Learning to Trust God
Like most people, or at least most type-A people, I have always had a plan for how I wanted my life to look. It involved graduating from college in four years, and going straight in to grad school for my doctorate in fill in the blank degree. It’s safe to say that this “plan” I had for my life got thrown out the window as it took me five years to graduate college, and I am now not in grad school, but rather am serving as a missionary with the Culture Project. Through trial and error throughout my life, I have come to the realization that God’s plan will always be so much better than anything that I could, or would, want for myself.
However, as great as this realization might be, and trust me when you get there it truly is a great thing, it is also not something that is easy to come by. As humans, we tend to have the want inside of us to control everything about our lives and the situations that we are in. From a young age we are taught that being independent is the best thing that you can be. And while yes, in some cases it is really good to get to have that independence, we have to make sure that we are not seeking it in such a way where we would discount our dependence on God and his plan for our lives. Because trust me, as great as the plan that you have for you life might seem, it is nothing compared to what God has in store for you.
It’s easy to think that we know best what we want, and to sometimes go with that rather than to take the time to figure out what it is that God has in store for us. As we enter this season of Advent it’s a good time for us to take the time to step back and evaluate how much we are really wanting to follow God’s will for our life, and how much we are trying to step in and take over. While this may be something that is hard to do at first, the good news is that there are little ways that we can work at every day to make sure we are learning to trust in Him and His will for our lives.
- Pray – This may seem like the most obvious way, but it is obvious for a reason. How can we come to trust someone without getting to know them? The answer is we can’t. The easiest way to get to know God, and to come to recognize the plan that He has for our lives, is to cultivate a prayer life that allows us to get to know Him. By praying regularly we can learn to listen for His voice and promptings in our heart which let us know what His will for us is.
- Don’t worry. – Trust me when I tell you that this one is easier said than done. As someone who overthinks everything on a daily basis, it is easy for me to start to worry about everything that could potentially go wrong. This is especially true when you are starting to grow in trust of God’s plan for your life. Giving over control of what we think we want to happen in our lives can be a scary thing. However, once we do it, we understand that there is truly nothing to worry about. As long as we are striving to do our best to live the life that God planned for us, and live according to His will, then we have nothing to worry about.
- Read scripture. – This ties in with the prayer aspect. One way that we can elevate our prayer life, and truly come to know God is by reading sacred scripture, or the Bible. There are so many good things for us to receive through reading the Bible and truly coming to know God through His word. By doing this we are able to grow even closer to Him, and come to trust Him in ways we may not have before, because we can see through the different passages how He is good to those who believe in Him.
These are just three simple things that we can implement in our lives to allow us to grow in trust and love for God every day. Like I said, I know that this will not be easy to do, but it is so incredibly worth it. Once we surrender the plans that we have for our lives over to God, we can start to flourish in ways we never imagined. As St. Pope John Paul II said “life with Christ is a wonderful adventure.” So go out and be adventurous by recklessly abandoning the preconceived ideas you had for your life and fully embracing the adventure that Christ wants to take you on!
