It really should be easier to trust God. But we are silly creatures and so trusting the Almighty is difficult. Of course if he only asked us to do tiny things then it wouldn’t be as tough. But God doesn’t make small promises—he makes big promises that blow our minds and require big trust.
Richard Baxter in his Christian Directory gives 15 directions for developing a “quieting and comforting trust in God”. I’ve modernized them a bit to make them more helpful to you:
- Meditate on the greatness of God, and remember that “all things that we can fear are nothing, and can do nothing, but by his command, and motion, or permission”.
- Labor to really know the promises of God. Confident in what He has actually promised and not setting anchor on the things He has not promised.
- Don’t give in to the lies of the tempter who will convince you to cast your eyes on your guilt instead of on the sufficiency of the Savior.
- Remember the grounds of confidence and quietness God has already given you.
- Consider the greatness of the sin of distrust.
- You will place your trust somewhere, if you place it in something/someone other than God beware, for he might say “Let them in whom you’ve trusted help you.”
- Creatures will fail you. God never will.
- Look to his care for something as insignificant as a sparrow. Do you really think you need to “fear his absence, disregard, forgetfulness, or insufficiency”?
- Compare God to your best friend. Now think about how much you trust him/her. How much more boldly should you trust the Almighty who is our best friend?
- It’s normal to be unsettled, to have fear, sorrow, etc. Use these as opportunities to cast all your cares upon the Lord.
- Remember that distrust is a pregnant, multiplying sin, and will carry you into all sorts of other sins.
- Don’t let distrusting thoughts gain a foothold in your mind, but cast them out immediately.
- When commands alone won’t prevail, then rebuke, chide, and preach to your unbelieving heart. Reason it out of such distrust.
- Don’t confuse the words of Satan or your own unbelieving heart with the sayings of God.
- Remember that there is nothing gained by struggling against the will of God, and nothing is lost by a quiet submission to it.
I love how even some 400 years ago, pastors were encouraging their people to preach the gospel to themselves. That is essentially what Baxter is saying here. Meditate on God. Think about yourself as you relate to Him. And then preach the gospel to yourself.
I feel like a total dolt these days. A little over a year ago, we had two or three impossible/frustrating/anger-inducing situations in our lives. I think I wrote about one of them here. I found myself wondering why God had forgotten me, was angry at me, was picking on me, etc. Today, those things have worked out – better than I could have imagined and in ways that I couldn’t have imagined, nor could have worked out on my own. I look back and feel stupid that I didn’t trust God then. Now I can see how foolish I was.… Read more »
Same here, Dave. When I look back upon all that the Lord has done it pains me to admit that I’m a bit too much like the grumbling Israelites in the wilderness, having seen the parting of the Red Sea and yet having a grumbling and untrusting heart.
My test case for validating advice on trusting God is Job…
Greg Harvey,
You are right. I have been meditating on the story of Job lately. It is my opinion that God had the Book of Job placed in the Canon because He knows our weak constitutions so well (perfectly and completely) and He gave us the story of Job to help us in the journey.
I have been going through some personal struggles of late and the biblical story of Job has been a great resource to help me stay the course.
BTW, this is a good post and I thank Mike Leake for writing it.
My test case for validating trust in God in times of despair, when I experienced the loss of my family, for eample, was and is the cross of Christ.
Mike Leake,
Would you elaborate on your number 1, especially about, “all things we can fear are nothing, and can do nothing, but by his command, or motion, and permission.”
Your number 1 is extremely hard for me, because our worst nightmare can come true no matter how close we are to God.
If I had my choice of spending eternity in hell or losing a child, I would take hell every time.
Maybe, I’m misunderstanding what you mean by your number one. I do know those nothings can turn to reality in a second. This is why I fear.