Why you don't trust God

The reason you do not trust God is because your experience does not match your expectation of Gods stewardship over your life. Meaning, that you have an expectation that God will insulate you from the troubles of this world to a certain degree, and when this doesn't happen, you feel betrayed by God and lose trust in Him. Therefore you could say that your love for God is conditioned upon an expectation that God will never cross certain boundaries with you.

The problem with this expectation is that it is based upon an inaccurate understanding of who God is, and how He operates. The God of the bible does not ask for but demands that your love for Him be completely unconditional at all times:

Luke 10:27

He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind';

You will notice that there are no conditions listed there. It is a command to love the Lord thy God with all that you are, all the time, regardless of what is happening to you. God wants your love when you feel the least like giving it to Him. Especially, then.

The God of the bible demands your obedience, unto death:

2 Corinthians 1:9

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

Luke 21:16-19

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.

But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives

Mark 8:35

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

So, what God says is that we belong to Him, that we have been purchased by the blood of His Son and do not belong to ourselves any longer. That is the reality, so when you get angry at God for something that happened to you, remember what the scripture says:

Romans 8:17

Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory

We share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. We have been adopted into the family of God as sons and daughters because of, and only because of, what Jesus did on the cross. He, Almighty God, suffered a criminals death on the cross. Why should we expect we'll have it any easier? The answer is that we shouldn't, and He told us we shouldn't, many times.

Most of us live in western countries where lukewarm, cultural Christianity is the norm. People get offended continually over petty trivialities, and minor hiccups in their lives. In countries like North Korea and Eritrea there is no such thing as lukewarm Christians. When you proclaim Jesus Christ in those countries, your life is on the line. Over 150k people died martyrs deaths last year in countries like these. If someone can love God while being tortured to death, why can't you love God when some comparatively minor problem is happening to you? It's because you haven't surrendered your whole heart to God, and that even includes your understanding:

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

Always trust Him first, and wait on the Lord. He may not answer your question, but He will comfort you if you let Him. You lose on so much more, including the solution to the problem, when you refuse to trust Him.

God demands you be willing to give up your possessions, your relationships, your house, your creature comforts, your financial security, even your very life, when you are serving Him. He isn't interested in leftovers; He wants all of you, and He wants you to love Him more than anything else. If you do not trust God, it is because your expectation doesn't match the reality of who God is, or what He expects of you. It is because you still want it your way, instead of His way.

tigger45 said:

I agree. It made me realize God wants from us what we want from Him. {Unconditional love.}

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Amen. That's essentially it, and what we have to remember what love to God is:

1 John 5:3

This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome

If believe that God is who the scripture says He is, we will not let situations diminish our love for Him. The work that Jesus did on the cross is finished, meaning that God has already conclusively demonstrated His great love to us. Why should what happens in the world cause us to doubt His love when we know that our redemption was purchased in His Sons blood? How tragic that our love should fail as if this somehow wasn't sufficient proof of His heart for us, His children? We are the living testimonies of His love, and we have to shine that light for all to see. We must put doubt and fear behind us, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ and share His love so that others may see the reality of who God is.

Intheboat said:

OR it can be the devil has got at us, he keeps trying to * chip away * and sometimes we weaken and entertain his doubts or sullying of the lovely things God has revealed to us. Also the Bible is a very dense book with much to learn and implement and with verses that sometimes seem to contradict so, to fall out of Faith a bit is something we can have happen over a long Christian Walk. So long as we reconnect I guess.

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The devil is always working to create a credibility gap between our experience and what scripture says about who God is. God says trust in Him with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. The devil says, you can't trust God or His word, because look at your situation! Either God isn't paying attention or He doesn't care. Gods word says that He does know our pain, and that He shared in it at Calvary. It tells us that God has a plan, to prosper us and not to harm us. We know that He makes *all things* (yes even the bad things) work out for good for those who love Him. Therefore, we wait on the Lord, and we live by faith and not by sight. When the devil tells us to look somewhere, anywhere else, we stand firm and keep our eyes on Jesus.

Intheboat said:

Yes I think of the verse about His thoughts and ways not being ours and feel a bit in awe but I KNOW he cares so kindly and compassioantely about my frettings and worries and wants to lead me into rest.


Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills

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Corrie Ten Boom once said that there is nothing too big for His power, and nothing too small for His love. God cares even about the little things in our lives. He will allow us to be shaken, though, for the testing of our faith:

1Pe 1:6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
1Pe 1:7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1Pe 1:8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Trials will come, but when we lift our hands to praise Him even in dark circumstances, it demonstrates His glory to all creation. His holy angels witness the majesty of God when His children return His love even when the whole world is against them, and the devil sees that all of his works are worthless before the greatness of God.

Love isn't something that you turn off and on. Have you ever had a great love in your life? Someone or something you just couldn't stop thinking about? Someone who made your heart flutter when they were near? You couldn't just turn that off, could you? No, it was a constant, and that is what God desires. He desires our constant love towards Him, and He wants us to rest on His promises, and know they are all 100 percent true. He wants to have a fervent hunger, an overwhelming desire, to be near Him:

Psalm 42:1

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

Natalie101 said:

God works in the big picture most times and its hard just waiting... or accepting that this is the plan for you. That's my struggle.

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It can be hard to wait, but what I've found is that in the meantime, there are many things God wants each of us to do. People He wants us to talk to, projects He wants us to start, places He wants us to donate our time, etc. Often, we get frustrated in waiting and neglect these things, but what needs to be realized that often it is through these things that God opens doors in our lives. You might be waiting on God, but in reality God is waiting on you (to do what He told you to do).

Another thing to realize is that the world isn't the way God intended it to be. He created it without any sin, or death, or calamity. It's because man turned against Him the world is the way it is. It's a less than ideal circumstance, so this is the real reason why there can be so much frustration in our lives. God doesn't promise it will be easy, or that we'll always get what we want, but He does promise we will get what we need, and that He will always be there. He promises to give us strength and comfort in every situation. Thank God that He does have a plan, because I don't know about you, but when I was running my life I wasn't doing a very good job of it. What we need to do is resign as CEO and hand God the keys and say, where ever you go, I will follow you.