Trust God

May 8, 2023 by Tricia Goyer 8 Comments

How to Trust God

She didn’t expect life to turn out like this. For the last few years she’d grown in her trust in and relationship with God. She’d been a strong support for her family. She’d thought she’d done everything right . . . but had God even noticed? Standing at her brother’s funeral she didn’t think so. Surely God could have stopped this tragedy. Didn’t Jesus care?

The “she” I’m talking about is Martha in the Bible. She’d seen Jesus heal, yet when her family needed his touch, Jesus was a no-show. Most of us know the biblical story about how Jesus finally showed up a few days later and called Lazarus from the grave. It was a healing they hadn’t expected, and I can guess that Martha went to sleep that night with a new sense of trust. Maybe Jesus knew what He was doing. Maybe she could truly trust Him after all.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this, Martha?” John 1:25-26

Jesus has asked me the same things many times—not with an audible voice, but in my spirit.

Do you believe? Do you trust me?

Do you trust I gave your child a strong will for a reason?

Do you trust this cross-country move is best for your family?

Do you trust I can do the work through you when you can’t imagine doing it yourself?

Do you trust this personal struggle of yours will be for your benefit—to cause you to turn to me, to need me, to surrender to me?

Do you trust?

In our lives, trust comes when we can’t see how God is going to bring any good out of the mess we’re in . . . and He does. Trust comes when our heart is breaking and Jesus shows up.

“Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I have always believed you are the Messiah, the Song of God, the one who has come into the world from God.” John 11:27

Martha believed in her mind. But after she embraced her warm, fleshly, laughing brother, trust moved to her heart.

In my life there was a moment when I was seventeen and pregnant, when Jesus showed up in my depressed state and gave me a glimmer of hope. Deep inside I knew that He would be there for me.

Many, many times over the years He’s shown up again in dark moments. As I watch Him transform rejection, pain, hopelessness, and worry into avenues to extend His love and grace to me and to others, my trust grows.

Learning to trust reminds me of the broken, hurting children we’ve invited into our home over the years. John and I are a constant presence guiding them, loving them, embracing them, discipling them, and sharing our lives with them – but trust didn’t happen in one day, one week, or even six months.

Trust has grown when our children discover layers of love, grace, and help in everyday challenges. When they mess up, feel stuck, or find themselves overwhelmed, they’ve discovered we’re still there. And we’ll continue to show them how to do life in a loving, healthy way.

The only way to learn to trust God is to face each dark situation knowing that Jesus WILL show up. It may not be when we expect, or how we expect, but we can expect Him.

And when Jesus shows up, He’s going to behave in a way that’s different that we believe He will. He’s not going to give us what we think we need, but what we really need. Mostly, He’s going to give us Himself.

“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God, “I’ll get you out of any trouble. I’ll give you the best of care if you’ll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times; I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party. I’ll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation.” Psalm 91:14-16 (The Message)

How have you learned to trust God in your life?

Additional Resources:

Want to learn more about soul care and having a Happy Heart? Heart Happy: Staying Centered in God’s Love through Chaotic Circumstances will inspire you to stay tethered to the Lover of your soul. By taking time to make your heart happy in the Lord, you’ll grow closer to the Heavenly Father, fostering true transformation from the inside out. Peace and joy can be yours—no matter what life dishes up.

Building up Your Faith When Your World is Falling Apart — Tricia chats with author Michele Cushatt about making sure your faith is strong when times are hard.

July 24, 2014 by Tricia Goyer 6 Comments

Just Be Available to God- Answer the Call

Tricia Goyer shares her three-part series “Just be Available.” If you have not read part one, make sure you do so HERE. Today Tricia shares the challenge to answer the call.

Just Be Available-

4 Truths That Make You Willing to Answer the Call.

Do you have trust issues? I do.

I mean who hasn’t been hurt? Abandoned? Left behind. There are those who say they love us, but then turn their backs on us.

And then there is God. He wants us to follow Him, to answer the call and be available to Him … but it’s not as if He speaks to us in a clear, audible voice, right? He wants us to trust Him, but we have so many questions and concerns.

When it comes to being available to follow God, how can we be sure that we’re not going to mess everything up?

How do we take steps forward when everything within us yells for us to stay in our “safe” zone?

After John and I moved to Montana in 1995, I really started seeking God. Once you get out of your comfort zone and see God work, it gets easier to open one’s heart to more that He’s going to do.

But when it came to asking more from me, God didn’t start with a list of demands. Instead, He started speaking to me about who He was–and showing me who I was in His eyes.

I thought I could hide from Jesus.

I thought that I could hide from Jesus, well, not really …

I’d been a pretty good person all my life, but there is one sin that reminded me I wasn’t just bad, I was horrible. When I was 15-years-old I found out I was pregnant. Scared, ashamed, and overwhelmed, I chose to have an abortion. And I’d carried that burden like a chain around my neck for ten years.

I stayed away from God, in my heart, because I felt unclean in His sight. Yes, I’d asked Him to forgive me. Yes, I gave my life to Him, but still, I felt that I’d done too much for Him to really love me. Because of Jesus, I knew God was giving me heaven, but I felt far from deserving it.

The truth that set me free and made me able to answer the call.

The breakthrough came when I started attending a Bible Study for women who’d had abortions. It was through that study I realized that no matter what I’d done in the past, God saw me as forgiven.

God saw me as a beautiful child. God had good plans for me. Plans to give me a hope and a future.

Through personal Bible study, God pointed out the flawed people that He used for His glory. For example, King David was a nobody before God made Him a somebody.

And even when David was a somebody, He committed sins that would make anybody cringe: adultery and murder just to name two. Yet God called David, “The apple of His eye” and “A man after His own heart.” Why? Because King David made himself available to God—to fight God’s enemies and lead God’s people, he was obedient to answer the call. To worship God no matter what anyone else thought.

Even at the end of his life, David gave God glory for every good thing that had happened to him.

In 2 Samuel 23:5, we read, “It is my family God has chosen! Yes, he has made an everlasting covenant with me. His agreement is eternal, final, sealed. He will constantly look after my safety and success.”

As I read that statement, I realized God’s promises weren’t just for David, but also for me!

Will you accept what God’s done for you?

Will you trust how God sees His agreement with you? You are His child: eternal, final, and sealed.

God just doesn’t want to put up with you. He wants to constantly look after your safety and success.

Sure, solid, enduring love.

But these plans aren’t for David alone. In Isaiah 55:3, The Message Translation, we read:

“Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. I’m making a lasting covenant commitment with you, the same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.”

We are only available to God when we trust Him completely. When we trust in His sure, solid, and enduring love.

We are only available to God when we trust Him completely. @TriciaGoyer

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We need to know that whatever He asks us to do, He has us covered. We must answer the call.

2 Corinthians 12:9 reads: “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.”

When we’re available to God, He helps us in our weakness.

And in order to trust Him, God wants us to believe 4 truths about who He is. These are 4 truths about HIM that will help you answer the call. He is:

1. A BIG God with BIG dreams for you.

2. A God who has made an agreement with you that is eternal, final, and sealed.

3. A God who will constantly look after your safety and success.

4. A God who will be strong in your weaknesses.

Can you trust Him like that? Can you answer the call?

Can you trust that whatever God asks you to do is the natural outflow from his sure, solid, and enduring love?

[Read Part 3 here.]

Prayer

God, give me the strength to let go and trust you fully. I want to understand fully that your grace is all I need and that your strength comes into its own in my weakness. I want to pay attention and listen to your life-giving, life-nourishing words.

August 5, 2013 by Tricia Goyer Leave a Comment

6 Ways to Grow Trust in God

How do you grow trust in God? Here are 6 ways to help you.

1. To start in learning how to grow trust in God, Let go of your idea of how things should happen. God’s ways are not our ways. And how He chooses to show up will be different—greater—than we can expect. Most of the time we will not get what we want. Instead, we’ll get a greater revelation of who Jesus is.

2. Turn to God in prayer, even when you doubt (especially when you doubt). Talk to Jesus as simply as Martha did. There’s no need for fancy words. Tell him that you feel you got the wrong end of the stick, but then tell Him that you know that He’s going to make all the difference.

Turn to God in prayer, even when you doubt (especially when you doubt). @TriciaGoyer

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3. Ask others to tell you their God-stories or read Christian biographies. Everyone goes through tests or trials, yet God never forsakes those who love Him. Hearing how God has shown up in someone else’s life can give you hope.

4. Thank God for what He’s already done. Be grateful for all that you have. You might not have everything you want, but God has taken care of you in numerous ways.

5. Reach out to another person. Ask God to show you who needs encouragement. Giving of yourself to others will put everything into perspective. Also, when you allow God’s love to pour through you, you’ll also get filled up in the process!

6. Strive to see things through His eternal perspective to grow trust in God. This world is not our home. The problems of this earth are not our fate. Even if life never is easy, God is good. More than that, He’s preparing a place for you, where you will be with Him for eternity

Life will never turn out how you expect and aren’t you thankful? As you walk through dark days, you won’t be walking through it alone . . . and you’ll discover Jesus Christ in new ways!

Interested in some similar posts to this one? Check out these further posts to help you grow trust in God:

Do You Question if God Remembers You?

How to Trust God

How to Know God’s Will

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Read full privacy policy here.

July 9, 2013 by Tricia Goyer 2 Comments

Do You Ever Question if God Remembers You?

Do you ever question if God remembers you? I know I have. Let’s talk about what our response should be when we feel this way.

There have been several times in my life when I have been at a place where I would question if God remembered me.

I remember being in second grade and sleeping in an attic bedroom. I felt alone, scared, and disconnected from my mom, stepfather, and my brother—my father’s biological child.

I remember being in sixth grade and feeling too chubby and awkward for anyone to like me. I wondered if I could ever capture a guy’s attention, a guy’s heart.

I remember being a senior in high school, but instead of being at school I was sitting at home depressed and pregnant. My boyfriend already had a new girlfriend. I wondered if there would ever me a man who would love me and my child.

And during each of those times I prayed.

I prayed to belong.
I prayed to be chosen.
I prayed to be worthy of a life-long commitment.

I’d forgotten about those times until just this morning when I read in Bible about Joseph locked in prison. Joseph hadn’t done anything wrong. God had even granted him the ability to interpret the dreams of the chief bake and cup-bearer. Joseph only asked for one thing: not to be forgotten. He simply wanted the man whom he helped to remember him and offer help in return. But it didn’t happen.

“Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought,” Genesis 4:23 (NLT).

Joseph may have felt forgotten for a time, but God remembered Him. God knew exactly where He was. God was with Him, and when the season of Joseph’s kingdom-service came, God helped the chief cup-bearer to remember him, too, and within days Joseph went from prison cell to palace seat.

Do you feel forgotten? Do you question if God remembers you? He does!

Have you prayed to belong? Have you prayed to be chosen? Have you prayed for a spouse, a child, or a long-desired dream? People may forget. You may have pushed your prayers to the back of your mind, but God remembers.

Have you prayed to belong? Have you prayed to be chosen? Have you prayed for a spouse, a child, or a long-desired dream?

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We have to trust God even when we feel forgotten:

Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
and the fields lie empty and barren;
even though the flocks die in the fields,
and the cattle barns are empty,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NLT)

And in your waiting, also have the faith to look ahead:

“The time will come,” says the Lord,
“when the grain and grapes will grow faster
than they can be harvested.
Then the terraced vineyards on the hills of Israel
will drip with sweet wine! Amos 9:13

Do you feel forgotten? God remembers.
Do you feel alone? God remembers.
Do you feel that someone who should be on your side isn’t giving you another thought? God is there.

Keep turning to Him. Keep praying. In the right moment God’s timing will come and His purpose will be displayed. You will enjoy a harvest of blessings in a way you couldn’t have experienced unless you’d walked through the silent days.

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Now how about you? When is a time that you felt forgotten? How did God show up?

~Tricia