll be fighting against Him.
2. Be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6)
If you want to experience the fullness of the Father’s best, you must believe in His ability to properly care of you. He said, “I am the Lord of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me” (Jeremiah 32:27)?
I used to worry constantly, and wasn’t trusting God at all. In fact, many times wondered what the Lord was doing when I needed Him most. I didn’t see Him doing what I thought He should be doing. How’s that for being self-righteous? I didn’t put my faith in God, but only put my faith in what I was seeing at any given time.
We are to live by faith, not by sight. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
3. Be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10)
He is our Heavenly Father who cares for us. So, we don’t have to worry, struggle to figure everything out, or even try to make things happen.
If we accept the fact that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are deeper than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9), we can have faith in God and know that He has our best interest in mind, and He’s working all things for our good.
So even though you may not be seeing results, be assured, He didn’t forget you. He just may be busy behind the scenes. Just keep trusting God by being still.
4. He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him, because he trusts in Him” (Isaiah 26:3)
Why do we think that if something isn’t seemingly going right, we think we need to fix it? Is there anything more frustrating than trying to make something happen that is just not meant to happen?
Why can’t we just take our hands off of things and let the Lord take care of it? Why can’t we just let Him do what only He can do, and not worry about the outcome? It’s all because we’re not trusting God… a simple lack of faith in God.
Perfect peace can only be found in trusting in God. So the bottom line is to believe that He has your best interest in mind, and He has a good plan for each believer (Jeremiah 29:11).
Take no thought for your life (Matthew 6:25), be anxious for nothing (Philippians 4:6), and be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10), for He will keep you in perfect peace because your mind is stayed on Him, because you trust in Him” (Isaiah 26:3).
“Our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or even think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20-21). This power is our faith… our faith in God!
Trusting God should be a simple thing to do, but few people engage in it. It’s a shame too, because it’s only by faith in God that we receive from Him, for Jesus said, “According to your faith, let it be unto you” (Matt 9:29).
Article Taken From: http://www.secretplaceonline.com/articlearchive-html/trusting-god-faith-in-god/
During our first official meeting we asked them to think about their favorite “visionary” words that would describe what they thought our family should be and what we really wanted our family to accomplish together. We wrote the words on a whiteboard and expanded the discussion to what they thought should set us apart as a family and how we should treat each other. Later, we asked them to find a private spot for a few minutes and write what they thought the mission of our family should be, and to include their favorite words and ideas from the earlier discussions. Our kids’ ages were from 17 to 3. The ones who couldn’t write drew a picture to illustrate their point.
Our three words were “Broaden and Contribute” which may not mean much to the casual observer but meant a new paradigm to our kids. We all agreed that to us those words meant that it was the responsibility of everyone in the family to broaden… to get the very best education possible according to his/her gifts and strive to really learn how the world works. Then, because we had the advantage of that good education and broadening advantages, our next responsibility was to find ways to give back. We decided that one of the most important things in the world was to love and serve others so we could each in our own way make the world a better place. That concept applied to helping just one person as much as it did to helping broader society.
On the “contributing” side, humanitarian expeditions to Bolivia, Africa and Mexico have become one of the brightest patches of fabric in our family “quilt,” as each child has grown immensely from life-changing experiences in the Third World. All nine have taken two years out of their college experience to do missionary and humanitarian work full time and to immerse themselves in the culture of another country.
So we challenge you to come up with a mission statement for your family. If your family is young, just do it in a family meeting. You’ll find that your kids can be much more willing and able than you give them credit for, and their ideas are sometimes astounding. It gives them equity in the family and gives them an enormous amount of security knowing that they are part of something bigger than themselves!
