Why Trust in God?
Fully trusting in God began for us with a phone call that came in the middle of the night. My husband answered the call and then jumped out of bed. My heart seized in fear of what might be happening. He finally explains that it was the Sherriff, and he is with our son.
I was scared beyond measure.
That phone call was the one that we all, as parents, fear getting. It happened for us, and it started a long road of recognizing, admitting, and recovering from addiction for our son and us, as a family. It also started our road to Fully Trusting in God!
The Background
My husband and I grew up in loving Christian homes, for which I am forever grateful, and we both gave our lives to Christ at early ages. While I always remained steadfast in my beliefs, my commitment to God waivered as a young adult when I allowed the demands of a career and parenthood to take over. I effectively compartmentalized my faith, drawing upon it only when I felt the need.
That, my friend, was not what God intended!
He was, however, patiently waiting for me once I turned my eyes back to Him. In fact, He had never left. That was all on me!!
As we struggled to somehow navigate this new journey with addiction, we started turning back to God. In the beginning, though, we were really still relying more on our own ways of determining how to deal with the situation instead of fully trusting in God. I wanted to trust God, but it was hard to let go. It was hard to believe that those “what-ifs” that we were afraid could happen could in any way be “good” if I did not maintain control over the situation. I was terrified of losing my son, and I was hanging on for dear life.
Things kept getting worse and worse.
We were trusting God, but with conditions.
Releasing Control to God
It was late one night when we found that our son was missing and had left a suicide note. When I could not find him, fear gripped me. However, when I read that suicide note, I felt like my heart and soul had been ripped from my body. Never had I experienced anything like that night. Finally, my husband and I both broke and fell to our knees before God pleading for help to save our son.
We searched all the places we knew to search, calling out his name in anguish. We brought in family, friends, and the police. Through several small miracles and interventions that could have only been orchestrated through God, God brought him home the next day.
We had a long way to go, but we had finally reached the point where we saw that the only way to save our son was to turn it all over to God’s hands … our son’s life and ours!!!
What Fully Trusting God Did for Us
It was at that turning point that we began to see changes. These changes were not easy, and we had to fully trust God in what he was doing. But, when we did, God was faithful and made a way to save our son.
It all culminated in a gut-wrenching night that I thought would end with us having to kick our son out of our home. I could not breathe. How could THAT be the answer? Surely, God did not expect me to turn my back on my son!
We remained faithful to our commitment to trusting God, and through that faithfulness, God brought our son to the awareness that his only answer was to accept help and agree to professional rehab. The problem was, though, that we had no idea where a good rehab was or what to look for. We just knew we needed help fast while he was willing to act. God provided!!!
It was then that God presented us with a Christian-based rehab that totally changed our son’s life and ours!! The Christian Family Center became a cornerstone in our lives for the next 6 months as our son went through the residential program there, and the program is still an unwavering part of our spiritual lives today.
What You Can Do to Start Fully Trusting God
If you are facing something today that seems insurmountable, know that nothing is too big for our God. He only asks that you fully trust in Him.
The first thing you need to do in order to fully trust in God is to pray.
Cry Out to God – Ask God for help … from the bottom of your heart and soul. Acknowledge that He is the one, true God that has sovereign control over all things, especially those things we cannot see or understand.
God hears our prayers, and He responds to our cry for help.
- Psalm 145:18: “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.”
- Psalm 18:6: “In my distress I called out to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry reached his ears.”
- Jeremiah 33:3: “Call to me and I will answer you, and I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know.”
My previous post, TRUST – What does Fully Trusting in God Really Mean? (lifeathistable.com), references how prayer is key to trusting fully in God.
Ahead, we will continue to explore the following pillars of Fully Trusting God:
Praying without Ceasing
Putting God First
Staying in His Word
Praising Him
