Do We Truly Trust God?

I have decided to post entries similar to what I am journaling about, or random quotes of encouragement so that people can see how God is working in my life, and maybe think about how God is working in yours.

So I've been reading a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  I decided to write my thoughts on paticular parts that stuck out to me, or may have convicted me.

The section of the book I am reading is called Justified Stress.  He is talking about his particular problems and mentions that sometimes he feels like he has the right to disobey God's command to always rejoice because of the particular hardships that he is facing at the moment.  He recognizes his fault, and later says this:

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives.

Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control."

When I read this, I realized that my view of how much I "trust" God has been clouded.  I always thought I trusted Him, and its so easy to say it.  But my life certainly does not show it.  Like the passage says, worrying and stressing about things shows that we do not completely trust God.  If we did, why would we have to worry about our lives?  We know God is omnipotent and has a plan for our lives, so what is there to worry about if we fully trust God with our lives?  I think many of us, certainly including myself, are scared and insecure about the future.  At any given moment, anything can happen to completely change our lives.  To me, this is horrifying, and thought of things not going according to my plan really scares me.  But God has His own plans for us.  We need to trust God that everything He is doing in our lives is for the best. Its like Carrie Underwood's song "Jesus Take the Wheel."  We need to ask god to "take the wheel," not "help us steer."  This means that we have to completely trust God with our lives and the direction we're going, rather than asking Him to help us fulfill our own plans and take the path that WE want to take. 

Matthew 10: 38-39

³⁸ If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. ³⁹ If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

We need to give up our lives to Him, rather than clinging onto our lives and living in fear, which shows a lack of trust.  If we believe that there is something so much better than this life, why are we so determined to hold on with everything that we have instead of trusting God and His plan?  One possibility is that we don't really believe or trust God and His plan.  Of course we can easily say we do to everyone around us and even to ourselves, but its definitely harder when we are faced with a circumstance in which God calls us to take a leap of faith.

So instead of being worried and stressed out all the time, we need to live confidently knowing that God has our back, and is leading us down the right path.  

Our lives are an embodiment of what our hearts feel.  If we truly trust Him, let our lives show it.

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"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." Deut. 6.