#trust
Friday, June 11th, 2021
Otakada content count 2,220,322
Title – 4 Practical steps to trust God COMPLETELY by Tega – Socialhermit.me reedited by otakada.org
Trust is a state of mind that takes most of us a significant amount of time to develop but is easily broken with words and actions. With trust being so hard to develop between people, how much harder is it for us to trust in a God we cannot see or touch?
Today, I’m sharing *4 practical steps to trust God completely with you.*
Faith plays an important role in our ability to trust God completely. In order to really believe some of the messages the bible gives us about perfect peace and trust God completely, you need faith. Faith that God is real and listening. Faith that He loves you and wants to take care of you. Faith that he hears you when you cry out to Him during those anxiety filled moments. Faith that when He said *“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid”,* He meant it.
And like faith, trust is something that takes a little time to develop. You aren’t going to wake up one day and begin trusting God with everything you are and everything you have. Because the fact is, doubt is constantly floating around in our heads and the key to defeating that doubt is being aware of it and being armed and ready to defeat it. So let’s get right to these 4 practical steps to trust God completely.
*4 Practical Steps to Trust God Completely*
*1. You have to make a decision not to worry*
The first step is simply making an intentional decision to trust God. This is so much easier said than done. But the only way to truly trust God is that you have to decide to trust God. And you can’t trust God if you’re worrying about the things you’re trusting Him with. The thing is, worry and trust are mutually exclusive.
_Friend, until you actively decide to begin trusting in God, you will not be ready to complete the next 2 steps._
But beware! Chances are once you make this decision, you’ll soon find yourself having to practice it regularly. The devil will begin to hit you with situations and stressors that cause you to worry and be anxious and you’re going to have to remind yourself of the decision you’ve made.
*“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)*
*2. You need to constantly monitor your thoughts and feelings*
Friend, the war against the evil one begins in your mind and like I said earlier, chances are you’ll start waging that war even more once you make a decision to trust God completely. Those feelings of dejection, rejection, fear, anxiety, worry and every other negative thought that crosses your mind daily are how the devil tries to separate us from Heavenly Father. You have to begin training yourself to notice when you’re falling into those negative thought patterns, take them captive and bring them to obey Christ.
This can be even harder if you’re struggling with mental illness because not only are you battling with emotions, but you’re also struggling the physical manifestations of your illness and feelings of helplessness in your situation. So for the friend reading this who’s battling mental illness, an additional part of this 4 step process for you is being aware of your “safe space”. Where can you go – physically or mentally – and what are some things you can do to give yourself the space you need to ask the Holy Spirit to help you fight those thoughts? Because the fact of the matter is, you can’t do it by yourself and Heavenly Father is just waiting for you to lay your burdens at His feet
*“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)*
Now how do you take those thoughts captive? That’s the next step of this process.
Trust can be hard to develop, especially when dealing with a God we can’t see or touch. *Use these 4 practical steps to trust God completely.*
*3. Saturate your heart and mind with the word of God*
In order to take those worrisome thoughts captive, you need something to replace it with. Reading the Word of God is such an important part of our walk with Christ and this third step is different/interesting because it’s a proactive step. You have to be reading the word of God on a regular basis, as opposed to waiting until the moments you need it to look it up.
*“Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance…” (Ephesians 6:13-18).*
Every other part of the armor of God that’s described by Paul is a defensive weapon. Weapons that protect us from the attacks of the evil one. The only thing we have to attack the devil with is the word of God. Each time you spend time in the word of God, studying and memorizing it, you are strengthening your sword for fighting against the devil. Having the word of God in your heart will help you overcome the sly whisperings of the devil. Which leads us to the last step.
*4. Replace the negative thoughts and feelings with the promises of God*
Once you take those thoughts captive, the next step is to replace them with the promises and plan God has laid out for you. This is why memorizing scripture is also critical for your journey in Christ. You want to have the word of God stored in your heart, readily accessible as ammunition against the devil. You may be thinking *“How do I remember the verse I need when I need it?” Friend, that’s the job of the Holy Spirit.* And that’s not me telling you that, Jesus said it:
*“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).*
When you find yourself feeling anxious or worrying, you can start by saying this prayer for when you feel anxious . Then ask for the Holy Spirit’s help in remembering some bible verses that will help you remember the peace that God was promised us. A good place to start is with these 10 bible verses for when you feel anxious. Those are some verses that will remind you of God’s peace in your life. I sometimes like to remind myself of God’s promises when I begin worrying about the outcome of different situations and problems.
So, are you going to practice these *4 steps to trust God completely once and then wake up every day automatically trusting God?* Nope. Absolutely not. You’re going to have to constantly remind yourself of these steps, and make a conscious effort to practice them.
Trust can be hard to develop, especially when dealing with a God we can’t see or touch. Use these 4 practical steps to trust God completely.
_*That last step is important because as you start practicing replacing worry and anxiety with the promises and word of God, those promises will slowly become your default mindset which leads to the beginning of your journey to trust God completely.*_
*4 Step Process to Trust God Completely in Action*
Before you go, let me share a story with you; a story that illustrates these steps of how to trust God completely in action. Almost a year ago the screen on an iPad I had only had for 4 months broke. I had been debating with myself for weeks if I should replace the screen or not, and as a graduate student, the thought of shelling out almost $400 for a device is a pretty big deal. I finally deciding to send it in to get fixed because the broken screen was really starting to bug me.
2 days after I received my newly fixed iPad back, I took it with me to church. One of my routines is to go grocery shopping right after church. I planned to get my nails done on this day, so I took my iPad in with me. I went grocery shopping and then home after getting my nails done.
*Only to discover that my iPad didn’t make it home with me.*
I started off being pretty calm. I went online to find my iPad, but it was offline so that didn’t work. I I looked through my grocery bags, and in that car but couldn’t find it anywhere. I realized I must have left it somewhere while I was out but I had no clue where. As I got in my car to begin my search, I started praying that I would find it. I mean, I just spent $400 on the iPad!!!! Plus it was a gift. So I prayed to God that I would find it because I wasn’t ready to part with it.
As I began driving, I noticed that I was doing two things – speeding and worrying. In that moment, I had to physically have a conversation with myself that went something like this “Ok Tega. You can’t say you’re trusting in God to find the iPad and then worrying about it. That doesn’t work. If you’re worrying, then you don’t trust Him. If you really trust Him, then you know it’s all good. If I don’t find the iPad then maybe He just doesn’t want me to have it right now and that’s His will. Philippians 4 says be anxious for nothing, so just let it go.
I intentionally slowed down to drive at the speed limit and I made a decision to trust God completely. And then I was enveloped by this incredible sense of peace. In that moment and the moments that followed, I really was ok with the idea of losing that iPad. To cut the long story short – turns out I left the iPad sitting in a cart, outside in the parking lot. And a wonderful worker at the store found it and took it to customer service for me. I still pray for him when I think about this story.
Trust can be hard to develop, especially when dealing with a God we can’t see or touch. *Use these 4 practical steps to trust God completely.*
Let’s break down that talk I had with myself:
1) I made the decision to trust God when I left my apartment looking for the iPad
2) I recognized that I was worrying even though I said I was trusting God because I was monitoring my thoughts and actions.
Knowing Philippians 4:6-7 allowed me to complete step 4
3) I replaced that feeling of worry with the word of God by reminding myself that the word tells us to be anxious for nothing.
I believe that this story would have ended differently if I had not trusted God completely.
See, in the life of a Christian, there’s no such thing as a coincidence. There’s only God placing things and people where they need to be.
I shared this story to show that doubt, anxiety, worry, they’ll all come your way. They are a normal part of the flesh; the real battle is finding ways to replace those negative thoughts, feelings, and emotions with positive ones. This 4 step process will help you in your journey to trust God completely.
Share wide! Encourage someone today by these message from Tega
Shalom!
Monday O. Ogbe
Https://www.Otakada.org Cyber Church Ministries
Originally posted on June 11, 2021 @ 3:28 am
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