These 3 biblical keys show us how to trust God completely, with our heart, mind, and actions… even when life isn’t going according to plan.
Why do we struggle to trust God completely?
When we’re kids in Sunday School, it might sound easy to trust God. Every week, kids are hearing stories about God’s power, his miracles, his love, and his faithfulness.
There is Abraham, who followed God into the unknown and was blessed for his faith. Noah, who built an ark when it wasn’t even raining yet. Hannah, who prayed desperately for a child and then followed through with giving that child back to serve God. David, the shepherd boy who became king.
These are wonderful, incredible, true stories. They do show us that we can trust God completely.
But let’s be real. They also show us that God doesn’t tend to show up in the way we expect.
We live in a hard, broken world. All of us have prayed desperately for things that didn’t happen like we wanted.
We’ve all been hurt by someone’s sin, disappointed by people we’ve trusted, and we’ve all questioned God at one time or another.
In a world filled with sin and evil, we can struggle to trust God. When God appears to be silent to our prayers or struggles, our trust may falter.
Thankfully… the Bible shows us answers to these struggles.
RELATED: Grab my FREE Holy Habits 45-day Bible and Prayer Guide!
[This post may contain affiliate links. If a purchase is made, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you.]
What does the Bible have to say about trusting God completely?
One of the most famous Bible verses is all about trusting God. You might be familiar with this one:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
These are familiar verses… but they aren’t easy.
Living this out isn’t easy because life isn’t easy. In my experience as a therapist, there are 4 big reasons why we struggle to trust God fully and completely:
- Our hearts are easily distracted and deceived. The prophet Jeremiah tells us this. And there are plenty of things in the world trying to influence us, from social media to well-meaning friends. How can we trust God with ALL of our heart when our heart is tempted by so many other things.
- Our pride misleads us. We think that we can “lean on [our] own understanding” and be just fine… but we’re wrong. This is pride. We cannot submit to God when we are busy convincing ourselves that our own plans are good.
- We can’t see the full picture. Only God knows the fullness of past, present, and future. We feel every bump along the way, and so the path God puts us on does not always feel straight. This can confuse us and make trust difficult.
- We remember the pain of past hurts or trials. Christians are never promised an easy, carefree life. But when we look back on the pain we may have experienced because God said “no” to a prayer or allowed something bad to happen to us, this can make it hard to trust him in the future.
Trusting God means connecting the circle: our heart, mind, and actions
Proverbs 3:5-6 shows us three key elements in our daily life of trusting God. It must include our heart, mind, AND actions.
And the amazing thing is that these three elements become a reinforcing circle. Because once we do actually take action on trusting God, this impacts our heart and mind, and makes it easier the next time.
But let’s start by understanding each of these 3 pieces.
- Our hearts include not only our feelings and emotions, but also our goals, desires, and priorities. What is most important to us? What do we prioritize and highly value?
- Our minds are the “understanding” that we have which guides our choices. We make decisions based on what we understand to be true, good, and right.
- Our actions are the follow-through on those decisions. What do we actually do?
As a counselor, I find that when people talk about trusting God, they are usually focusing more on their heart or mind. But this is incomplete.
RELATED: How To Trust God More And Worry Less
While we enjoy feeling close to God, and we like to understand what’s going on around us, these are not the best things to build trust on.
We cannot convince ourselves (mind) to trust God more. The only way to build trust in God is to act in obedience to God and experience him being trustworthy.
Actually, this is true for every relationship. In our marriage, with our friends, with co-workers – for all relationships, trust builds as we get to know someone and experience life with them.
As we get to know God better, we will trust him more.
Then, as we experience him being trustworthy, we will trust him even more.
And, friend, He is always and completely trustworthy.
Can we trust God even when we fall?
Pause with me for a moment to consider one of the most popular team-building activities: the trust fall.
You’ve seen it before. One person stands in front of the other, their back to them, and falls backward… trusting that the other person will catch them.
Hopefully, that person will be trustworthy, and genuinely try to catch you. And hopefully, they will be strong and quick enough to be successful, and actually will catch you.
This activity takes a lot of trust! And it hurts when the person you’re trusting gets it wrong. If you hit the ground, you won’t trust them enough to do the activity again.
So what happens when we feel like God has let us hit the ground?
The circle of trust-building is huge here, and we see it right inside Proverbs 3:5-6 as our heart, mind, and actions are connected. When these three are all directed toward God, our trust builds.
- When our heart is hurt because we’ve “hit the ground” and been disappointed, let down, or hurt in some way…
- We must turn to our minds and the understanding we have of who God is and what He is all about. Truth is found in Scripture, not just in our experience.
- We can submit our plans to the God of the Bible, and experience the comfort, encouragement, and hope He gives us even in that “hit the ground” moment.
Our trust in God cannot be built on the lie that He will say “yes” to everything we ask for or the lie that we should expect an easy life. The joy and peace Christ promises us comes along with picking up our cross daily and following Him.
For most of us, those hit-the-ground moments will shake our trust. The question is, what will we do when our trust is shaken?
RELATED: 10 Reasons Why Moms Struggle With Out Of Control Emotions
Trusting God is a choice that we make every day
Each day is a new chance to trust God, and each day will require us to decide between trusting (and therefore, obeying)… or not.
A daily choice to submit our ways to him, or cling to our own plans.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)
The more that we place our identity in the truth of Scripture and in our relationship with Jesus, the stronger our trust will become. Our faith deepens. We experience greater peace.
When we wake up struggling in the morning, we can pray for help. The Holy Spirit can help us see if we’re struggling with our heart, mind, or actions, and then direct us accordingly.
Some days, we may need to read the Bible and focus on getting to know God better, so we that we lean on his understanding.
Other days, we may need to meditate, pray, worship, and cry through hard emotions that are distracting our heart from trust.
And every day, the Holy Spirit will help us to act in obedience to God’s plans. We ask for deeper trust. We ask for courage to step out in faith. We ask for spiritual eyes to see what God is doing.
We ask the Spirit to help us lean on God’s understanding, to submit all of our ways to him, and we look expectantly to see how God will choose to straighten out the path before us today.
Let's connect!
- JOIN MY EMAIL LIST for weekly tips, gospel encouragement, and a new coupon code each month.
- JOIN THE FAITH FIVER CLUB in our Patreon community, to support the ministry and get exclusive access to our private podcast, Q&As, and more.
- JOIN ME ON PINTEREST and on Facebook and Instagram too, for regular encouragement and fun.
And as they say... sharing is caring!
Related Posts:
Go Deeper To Build Greater Trust In God:
Disclaimers: I am a licensed therapist but my podcast, blog, and resources are not professional or personal advice. I am an affiliate for many of the resources that I link to, and may earn a small commission if you purchase through my link. Read my full disclaimer here.