In this post I am going to address trusting God in every season of our lives including when we are facing difficult situations, change, trauma, loss, broken relationships, hurt, when life doesn’t look like we thought it would, etc.

Trusting Him includes trusting His purpose, timing, plan, callings, gifts, and trusting Him with our families.

Abraham is a great example of what trust can look like when facing difficult situations. In Genesis chapter 12 God told Abraham to uproot his life and go where God told him to go without having the full plan or even clear vision of what it was going to look like. Abraham trusted God and he started out on the journey.

And then we get to Genesis chapter 16 where Abraham decides to take matters into his own hands. God told him He was going to use his seed (descendants), bless them, and they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky, but it was not happening how or as fast as Abraham thought it was going to happen. He and his wife were getting older and yet they had no children. He and Sarah decided for him to have a child with Sarah’s servant, but that was never God’s plan. Abraham trusted God’s plan, but not His timing. Instead, he took matters into his own hands.

We can be the exact same way in our lives. We can trust God during some situations and not others. Our trust can wax and wane, but I want to talk about how to grow our trust to the point it does not falter.  

Practical Tips for Trusting God Through All Circumstances

Let go of the need to understand and have all our questions answered. There are things we will never understand this side of heaven and we just have to let them go. God’s ways are higher than ours and we will never fully understand Him. Part of trusting Him is not having to know why things happen the way they do. We need to walk by faith and not by sight.

Choose to trust Him. Trust it is a choice and not a feeling. Sometimes we have to choose trust daily or even several times a day. Sometimes we just need to verbally say, “God I choose to trust You.”

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart
And do not rely on your own insight or understanding.

Create a firm foundation in knowing God personally and His character. This is a must. The way to know Him and His character is through a personal relationship with Him and reading His Word. Once you really know Him refuse to be swayed from that knowledge.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever.

Don’t allow your circumstance to dictate to you who God is because they do not change Him or His character. We have never been promised an easy life and when hard times hit we easily fall for the lies that say we cannot trust God because life has been hard.

Pray about your situation and then leave it in His hands. Refuse to allow it to go around and around in your mind. Do not try to analyze it and do not get fixated on it. Replace those intrusive thoughts with prayer (not anxious prayers), activities, reading the Bible, exercise etc.

Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God. And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].

Cultivate and stir up your faith, hope, and trust. Do a topical Bible study on faith and hope. I love to use this website: https://www.openbible.info/topics/ It is a topical website where you can type in any topic and it will bring up a lot of scriptures related to that topic. Below is a list of people in the Bible that really stirs my faith every time I read about them.

David and Goliath 1 Samuel 17-David trusted God.

Woman with Sickness for 12 years Mark 5:25-34-She knew Jesus could heal her.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego: Daniel 3

Paul and Silas: Acts 16:16-40 They were praising while being in prison after being beaten.

Daniel in the Lions Den: Daniel 6

Esther

Repent for any mistrust of God and lack of faith in Him.

Enter into times of praise and worship no matter how hard the situation gets or how you feel. Offer thanksgiving even when you do not feel like it—especially then. Offer a sacrifice of praise no matter what you are facing or what you feel.

Speak Scripture over your life. It is so powerful when we learn to use the Word of God to speak over our lives, in prayer, and in warfare against the enemy. His Word is very powerful!

Speak LifeProverbs 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Get your thought life under submission and keep it there.

Philippians 4:8 ^“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

Pull down every single lofty thought.

Anything that goes against trust, faith, hope-pull it down and replace it

2 Corinthians 10:5 ^“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”

Stay persistent and refuse to give up.

In every situation look for ways to learn and grown in your relationship with God. Not matter what you are facing don’t shut Him out. Run to God and not from Him.

Rest in His love. Always remember He loves you! He is drawing you to Him. The enemy drives you away, but God draws you near. He is close to the broken hearted.

Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Surrender every area of your life to Him fully. Hold nothing back from Him.  

Crucify you flesh. This is a daily process and we can never stop or ignore how important it is. When we crucify our flesh we begin to look more like Jesus and less like the world. We should never be to the point where the world must squint to see the differences between us and them. We should stand out as different. We should look, sound, react, love, and behave differently.

Actively killing our flesh means we are no longer driven by our fleshy desires that are in direct opposition to God, but instead we walk by the Spirit and choose to allow the fruit of the Spirit to flow though our actions, thoughts, and choices.  It includes habitually putting the sinful deeds of the body to death and not allowing the flesh to drive our actions, behaviors, and choices.

Romans 8:13 for if you are living according to the [impulses of the] flesh, you are going to die. But if [you are living] by the [power of the Holy] Spirit you are habitually putting to death the sinful deeds of the body, you will [really] live forever.

Galatians 5:24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature together with its passions and appetites

How to Crucify the Flesh:

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].

Submitting your will to God’s in every single area is key to crucifying the flesh.

Be ready to say yes to anything He ask of us—no matter the cost.

Walk in humility.

Discipline is the biggest tool for crucifying our flesh. We must disciple our actions, words, thoughts, and reactions to those around us. We really do choose what comes out of our mouths and we must choose to speak love and life, not anger, hate, and death.

Discipline yourself to turn away from sin and break sinful patterns.

Fasting is a great way to crucify the flesh.

Understand our identity comes from God, and God alone. We must walk in the identity He has given us.

Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk habitually in the [Holy] Spirit [seek Him and be responsive to His guidance], and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the sinful nature [which responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts].

Allow God to renew your mind. Submit and seek His renewal.

Don’t be led by your emotions. Do not ignore or suppress the negative feelings. Everything I am suggesting is the opposite. When they come deal with them head on, every single time. Do not push them to the side, instead use the tools you are learning to really address them, but do not be led by them. Don’t let them make the decisions for your life.  

Use the weapons of spiritual warfare.

There will be spiritual attacks, but according to the Bible no weapon formed against you shall prosper. The Word of God never said there will not be attacks or weapons formed, but it does say they will not prosper. We have the ability, through Jesus, to thwart every single attack.

We have authority through Jesus. We have authority over the attacks of the enemy through Jesus.

Luke 10:19 Listen carefully: I have given you authority [that you now possess] to tread on serpents and scorpions, and [the ability to exercise authority] over all the power of the enemy (Satan); and nothing will [in any way] harm you.

Seek deliverance ministry (closing doors to demons, casting them out in the name of Jesus, and maintaining your freedom) if needed.

Make sure to forgive others and yourself. Any amount of unforgiveness can lead to bondage.  

Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Refocus when your eyes get off Him. Keep your eyes on Him and eternity.  We must stay kingdom focused and not allow discouragement to pull our focus away from God.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].

Be on guard against distractions. We cannot let the cares of life, or even doing work for Him, distract us from taking the time to sit at His feet. That time is vital to our walk with Him. We must learn to be silent/still in His presence and wait on Him. Sometimes it takes a while just sitting quietly in His presence before He begins to speak. We cannot get in a hurry, and we must still our minds to focus on Him. We must shut out the noise and cares of life and make Him our top priority.

Luke 10:39-42 She had a sister named Mary, who seated herself at the Lord’s feet and was continually listening to His teaching. But Martha was very busy and distracted with all of her serving responsibilities; and she approached Him and said, “Lord, is it of no concern to You that my sister has left me to do the serving alone? Tell her to help me and do her part.” But the Lord replied to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered and anxious about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part [that which is to her advantage], which will not be taken away from her.”

Learn to be still in His presence.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know (recognize, understand) that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations! I will be exalted in the earth.”

Listen for His voice and what He wants to speak into your life. His Word says His sheep hear and know His voice. John 10:27. We must learn to recognize His voice.

Read and meditate on His Word. As you are reading ask Him for revelation, conviction, and for His Word to change you to look more like Him.  

Break out of the victimhood mentality if that is an issue you struggle with.

Symptoms of Victimhood Mentality:

You feel like life just happens to you and you have no control. You feel helpless, unheard, and unseen.

You go from one crisis to the next.

You identify as a victim. It is always on your mind, you spend a lot of time thinking about the trauma, you focus on the effects of the trauma in your life, and you constantly look for other connections based on those traumas, illnesses, or other negative life experiences.

You join a ton of online groups that focus on the trauma, you talk about it all the time, you think about it all the time, and you became fixated on it. It is what you post about all the time, and it takes more of your focus than anything else in your life.

When you hear the stories of things others go through your go to reaction is to one up them and you tell yourself how much worse your situation was.

You feel like no one else gets it and if they really knew what all you have been through, they would understand why you are stuck there. You also justify your negative behaviors to God, others, and yourself. You feel like you get a free pass for the negative behaviors because of everything you have been through.

You feel like life will never change, and you will never get over the effects of the trauma. You think it is impossible to fully heal.

Self-pity is a huge hallmark of a victimhood mentality.

Breaking the Victimhood Mentality:

Verbally break Identity and agreement with it. 

Stop identifying yourself as a victim.

The situations happened to you, but it is not who you are. You are not broken or damaged. You are a new creation in Jesus Christ. The trauma does not get to dictate who you are.

Stop focusing on the past and do not let it dominate your life.

Give zero entertainment to the negative voices in your head. Do not focus on them, analyze them, or sit with them even for a moment. Kick them out in the name of Jesus. 

Create your identity around who God says you are and peel off the identity of being a victim.

Close any doors to the enemy the abuse/trauma created.

Kick out any demons that are attached to your life through deliverance.

Take authority over any demons that are trying to use the abuse/trauma to torment you.

Process the trauma with Jesus. Sit at His feet with the pain, ask Him to uproot it and replace it with His truth, love, and healing.

Change the way you talk about yourself. We have the power of life and death in our words. Speak life over yourself: “I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ, I have the mind of Christ, I am a new creation in Him, etc.”

If you continue to speak words about being a victim you will continue to be a victim, but if you speak words about being an overcomer you will be an over comer. Your feelings may take some time to catch up to the truth, but don’t stop speaking truth over your life.

You are not stuck in life. You have choices. You may not like the consequences of the choices, but you still have them. You must change your perspective. Sometimes we need to get out of ourselves and out of our heads and stop focusing on ourselves, what we are going through, how bad we have it, and switch our focus to what is going right in our lives, on God, His Word, and His plan for our lives.

Ask God who you are, who He created you to be, what plans He has for you, and how He sees you.

Break Negative Thoughts and Patterns Related to the Trauma: We often end up with very negative feelings, patterns, and behaviors because of the abuse. It is helpful to first recognize those negative areas and then sit with the Lord. Ask Him to take you to the root cause of the attitude, feeling, or behavior. Once He shows you the root cause ask Him to remove the root and replace it with His healing, peace, and love. Once He brings His healing it is then up to you to break the negative pattern. Once He heals the area do not let the enemy lie to you and say it is not healed. Do not let the enemy use the past pain, that is now healed, to beat you up. Command the demons to be silent in the name of Jesus. Do not allow the trauma to play over and over in your head, command them to stop in the name of Jesus.

Change Perspective and Focus: You must break the pattern of seeing through the lens of the trauma because that can create false realities.

Colossians 3:2 Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value].

We must be kingdom focused, our minds are our territory and we have the authority to dictate what goes on in our mind. We are responsible for our thought life and our responses to the storms of life.

Trust His purpose for your life. He has plans and a purpose for you. Seek His purpose and walk in total surrender to Him.

1 Corinthians 6:20 You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.

Romans 12:1Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship.

Daily walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 “If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well.”

Learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and ask for His leading, teaching, correction, and guidance. We should verbally welcome Him into our lives daily. We can and should also ask Him to warn us when we are near deception and or sin. He wants to lead us in all truth, and we should be eager to follow.

John 14:25-26 ²⁵ “I have told you these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will help you remember everything that I have told you.

John 16:13But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth [full and complete truth]. For He will not speak on His own initiative, but He will speak whatever He hears [from the Father—the message regarding the Son], and He will disclose to you what is to come [in the future].

Be imitators of God. We must seek to look and act more like Him. We must learn to be selfless, love like He loves, see others as He sees them, and have compassion like He has compassion. We should be praying daily to be more like Him. Our prayer should always be to have less of us and more of Him. We must also point to Him in all we do and accomplish.

Ephesians 5:1 Therefore become imitators of God [copy Him and follow His example], as well-beloved children [imitate their father]

1 Peter 2:21 For [as a believer] you have been called for this purpose, since Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you may follow in His footsteps.

John 3:30 He must increase [in prominence], but I must decrease

Put Him first. In all things He must be first. He will not accept second place in our lives. If we really want to walk in His fullness, He must be first in all things. We must spend time doing self-evaluations to make sure we are not putting anything or anyone above God. Do our lives really reflect Him being first? Does how we spend our time, our devotion, our thoughts, our relationships, etc. reflect Him being first?

Matthew 22:37 And Jesus replied to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Matthew 10:37-39 ³⁷ “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. ³⁸ And he who does not take his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] is not worthy of Me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].

Link to Teaching Video: https://youtu.be/sueAsN36wL8?si=d_lnofmCapPusbzw

Blessings,

Nichole Henson, MSW

Fullness of Joy Ministry