For many people, control is how they stay safe. If you plan carefully, work hard and stay alert, maybe nothing will go wrong. So the idea of trusting God can sound less like comfort and more like stepping off a cliff.
How much control do we really have?
Most of us know, if we are honest, that our control is partial at best. Health, other people, the economy and the future are largely out of our hands. Holding on tightly often leaves us exhausted rather than safe.
Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:5–6
Trusting God doesn’t mean switching off your judgement. It means not relying on it alone.
Trust depends on who
Handing control to a stranger would be foolish. The Christian claim is that God is not a stranger. In Jesus, he has shown what he is like: patient with people who struggle, gentle with the ashamed, faithful even to death. Jesus described the trust he offers like this:
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:29–30
A yoke joins two animals so they can share a load. Jesus’ picture is not of being pushed around, but of not carrying everything alone.
But I trust in you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand.
Psalm 31:14–15
Small steps
Trust usually grows a little at a time. You might begin by telling God honestly what you are afraid to let go of. That is already a kind of trust.
If you would like to talk about what trust might look like for you, we are here to listen.
