What is Trust in God?

Matthew 6, I believe, contains the clearest synopsis of what it means to trust in God:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:25-34).



Note how this verse is prefaced by the words,

“No one can serve two masters…” (Matthew 6:24a).

When we do not trust God for present direction and future outcomes, I believe we serve the master of self: our wanting to be in control so as to ward off disappointment, frustration, failure or missing out.

This isn’t to say we don’t take a thoughtful approach to interactions and decisions. In fact, it is a more thoughtful approach, I would submit, to trust God than it is to just plunge ahead out of our own personal (or someone else’s) anxiety, impatience, excitement, fear or impulsiveness.

The Matthew verse says to trust God first, and only then…

This gets to the crux of it: our motivations.

Because if we aren’t trusting God, we are automatically trusting something else, and that something else is our motivations.

We live in the default mode of always putting our trust and faith in something or someone, be it ourselves, our friends and family, our boss or co-workers, our government, or God.

To trust parts of each of those, here and there, or to be fair-weather trusters—trusting God when things go well but taking the reigns when things get dramatic—we end up all over the map: one step forward, perhaps initially, then one or many steps back eventually.

It is true God gives us wisdom, but we often interpret that to mean,

“Look, I’ve been a mature Christian for many years now, and have advised other people and know my Bible well. I’ve overcome many sin tendencies and have mastered the art of forgiveness and loving my neighbor. I’m ‘good to go.’ I am able, in the experience and knowledge God has given me, to make these decisions on my own, certainly understanding all the while that ‘God is in control.’”

But that is not fully trusting in God, and it is a very easy mistake to make, especially for those who are used to, or in a ministry position of, providing Godly counsel on a regular basis to others.

Never forget that we all need God's counsel, all the time. No-one ever graduates from heart, mind and body reliance on God’s perspective and leading.

The Matthew verse also talks about being consternated.

“Do not worry,” it says.

Worry is the clearest indication that we have not truly put ourselves in God’s trust. And we put ourselves in God’s trust through being strong in Him; not vulnerable to our inner emotions.

This brings us to humility: submitting ourselves to God to take every thought captive unto Him (2 Corinthians 10:5), waiting on His insight, and only then going forward in the peace of all He has shown us.

This will include His warnings and corrections of wrong motivations so that we can then re-evaluate and re-consider the decision, problem or situation in front of us.

So trust in God is not “let go and let God.”

Trusting in God is active: an alignment in what's driving us so that whatever we do and say is now brought under His will, assuring us that we can then be at peace with any outcome.

This is what creates Godly confidence that in turn breeds patience and joy, whether our questions are answered and problems resolved quickly, or not.

Trust in God takes the intentional approach that we will give everything to Him, not just first, but entirely, throughout.

We will be active in continuing to live out our faith as called, staying the course of Christ in us, even when facing difficult circumstances.

As we trust God in Christ Jesus, in full awareness of His care, we can smile in satisfaction that He is, indeed, Lord of our life, and we are beyond blessed to have Him be so.



copyright Barb Harwood