Are you afraid to trust God? The more I understand myself and other Christians, the more I realize that this is our greatest handicap, the thing that keeps us from knowing the life and power that God intends for us to have. We’re truly afraid to trust God. It was my problem for many years and it caused me to make very foolish decisions.
It sounds terrible—to say we’re afraid to trust God. But my guess is, we don’t realize it—we don’t recognize that we are truly afraid to trust God. We can be deceived over and over. So, I want to examine what causes us to be so fearful of trusting God—and hopefully learn how to trust a very trustworthy God.
Like many other people, I spent many years “doing my own thing,” so to speak, by not being obedient to God’s voice in my life. Though God in his graciousness has turned those ashes into beauty, how I wish I had not wasted those precious years which are gone forever. As I look back with God’s perspective on that time, I now recognize that the underlying problem in those ten years was that I was afraid to trust God with control of my life. I was actually fearful of allowing the God of the universe to run my show. I shake my head now and wonder how I could have been so stupid for so long.
And I look around me and see many other Christians doing the same thing. Many of you are undoubtedly hanging on to the controls of your lives, afraid to trust God, as if to say that you know what’s better for you than God does, and you are more trustworthy than he is.
I’d like to try to help you see why you are afraid to trust God, in hopes that you too will let go of your own misguided thinking which is leading you toward disaster. And that you will come to know the joy and peace of a God-controlled life.
My particular fear of trusting God began when, as a single adult, I decided that the only thing that could make me happy was to find the perfect man to marry, and that the worst thing in the world would be to remain single forever. That, of course, was my first mistake. The worst thing in the world for a Christian is to be out of fellowship with God and to live a life of disobedience. But my thinking was being shaped by the culture and my own stubborn desires, not by God’s principles.
So, for almost ten years I retained control of my life and all my decisions. Then, through various events that God caused or allowed in my life, I finally came to the end of my rope. I remember well the sleepless night when I finally said, “God, I’ll do anything you ask of me, if only you will give me peace. I’ll even be single forever.” Hesitatingly I finally exercised a little bit of faith and told God I was willing to trust him. It was obvious that he couldn’t possibly do a worse job of running my life than I was doing!
That little bit of weak faith on my part was the beginning of learning to trust God. Through weeks and months of pain, as I watched my hopes and dreams die, he replaced those broken dreams with himself. And in the intervening years, I have learned to trust him more and more, and know the joy and peace of his fellowship. And I testify to you today that God is trustworthy. Furthermore, he’s infinitely better at running my life than I was! And interestingly, after more than forty years of singleness—and coming to be totally content with my singleness—God had another surprise for me and a few months ago I was married to a wonderful godly man.
With hindsight, I now ask myself why I did not trust him sooner. And the answer that comes back is that I did not really understand who God is, and therefore how trustworthy he is. Though I had been taught the basics of Christianity from my earliest days and had graduated from a Christian college, the knowledge of God had somehow not gone from my head to my heart.
I want to share with you the three basic truths about God that changed my life, as I began to really understand them. They are simple beyond belief. Undoubtedly, most of you will nod your head in agreement as you hear them. But if you truly believe them, your life has to change, and those fears of trusting God have to go.
Learning to trust God begins by reminding ourselves of his character and power, and then asking ourselves if we really believe God is who he says he is. Here are just a few verses that describe the nature of God:
Isaiah 44:6-8 (NASB) tells us our God is the only God.
“Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and the last, and there is no other God besides Me.'”
Verse 24 tells us that He is God the Creator:
“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb: ‘I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading out the earth all alone.'”
Our God is all powerful and does what he pleases. Psalm 135:5-6 says,
“I know that the Lord is great. And that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.”
He is holy and He is perfect. He does not make mistakes.
“One called out to another and said, `Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory’” (Isaiah 6:3).
Either this God we claim to serve is as these verses describe him or he is not. Do you really believe he is the only God, the Creator, all powerful, and perfect? I recognize how basic that is, but that is step one in coming to a place where you can really trust him without fear.
If we are convinced that God’s character, power and personality are as described, the next important issue is to understand how this same God feels about us. After all, we are but specks in a great mass of humanity and in a vast universe. Do we make any difference to God? Again, Scripture gives us an answer.
Isaiah 40:27-28 says
“Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, `My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God?’ Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable.'”
These verses tell us that in spite of all the people who live or ever have lived or will live, God does not lose track of you and me!
Matthew 10:30 tells us
“the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Every time we brush our hair or clean the hair from our bathroom sink, we can be reminded that God has just recomputed all those lost hairs—and he is keeping a running total at all times! Who else would care how many hairs are on our heads? This gives us some idea of how much God cares for us.
Matthew 10 also tells us that worthless, colorless sparrows—those plentiful, common birds we see all the time—are under the care of God. He knows each one that falls to the ground. Can we not believe that if God cares so much about sparrows, he cares much more about us?
I love Psalm 139, which tells us that God cares intimately for each of us:
“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.”
God is interested and involved in each of our lives—the little things and the big things. He’s never too busy or preoccupied; our problems are never too insignificant for him. He knows us better than we know ourselves.
These Scriptures I’ve quoted—as well as many others—clearly state that the God we worship, the one and only God, the eternal God, the God of all power, wisdom and holiness, this very God really cares about you and me with a care and concern unsurpassed by any person in the world.
Then, if we accept those basic truths, they have to lead us to this third and most important conclusion: God’s plans for us are always superior to any other plans. If you believe God is God and he cares for you, then you cannot logically deny this truth: God is smarter than you are at running your life. Therefore, you can trust him. Not only can you trust him, but it is the only logical thing to do. Nothing else makes any sense.
Just look at what the Scriptures tell us about God’s intentions toward us:
Psalm 84:11:
“No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”
Ephesians 3:20:
“Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”
Psalm 34:9-10:
“For to those who fear him, there is no want. . . . But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.”
The irrefutable, logical conclusion is clear. There simply can be no middle ground. If we believe with our hearts, not just our heads, that God is God, eternal, all powerful, holy and perfect, and that this very God cares for us more than any earthly being could ever care, and that his plans for our lives are far better than anything we could maneuver on our own, there can be no fear on our part to trust him. He can be nothing but trustworthy. He will lead us into the best paths. To fail to relinquish the control of our lives to him would be foolhardy and disastrous.
If this is so simple and so logical, why are so many Christians still refusing to really trust God, as I did for many years? I think it’s because we become victims of conflicting messages from our three enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world tells us to “do our own thing,” “find ourselves,” “do what feels good,” “go for it!” The flesh says to us, “You deserve happiness and you have a right to run your life the way you want to.” The devil says, “If you trust God, you surely will be led into some terrible life.”
We listen to these voices, and we forsake consistent study of God’s Word and prayer, and fear takes over. We become convinced that totally trusting God is too risky. Without realizing what we are doing, our actions say that we believe we can trust ourselves better than we can trust God.
I am beginning to realize what arrogance it is on my part to refuse to trust God. To fail to trust him at every turn in my life is a grave and serious sin. It is pride at its very worse.
Comprehending how totally trustworthy God is leads us to yield to his total Lordship in our lives. And we learn to yield more and more as we get to know him better. And this takes the monkey off our backs! It gives us a marvelous freedom, because we are no longer responsible for managing our own destinies. Someone far more qualified is now in charge—the God of all the ages—and we can be absolutely sure that his plans will be the best thing for us.
Whatever the fear that is keeping you from trusting him, it is unfounded and unreasonable, and it is a trick of Satan to keep you from the joy and peace of a trusting, yielded life. Let go of those fears today, confess your sin of unbelief, get into God’s Word daily, and you, too, can be set free from your fear of trusting God.
Could I pray with you now: “Father, for these dear people listening who have been fearful of trusting you completely, I pray the blinders will fall from their eyes even now and they shall see the foolishness of that fear. I pray they will be set free to trust you, realizing that you are all powerful, you always have only our best interests at heart, and you are totally trustworthy. Set them free from this irrational fear of trusting you, so that their lives may bring glory to your name. We ask this in the name of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.”