My wife’s unexpected diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer several months ago has challenged my faith like never before. Over a three week period we went from normal life to hospital tests and diagnosis, major surgery, and chemotherapy. What an opportunity for the devil to attack our trust in God! It has been a difficult trial, a huge test, and an incredible time for learning to trust God in new and deeper ways.
Here is some of the wisdom that the Lord has given me about trusting Him (His words to me are in blue)
Trust is crucial, trust is the foundation of faith. As you trust Me, your faith grows. These are inseparable.
Life experiences will build our trust
You have been learning how to trust Me by going through situations with your eyes on Me, by going through situations and not being consumed or overwhelmed by them.
This process is the school for building trust. It is your experiences that prove My presence, care, and work that build your trust.
When you see Me act, your faith in Me moves from just an intellectual thought to a practical, visible reality. This is heart-faith. This is what gives you the ability to trust Me through difficult and trying times and situations. As you begin to believe Me in your heart, your trust becomes real. It becomes unshakable!
The proof that your trust is increasing
Now what is the result of trusting from your heart? What is the proof that your heart-faith has increased? It is how you react when you are in a challenge.
- When you stop worrying about the outcome, you know your trust has increased.
- When you can rest and not feel pressured, you know that your trust in Me has increased.
- When you can act to bless others in the midst of your present challenge, you know your trust has increased.
- When your situation decreases in importance and doesn’t consume your every thought, you know you are deepening your trust. This peace helps you to move forward, and, most importantly, it helps your faith grow.
The power of increased trust
As you learn to trust, you become better equipped to love out of trust. Your trust actually grows as you trust – it multiplies. Your “trust account” increases.
As you gain trust, you can see the victory even before it is manifested – you see with the eyes of faith. This is how My children learn to walk with Me and to live out of My ways. They trust and watch their mustard seed of faith grow so that they can trust more.
Trials, tests, and challenging situations all bring an increase in your trust in Me when you see Me working in them. So rejoice in the challenge and walk with Me through it. Together we make all things good!“
During this difficult and challenging time in our lives, my wife and I have had to recognize and reject the enemy’s onslaught of fearful thoughts and lies. Then we have had to choose to replace them with what GOD HAS SAID about her situation. Reviewing and declaring His words of life, hope, encouragement, and truth have enormously helped us to overcome doubt, worry, fear, and discouragement. As we do this, we are building up our “trust accounts” and finding peace in the midst of the storm. When things don’t work out the way we want them to, we choose to trust that He is working things together for our good and for His glory. This has been a very tough season, but we know the Lord is with us and is teaching and growing us through it.
Question: How has your trust in God grown through trials? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
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My trial with my husbands illnesses has been going on for 4 years. Though it seems to be worsening now I trust God with all my heart. It has just been recently that God showed me that I’m fighting my husbands free will and I have to stop. It is up to him to trust I can not do it for him. So I’m letting go of trying to change my hubby and let God do what ever he wills.
Cyndi, getting to the place where you can trust the Lord with your husbands health is a big step. It is proof that you are truly trusting in Him. It is just what the Lord wants you to do. I am sure that He is very pleased with you.
During my trials, my trust in God has grown through the Grace of God, and the renewing of my mind by studying His Word, seeking “first the kingdom of heaven”, fellowship with believers, choosing to believe God’s Word, renouncing the devil’s lies and ways, having an attitude of gratitude, and being a doer of God’s Word! A special thank you to Michael for this profound, concise and easy to understand message and lesson from God!
I’m glad that this post helped you George. Choosing to trust is especially critical. It is what opens the door to see how God will prove His faithfulness.
Hi Mike. thank for sharing about your experiences; you guys rock. One of the most difficult things to do is to know when sickness ends in death and to trust God while that person suffers an agonizing horrible death. What made it more difficult was I was seeing creative miracles and healing restoring people to health but not my loved one. While I love theology, I find it is merciless in its normal misapplications trying to explain death and dying. I found comfort however in what C. S. Lewis wrote; that one reason for pain is to remind us we aren’t in heaven yet. Pain is a dark umbrella that shield us from life giving rain and hopeful light any limits our view to the immediate. It is good to have friends that love you to trust again.
Hi John, I am sorry to hear about your loss. I too have experienced hardships and disappointments at the same time that I have seen God moving in miraculous ways. These times are painful and hard to understand. I suspect it is a mystery that we won’t understand until we get to heaven.