Trust is a total, unconditional commitment to God to depend upon His goodness.  Trust is to overcome doubts and to faithfully believe in His Word.  We are trusting God with everything in our life – family, health, job, finances, etc.  We are called to trust with our whole heart, jumping into this trust with both feet.  God shouldn’t have to dangle a carrot in front of us to commit; we must purposely make our own heart-felt commitment to the Lord from pure love and a strong desire to please Him.

The Bible in Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has our best interest in mind and has our life planned for us, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope.”

Trust is to forgive the past, to live in the present in the love of God, and to not be afraid of the future.  If we believe our past cannot be forgiven, then dig deep within and trust in His Mercy, which means that we may need to ask for His graces to learn to have that trust.

As human beings, one of the most difficult things to do is turn control of our life over to someone else.  Most of us have always believed that we were in control of everything in our life, and that certainly no higher being was involved in any way.  We could say that is true because God has given us free will to make our own decisions.   But He hasn’t abandoned us because He gave us the Holy Spirit to remind us that He is always there for us.  He only requires a simple “help me” from us, which allows Him to come to our assistance.

From time-to-time we have all experienced difficult situations in our life, and maybe we have even said a prayer or two asking for God’s help.  If we think back on our life during those times, we can see that He helped us get through them.  Maybe He said yes to our prayer request or maybe He said no.  Why would He say no?  Because He knows the future and can foresee all events and the consequences of those events in our life.  He said no because He knows that decision would be in our best interest long term.  If we could see what He sees, we would unhesitatingly submit to His desires for us.  He’s a God taking good care of His children.

Life is a pilgrimage of faith because we never know what God is going to ask of us next.  Over time as we trustfully surrender to Him, our faith will grow and our spiritual life will take on new dimensions.   Our goal is to eventually surrender and abandon everything to Him, giving Him total control of every aspect of our life.   As our relationship with the Lord takes on this new meaning, our eyes will be opened and we will begin to see Him in all the beauty that surrounds us every day – the beauty of the people we see and know walking in faith, the beauty in nature that He created, and the special family and friends that He has blessed us with.  Our attitude toward life will become more positive, and our love for God will reach new heights.  This will be our new beginning . . .

Our trust is always being tested.  Due to our human weakness, we waver in and out of trust.  It’s so hard to trust the Lord when His plan for us and our plan for our self don’t match.  At different times in our life, our faith is shaken due to critical, and sometimes tragic, events taking place.  During those times, we have to draw grace and strength from our faith in God to enable us to stay on course, following God’s plan for us and family. 

Jesus knows our frailty, and that we will fall many times, often breaking promises we have made to Him, but Jesus says that our will to get up and do better glorifies Him.  He also said that our trust in the forgiveness He will grant us glories His Heart very much, and He will flow many graces on us.

It’s our faith which allows us to place our trust in Him, letting Him take control of our life along with those of our spouse and children.   We know He’ll take wonderful care of our loved ones.  If our faith and trust is tested with some sickness, disappointment, hurt or possible a disaster in our life, we could be in danger of experiencing a “loss of faith.” It’s during those hard times when we are most vulnerable to the evil one seeking to separate us from God, but in reality that’s when we need Him the most.  So it’s during those dark moments in our life that we seek the Lord and ask for His strength to “keep the faith,” which indicates that our learning to cope with the realities of life will always be with us.  Understanding this fact, we realize that we’ll be working on our faith and trust commitment for the remainder of our days. 

Reminding our self of the phrase, “Let go and let God”, should help us during those times when we know we have started to take over control of our life again.  It will take real faith to live this message of surrendering our life to God, and ask His help to persevere in suffering, remain hopeful in desperate situations and to trust Him during our deepest darkness.  When needed, let 1 John 5:4 reminds us, “… the victory that conquers the world is our faith.”