There are many situations in life that require our trust. When we travel on an airplane, we trust the pilot to get us safely to our destination. When we go to the doctor, we are entrusting that we will receive the care needed to manage our health.
Although trusting God may seem easy initially, you may experience seasons in life, where you are put through a test. The test usually boils down to,” will I trust God with this situation or not?”
Do I truly trust Him to carry this burden?
Do I trust Him to provide?
Do I trust Him to work this out for my good?
Do I trust Him even when I can’t sense Him at work?
When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you trusted Him with your life for eternity yet as life’s storms come we take our eyes off of Jesus and begin to take things into our own hands even though we do not have the answers.
One of my favorite verses around trust is nestled in Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, “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.”
The situations we go through we will be tempted to lean towards what we think is best or what we think we know but this verse always reminds me to trust my Shepherd to guide me through difficult decisions and seasons in life.
It’s not easy but it is always worth it.
Here are 10 ways trusting God changes your life:
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1. Trusting Teaches Dependency
Although we have free choice, we were not created to be independent from God. We were created to live a life of dependency where we trust God and take Him at His word.
He will never leave us alone to figure things out. He is always with us and desires our very best. When we truly trust Him with everything, we are saying “Lord, I am relying on You to work it out for my good.” The best thing about this type of dependency is that He has a perfect track record of always staying true to what He says.
2. Trust Helps You to Be Led by the Spirit
Before Jesus died for our sins, He left a gift for all of us who believe. In John 14:26 he says “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
We have His Spirit living on the inside of us to teach and guide us. Jesus wasn’t going to leave us alone to figure out what to do, He left His Spirit to navigate life on earth and keep us in step with the Father’s work.
3. Trust Helps You Live a Life of Obedience
When Abraham was told to sacrifice the son he had always wanted, he responded with obeying God immediately. He didn’t ask questions, He began to do what God was asking of him. He had a good rapport with God to trust Him. He knew if God was asking that of Him, there had to be a bigger reason (See Genesis 22).
When trusting God, we willingly live a life of obedience even when we don’t understand the reasoning. Abraham didn’t understand why God was asking him to sacrifice Issac, but he trusted God anyways. Blessings flow from our obedience.
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4. Trust Gives You Spiritual Eyes to See Things Differently
Sometimes, we have to remind ourselves how God sees things differently than we do. In trusting God, we have to ask for eyes to see things the way God sees it. We need eyes to discern how God is moving and shifting things even when it doesn’t look as if anything is happening.
In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God knows every chapter in our story; we have to trust Him and His timing.
5. Trust Helps You to Bear Good Fruit
When we live a life of trusting God, what we receive is a life where we bear good fruit (See Colossians 1:10). When God sees that we can be trusted, there is an outpour of blessings that come into our hearts and lives.
6. Trust Gives You an Elevated Faith
When you begin to trust God and see the return, it elevates your faith to believe Him for more. Maybe you’re like me and have been guilty of sometimes believing too small, but after you see how He is a God of exceeding our expectations (See Ephesians 3:20), it elevates your faith to pray but trust that He will blow your mind in how He will bring things to pass in His unique way.
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7. Trust Helps You Live a Life of Contagious Faith
Trusting God allows you to operate for a place of faith. When you see how good He really is in your own life, it produces a contagious faith where you can’t help but to tell others about Him. You will be able to allow others to experience this same kind of faith for themselves because they see your joy.
After the Samaritan woman saw that Jesus was the Messiah, she immediately ran back and told others about Him (See John 4:28) and in return, many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because of her (See John 4:39). How good is it to know that you can help others meet Jesus through trusting Him for yourself and telling others about Him?
8. Trust Provides Safety
Proverbs 29:25 “trusting the Lord means safety.” It means that you can operate from a place of rest knowing that He cares for you. When Jesus was born, Herod was determined to kill Him, but God appeared to Joseph in a dream to take the family and flee to Egypt (See Matthew 2:13-15). Joseph trusted God to provide safety for them and He continues to do the same for us.
God is always after our best and when we trust Him, we can be assured that He provides safety, a comfortable place for us to rest knowing He will work it all out.
9. Trust Reaps Eternal Rewards
Trusting in the One you haven’t seen can be tough. For those who do not believe, it may even sound crazy but I believe God knew it would be difficult and therefore He ensured a reward beyond earthly expectations for those of us who believe. “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls (See 1 Peter 1:8-9).” Trusting God changes your life by giving you an opportunity to live eternity with Jesus. Once you trust in the Lord and become His child, this earth is not your home, you have a seat in heaven. It doesn’t mean life on earth becomes easy but it can help shift your mindset to remember that a day will come where life will be perfectly spent with Jesus.
10. Trust Helps You Peacefully Dwell with Him
In Isaiah 26:3, it states “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” God changes our life to be one where peace resides when we trust in Him. It doesn’t mean we won’t go through difficult things but even through it, we can receive His perfect peace when we give it over to Him. How much lighter will we become, when we surrender those things that are heavy on our hearts and trust Him to work it out? It won’t be just any kind of peace, but perfect peace.
The truth is to trust someone can be challenging at times but there is one person who is worthy of our trust. The One who died for our sins before we ever walked this earth. The One who willingly carried our sins and nailed them to the cross to ensure we can live in eternity with Him. The One who gifted us with His Spirit to help us navigate life on earth. He is the only One who deserves our trust.
If we can trust Him with eternity, we can trust Him with our day-to-day.
Will you trust Him today and receive all His benefits?
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Pamela D. McAdams
Originally published Wednesday, 25 August 2021.
