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By Joyce Meyer
For a long time, there was so much turmoil in my life. It really saddens me to think about all the years I wasted living this way. I was a Christian and went to church, but I spent a lot of time being upset about things I couldn’t do anything about, experienced feelings of guilt and condemnation much of the time, had no peace and just didn’t enjoy life.
Thankfully, I’ve had a radical transformation. I’ve developed the habit of trusting God, and now life is really worth living.
What It Means to Trust God
Trusting God is simply believing that He loves you, He’s good, He has the power to help you, He wants to help you, and He will help you. Christians are called believers, but many times, we are more like unbelieving believers. We trust our friends, the bank, the stock market or the government more than we trust God and His Word.
In John 15:5, Jesus says that apart from Him, we can do nothing. We need to lean on Him for help with everything in our lives. Sadly, a lot of people go to church, hear what they should do and then go home and try to do it on their own. They usually end up desperately telling God how hard they’re trying to do what they need to do, and they’re leaving Him out!
God wants us to put Him first in our lives. He wants us to put our confidence and trust in Him, all the time, in everything.
Learning to Trust God, Not Myself
I used to have a habit of trusting myself. I formed this habit through years of trusting people, getting hurt and finding out I couldn’t trust them. This caused me to believe, If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. If you don’t ask anybody for anything or open your heart to them, they can’t hurt you.But this mindset just kept me from trusting God. It was a bad habit I had to break.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths (NKJV). When you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Spirit of God comes to live inside you. This is one of the greatest blessings of salvation: You don’t have to go through someone else to get to God. He dwells in your heart and you can learn to hear His voice.
The best way to hear from God and know how He wants you to live is to know what the Bible, His Word, says. God’s Word gives us wisdom. And as we study the Bible, our mind is renewed (see Romans 12:2), so we no longer just think the way the world thinks – we can think the way God thinks!
The Good Habit That Really Makes the Difference
We have to habitually study the Word to really have confidence in God and know we can hear Him. The Bible is food for our spirit. As we spend time reading and meditating on Scripture, we develop a strong spirit. Then we can hear God speaking to our heart – where He dwells in us – and make decisions based upon what He’s leading us to do, not just what we may think, feel or want.
When you go beyond what you want, what you think and what you feel and do what the Word and the Spirit of God tell you to do, you are able to develop good habits and break bad ones. You come to a place where the blessings of God – His righteousness, peace and joy – overflow in your life.
Life is simple and peaceful when we come to God like little children and say, “God, I don’t want to live on my own. I want to trust You. When I don’t know what to do, I’ll trust You. When I don’t understand why, I’ll trust You. I’ll do my part with Your help, and when I’m done, I’ll trust You to do the rest.
Source: Joyce Meyer ministries
