Surrender all to overcome trust issues

Jul 31, 2022 News

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==My Testimony==

By Sharmain Grainger

Kaieteur News – A quick Google search will reveal that trust is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.  This, therefore, means that trust can quickly dwindle if the expected result is not forthcoming. Moreover, it becomes especially difficult to trust when you have been ‘burned’ one too many times.

But in this life, having trust is an absolute necessity. We daily trust that vehicles the likes of cars and planes will take us safely to our destinations; we trust that our employers will give us a living wage after we put in the work; we even trust that “staining our finger” for a political party will bring about needful change in our country. We trust a whole lot, but then trust begins to deteriorate when we realise that some things or individuals are simply not deserving of our trust.

Although I have battled with this process for many years, and still do (but to a lesser extent these days), it has become abundantly clear that a key ingredient in having a complete and fulfilling life is trust – and this is needed even in areas of our life that were previously ‘burned’.

Since I am determined to have a satisfying life, I am currently learning to trust. This isn’t because life’s circumstances have changed – the world is still an extremely horrible place; there are people who are ready to prey on you at every corner, and making some everyday choices can even prove to be deadly, literally – but I have been privileged to gain access to a loophole that I’m eagerly taking advantage of, and you can too.

The loophole, dear reader, is my faith in the true and living God. Faith, or complete trust and confidence in God, is an incredible asset to have in this life. Having experienced the trustworthiness of my God, I can today attest to the fact that the biblical scripture Proverbs 3:5-6 is an absolute truth: “⁵Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. ⁶In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”

This literally means that having faith in God helps to steer your life accurately. As such, once your faith is intact, you can free fall into any situation you are faced with knowing that God has a safety net waiting for me. A little faith can go a long way.

Since learning to trust is a process, faith in God simply starts with a desire to achieve this goal. This is explained in the book of Luke (17:5-6) in the bible: “⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” ⁶ He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”

But a few years back, I didn’t understand this concept. Although I believed that I had somewhat of a close relationship with God, I’d thought trusting Him meant praying for a specific thing and seeing it happen exactly as I imagined.

I had prayed such a prayer but didn’t achieve the desired result. My prayer at the time was for the speedy rehabilitation of the Demerara Harbour Bridge which was struck by a tug in the wee hours of Monday, September 2, 2019. You see this was important to me because it was the first day of my hosting of a programme on Kaieteur Radio (99.1, 99.5 FM) which I believed God wanted me to do.

As a driver living on the western side of the bridge, it made sense for me to implore the throne of grace to have this perceived “devilish” disaster be brought to naught so as to facilitate a smooth first day of hosting the programme.

My prayer was so heartfelt that, in my mind, I was convinced any mountain in the way was would surely be flattened, not just moved.
I was determined to not leave home until I got word that the bridge was ‘back up and running’. But as the time got closer to the 1pm start of the programme, it became evident that my prayer was not remotely going to achieve the desired goal. This of course broke my heart and I pretty much decided that God wasn’t as powerful as I had been led to believe. So discouraged I became that I even decided that there was no way I could tell others about God if He couldn’t answer my sincere prayer.

I later came to the eventual realisation that in praying for God to work, I was more focused on proving to a colleague that my God could fix the bridge within the timeframe I had set. I, however, did not pay attention to the fact that, that very colleague had told me that the timeframe for fixing the bridge was expected to be within a matter of days, which was unprecedented for the damage caused.

As I recuperate from my religious error, I can appreciate Psalms 145:18: “The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.” Suffice it to say, my prayers are much more in line with God’s word these days.

It does not mean that God cannot meet our needs as we desire, but there are times that what we want may not be in line with his perfect will. This is made clear at Romans 12:2: “² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

For example, a child at the age of 12 may request a car as a gift for an upcoming birthday and indeed the parents may be happy to oblige. However, that car will come along with a chauffeur since the child is not yet of age to acquire a driver’s license. In another instance, the parents just might withhold that wish until the child has attained the age to drive independently.

So while the parents may be willing to meet the need, there are times that conditions must be applied in the best interest of the child.

It is the identical thing with God. As a loving, caring father, he too determines when the time is right to fully meet certain requests. Since the bible is the manual for life and contains guidance for every facet of our life, by simply following the instructions, such as Proverbs 3:5-6 as stated earlier, could ensure that your desires are synced with God’s heart so that “…his good, pleasing and perfect will” is the only outcome.

Trusting God translates to being your most vulnerable self, for it is only when you surrender all, believing that God’s got you in every conceivable way, that He has the freedom to guide your life completely.

Choose Jesus even when things are looking bleak, even when all around there is darkness, He is the only light that you need to get you through this cruel world. This doesn’t mean that life will be void of hardships, but even through those, He will be everything that you could ever need.

When the struggles do come just remember Philippians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

(If you have a comment or an enlightening experience to share, email me @ [email protected])

 

 

 

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