Trusting God

Why is it so hard to trust God?

I think for me, I've had so much hurt in life that I've come to expect it. It's easy when I read the Bible to believe that promises written about were specific to a certain person or group of people at a certain time in history... and that He couldn't possibly mean those promises for me today.

I think it's harder to trust God too when the prayers that have meant the most to me in this life were not answered. I listen to sermons on faith and become all the more discouraged that perhaps my prayers were not answered because I lack enough faith, but when I try to tangibly understand faith in terms of how to have more, faith seems like a very philosophical subject and I haven't the faintest idea how to acquire more faith. And so I become discouraged and give up trying, thus feeling like God must be very disappointed in me.

But perhaps the truth is, I must trust God even through unanswered prayers, because God knows more than I do and there is a bigger plan at work. I suppose Job must have really struggled to trust God in all that he went through, and yet we see God's ultimate purpose for Job's life that all the struggles, all the heartaches, all the sickness, all the brokenness... all of it led to more blessings on Job's life than he could have ever thought possible, especially when he was in the midst of darkness.

So perhaps when all around me seems dark, when the struggle is great and the heartache even greater and all I can do is cry out, "Where are you, God?!" Perhaps I need just be still and trust that God will eventually come through and the blessings on my life for patiently waiting and trusting that He will come through will be greater than I can believe or imagine.

Trusting God is not easy. It takes patience and discipline and faith and belief that He is good, He is all powerful, and He loves me.