Tag Archives: trusting God

May 20, 2026 · 5:37 AM

Trusting God In Uncertainty

I’ve found that when God asks me to do something where the outcome is uncertain, fear has a way of creeping in. Fear of the unknown can create all kinds of symptoms. For me, it creates procrastination while I try to see if I can guarantee the outcome. For others, it creates paralysis through analysis. Some people become very controlling of the things they can control in hopes of being able to control the outcome. What does uncertainty produce in you? There are some who see the uncertainty and instead of giving into fear, they trust God for the outcome and step out in faith. I think we would all love for that to be our go to response.

In Matthew 14:22, Jesus put the disciples in a boat to go ahead of Him across the Sea of Galilee. Along the way, the faced a storm that made their future uncertain. The rain was coming down, the waves were rocking the boat and these seasoned fishermen let fear take over even though they were doing what Jesus asked them to do. After several hours, they looked up to see Jesus walking on the water towards them telling them not to be afraid. Peter replied to Him, “Lord, if it is [really] You, command me to come to You on the water” (AMP). The Lord told him to get out as everyone else stayed in the boat. They all had the opportunity to walk on water, but only one stepped out despite their fear and trusted Jesus.

Psalm 56:3 says, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust and faith in You.” Where do you put your trust when you are afraid? Is it in routines, in what you know or what you can see? Peter and David trusted God over what their fear was telling them. David was in a desperate place when he penned these words. He had been captured by the enemy who knew who he was. Instead of giving into fear of an unknown future, he trusted the character of God and placed his faith their. We all have a choice where we place our faith in times of crisis, fear and uncertainty. Instead of choosing to let fear control our behavior, choose to trust an unknown future to the God you know you can trust. Put your faith in Him, step out of the boat of the familiar and step out in faith. Trust God even in uncertainty.

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May 19, 2026 · 5:44 AM

Kingdom Over Calling

History is littered with people who have been given great dreams to accomplish. Some become so obsessed with their dream that it consumes them. They get so focused on their dream dream that it becomes the source of their identity. When that happens, the dream giver becomes optional. Think of Samson whom God called from birth to rescue Israel with his strength. As he grew up, he began to love his strength more than the one who empowered him. That pride became his downfall. I could listen to modern people who fell into the same trap that he did. We all must be careful not to let our gift become our god or our calling to become an idol that we chase.

David was a young man when Samuel anointed him to be the next king of Israel. It wasn’t long before he defeated Goliath and was a regular in the king’s home. David must have thought it was happening then, but God saw fit to send him through adversity to prepare him for his calling. David lived in hiding, moving from cave to cave instead of palaces. He commanded a rebel army of outcasts and rejects before he commanded the national force. In the process of adversity, he learned to quit chasing the dream and to start chasing the dream giver. Twice he had the opportunity to kill King Saul and ascend to the throne, but he did not touch God’s anointed. David had a heart after God rather than the throne. When he was ready, God gave it to him. Throughout his life, he showed he was owned by God and not the throne.

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said, “But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also” (AMP). Have you found yourself chasing your dream or calling more than the One who planted that in you? God’s order is to seek Him first, then all these other things will be given to you. There’s a process that we go through that reveals and prepares our heart. When we bypass the process, we become like Samson rather than David. We find ourselves seeking the calling rather than the creator. God gives dreams and callings for the Kingdom. If you’re in a season of preparation or waiting for the calling to come to pass, seek God and His kingdom. When the time is right, God will give it to you and cause it to come to pass.

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April 13, 2026 · 5:50 AM

Trust What’s Inside

At one of the jobs I’ve had, I was sent to a month of training. After that month of training, I went to the store to have one week of shadowing someone and then a week of them helping me as I typed everything in. I’ll never forget that next week. My boss told me that I was going to be on my own helping customers, but if I had any questions throughout the day, they would help me. I was terrified wondering about messing up. I told him I needed more time working with someone else because I wasn’t ready. He said, “Yes you are! Trust the training. You’ve got this.” He was right. Everything I had learned helped me get through my day successfully.

In Deuteronomy 30, Israel was about to walk into the Promised Land. God told them that they were going to fight and that they were going to experience all the blessings He told them about, and all the curses. During those times, all they had to do was return to Him and they would experience blessings again. I’m sure they didn’t feel ready to go and take the land. They had been wandering for forty years. When the moment arrived, God told them He would make them successful. They wondered how they would follow His orders and if was too far away from them to remember. Then in verse 14 God said, “No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it” (NLT). They needed to trust what they had been taught. It was inside of them.

In Jeremiah 31:33, God says again, “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days, I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Each of us have a calling on our life. God asks us to step out and obey, but He proceeds it with a time of preparation. When the times comes, don’t let fear rule the day. Don’t let insecurity hold you back. God has given you what you need in order to accomplish it. He had written His Word on your heart and given you the instructions you need. You don’t need to know all the steps in order to get started. You only need faith to take the first one. Trust what He’s spoken and trust His Word. It’s inside of you and the Holy Spirit will remind you what He said and give you the words to say too.

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March 26, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Building Your Life On Truth

Recently I shared with my son the importance of building his life, decisions and convictions on the truth of God’s Word. The world has always fought against God’s truth, but in recent history the strategy has changed. Culture has let truth become relative so that each person has their own truth. When everyone has their own truth, they can do what is right in their own eyes. The Bible has lots of stories of what happens during those periods. I explained to him that we can’t allow culture to define truth because it doesn’t know what truth is so theirs is always changing. I then told him that culture will always try to quiet the truth of God’s Word and that we must not be silent about it. If we don’t share what truth is, how will they ever know? If they never know, how will they be saved?

In Acts 4 Peter and John were in the Temple teaching people about the truth of Jesus after they healed a crippled man who had begged at the Temple gates for years. They were confronted by the priests, leaders and guards and told to keep quiet.when they didn’t, they were arrested. The next day they were brought before the council and asked who gave them authority to teach. They replied it came through Jesus. The council were stunned by their boldness, but also couldn’t deny the healed man standing in the room. They met privately and then came back to demand that they not tell others about Jesus. In verse 19 Peter and John replied, “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him?” (NLT). They were threatened again and then released.

2 Timothy 3:14 says, “But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you.” The same charge that Paul gave Timothy is given to us. We must remain faithful to what is true. We can’t live our lives by the changing tides of culture. There is only one truth and we must let it be what we build our lives on. When our lives are in contradiction to its teaching, it’s not wrong, we are. We must then come into alignment with its teaching. God does not change, nor does His Word. Everything in this world and it’s culture changes based on the opinions of people. What was true for them yesterday may not be true for them tomorrow. Don’t build your life on shifting sand but rather the rock solid truth of God’s Word.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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March 4, 2026 · 6:02 AM

Faith And Facts

All of us have face moments where our circumstances stand in opposition to God’s promises to us. In those moments the facts of our situation can seem overwhelming. When faith and facts collide, who will you believe? Facts can be loud. We see them, hear them and feel them. However, the truth is greater than the facts. The truth is what sets us free. We put our hope in God who does not lie, nor does He fail. Where we place our faith will not only determine our next steps, it will set the course for our life. It’s not about denying the facts of our circumstance. It’s about denying the facts the authority to overrule God’s Word in our life.

In Romans 4, Paul is talking about having this kind of faith. He uses Abraham as our example. The facts were that he and Sarah were beyond child bearing years when God made the promise that he would be the father of many nations. Instead of giving the facts the authority to overrule God’s voice, he worshipped and trusted His ability to do what He promised. It was years before God fulfilled the promise to him, but he kept trusting God. The Bible says that he was fully persuaded that God would keep His word. God counted his faith as righteousness. When the time came, Sarah got pregnant and gave birth to a boy whom they named Isaac. His name meant laughter. She had laughed in disbelief at first, but when she trusted God, she laughed in joy because God had turned disbelief into delight.

Romans 4:18 says, “Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, ‘That’s how many descendants you will have!’” (NLT) You may not feel like you have a reason to hope right now. You may feel like Sarah did at first and laugh in disbelief because there is no hope according to the facts. Yet put your hope in God. Choose to believe His word over the facts. Like Abraham, we must worship rather than worry. We must choose the promise over the probability. We must let God’s voice speak louder in our life. This kind of nitty gritty faith isn’t easy, but it is the bedrock of where we can have hope even when there’s no hope. It’s where we can stand on God’s promises when faith and facts collide.

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February 19, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Trust God Anyway

To me, one of the worst feelings in the world is the feeling of being helpless. When everything seems to be going against me and there’s nothing I can do to stop it, there’s a sense of fear and desperation. In those times, all my efforts to help myself, or to get myself out of it, are fruitless. Many times when that happens, the harder I try to get out of the situation, the worse it gets. It’s that feeling where you’re stuck in the mud and the more you push the gas, the worse you get stuck. My feelings and thoughts quickly turn negative, and if I’m not careful, those feelings and thoughts can dictate my actions. We all face times like these, even the heroes of the faith who are in the Bible.

David often found himself in desperation. You can see how his thinking affected him and his actions. In Psalm 28, he’s going through a helpless situation. In verse 1 he prays, “I pray to you, O Lord, my rock. Do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you are silent, I might as well give up and die” (NLT). At this point, he’s not even sure God is going to come help. His fear is causing him to doubt just like our fear does to us. If we trust our feelings over our faith, life can feel a roller coaster. Emotions were given to us to help us gauge a situation. They were not meant to be what we trust in. They often lie and manipulate us. We must learn to trust God over our emotions and over how they’re making us feel about our situation.

In verse 7, David moves his trust his emotions to God. He reminds himself, “The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” When we switch where we place our trust, our emotions follow. We need to trust God with all of our heart instead of our emotions. He sees what you’re going through, and He will not abandon you in it. He doesn’t always remove us from the situation or give us the answer we’re hoping for. The question is, will you trust Him anyway? Will you have faith that whatever it is, He can turn it for your good? It’s not easy to do. However, where you place your trust will determine how well you come through it.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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February 18, 2026 · 5:44 AM

Training Your Faith

In 2019 I was offered a voluntary severance package from the company I had been at for nearly 15 years. After a lot of prayer and answers from God, I accepted the package and started my own business. After a few months, things were going well. I was getting steady customers and starting to grow. Just as things were looking up, Covid hit and pretty much shut me down. In that moment I had a choice to make. I could look at my friends from my previous company who were getting a steady check, and I could be upset at God, or I could remember that I heard from Him and trust that He’d always taken care of me in the past. When crisis hits, our natural inclination is to think God has abandoned us. However, I’ve learned that spiritual maturity is built on remembering the faithfulness of God.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites were in the middle of the wilderness and there wasn’t any water. One version says they were tormented by thirst and they began to complain and argue with Moses asking why he brought them out of Egypt if they were just going to die of thirst. These people had just witnessed the plagues God brought on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and were receiving daily manna from heaven. Their current crisis had them thinking God had abandoned them and their mind said they would have been better off living in slavery. Moses went to the Lord and God told him to strike the rock and water would come out of it. Moses named the place “Arguing” because they had argued whether God was with them or not.

In Psalm 77 Asaph was going through a tough time and starting to think that God had forgotten him. Then he penned verses 11-12, “But then I recall all you have done, O Lord; I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about your mighty works” (NLT). He chose to remember God’s faithfulness in a wilderness season when God was silent. He chose to lift his hands toward heaven anyway. Faith is having a well trained memory that looks at God’s faithfulness over time instead of our current thirst. A good habit is to write down times God has been faithful to you in the past, to share them with others and to read them when times get tough. Doing this will help train your faith to trust in the wilderness.

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January 26, 2026 · 5:34 AM

Wisdom Is Calling

I’ve seen several interviews that Captain Sully gave regarding the Miracle on the Hudson. I’ve also seen reenactments and clips from the movie that was made about that day. From the moment the birds took out both engines, alarms started going off. They read manuals, put out a distress call and had conversations about procedures all while the computer is calling out to them. It was a chaotic noisy environment. Every voice was telling him to turn back to LaGuardia, but wisdom was telling him to land in the Hudson. Afterwards the incident was investigated by the NTSB and it was determined that he made the on,y correct choice. Anything else would have resulted in a crash, yet because he listened to wisdom everyone survived.

In 1Kings 12, Solomon’s son became king of Israel. The people came and asked him to relieve the workload they had been under during Solomon’s reign. With pressure mounting, he consulted with his father’s advisors. They told him it was wise to listen to the people and give them a break from all the construction projects. Then he invited more voices in. They were his friends who were also young and inexperienced. They told him to do more than his father and increase the workload. Verse 13 says, “The king answered the people harshly and ignored the advice which the elders had given him” (AMP). In a room full of voices, he ignored the voices of wisdom and paid the price of having a revolt and divided kingdom.

In Proverbs 1:20-21, his father Solomon tried to teach him, “Wisdom shouts in the street, She raises her voice in the markets; She calls out at the head of the noisy streets [where large crowds gather]; At the entrance of the city gates she speaks her words.” When we need wisdom most, it’s often noisy and chaotic like the entrance to an ancient city. Lots of voices and chaos calling out trying to distract you, but wisdom is there among them speaking to you. Listening to her is critical to your success and future. Even in the most pressure filled, chaotic moments you can call out to God to give you wisdom and help you to know what to do. James 1:5 says He will give it to you. However, like the people mentioned above, only you can choose to act on it or not. Wisdom is calling out to you today. Take time to listen and do what she says.

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January 20, 2026 · 6:06 AM

Trading Inheritances

In Genesis 12:1 God told Abraham, “Go away from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you” (AMP). What God was asking him was more than to leave his home. God was also asking him to walk away from his inheritance. In that time period, your inheritance was everything. It was your security for your future. Abraham left on a promise with trust in God. When the Lord had brought him to the place He was leading him, He said, “I am the [same] Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land as an inheritance.” God not only promised to give him descendants, He also gave him a greater inheritance than had he stayed at home.

In Matthew 19 a young man approached Jesus asking what he needed to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him to obey the commandments. He told Jesus that he had done that his whole life. Then Jesus said, “If you wish to be perfect [that is, have the spiritual maturity that accompanies godly character with no moral or ethical deficiencies], go and sell what you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me [becoming My disciple, believing and trusting in Me and walking the same path of life that I walk].” The next verse said he walked away sad and distressed. He wasn’t willing to let go of his earthly security the way Abraham was. He failed to receive the inheritance God offered him because he couldn’t let go and follow where Jesus would lead him.

Philippians 4:19 reminds us, “And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” What has God been asking you to walk away from or to let go of? Are you holding on tightly like the rich, young ruler? Or are you willing to walk into the unknown like Abraham? God is our source. He is the one who will supply all of our needs. Sometimes we will receive our inheritance from Him in this life, and other times we will receive it in eternity. God calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. When we cling to earthly security after He’s asked us to let go, we’re showing we believe we are our source and not Him. God is always willing to trade inheritances where we give up to temporal for the eternal.

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January 15, 2026 · 5:30 AM

Turning North

One of my favorite visual lessons to use in a group is to have everyone close their eyes and to then point north. What usually happens is you will have a room full of people pointing just about every direction including up. I then have them open their eyes to see where everyone is pointing. Immediately some start laughing, but others start trying to convince others they’re right. I then pull a compass out of my pocket and show them which way is north. I’ll ask them to again close their eyes and point to north. Most will point in the direction the compass did, but there will still be some who point in other directions. I tell them that if they don’t know which way north is, and you’re lost, it’s hard to get where you’re going.

All throughout the book of Jeremiah, Israel was lost. Each person was doing what was right in their own eyes and doing what they wanted. Even though they had the compass of The Law, they chose to go in different directions. In Jeremiah 18, God had Jeremiah watch a potter work with some clay. After making a piece of pottery, the potter didn’t like it, then crushed it and started over. Then, in verse 11, God said, “Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds” (ESV). He was telling them to repent, which means to change directions. He wanted them to turn north towards Him.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path” (GNT). God has given us the compass to navigate this life by giving us His Word. It will guide us in the direction we should live and in how we make choices. However, just like in the room full of people knowing which way north is, we still have to make the choice each day to point north or to point in a different direction. God always gives us that choice. If we head any direction but north, we risk facing the consequences of our actions. His way is the only right way to go north. His word lights the path so we can see where we’re going and also guides us in the paths of righteousness. It’s up to me and you to continually turn north when everything else is trying to get us to turn in different directions.

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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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