Learning to Trust God

 

There comes a point in life when effort, planning and good intentions are no longer enough. You can do everything right and still find yourself waiting. Still uncertain. Still carrying questions you do not know how to answer. I have learned that these moments are often where faith becomes real.

 

For a long time I believed that trusting God meant asking Him to bless my plans. I prayed sincerely worked hard and tried to remain faithful. Yet beneath that faith sat an unspoken assumption that if I planned carefully enough and stayed disciplined, things would eventually fall into place. What I did not realise was how tightly I was holding on to control.

 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) has been with me through the times of waiting:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight”

 

I have read that verse as an encouragement. Over time it became confrontational because I had trusted God partically and leaned heavily on my own understanding.

 

Waiting revealed things about me that progress never did. It exposed my impatience and my tendency to equate movement with faithfulness. I discovered that God’s silence does not mean His absence. Often it is an invitation to slow down, to listen and to allow Him to shape something deeper than obvious outcomes.

 

One of the most difficult lessons I have learned is that faith is not proven when prayers are answered quickly. It is refined when answers delay and trust must deepen. I realised that God was less interested in my efficiency and more concerned with my dependence. Leadership, responsibility and decision-making all look different when rooted in trust rather than anxiety.

 

Romans 8:15 (NIV) captures my understanding of identity:

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father”

 

This verse reminded me that I was not meant to live as someone constantly striving to earn security. I belong and belonging changes how we wait and how we respond when things feel uncertain.

 

I began to see how often identity becomes tied to outcomes or approval. The stories from Scripture talk of people who anchored their sense of self in things that could not sustain them. Nicodemus the Pharisee who relied on his great reputation. The Samaritan woman at the well sought fulfilment through relationships. Zacchaeus the tax collector trusted in wealth. Each encounter with Jesus revealed that surrender was not about loss but about letting go of what could never truly satisfy.

 

There are parts of my own story that are too personal to share fully but I can say this that trusting God has often required releasing outcomes I desperately wanted to control. It has meant accepting that obedience does not always come with immediate clarity. Sometimes it comes with discomfort. Sometimes with silence and sometimes with growth that only makes sense later.

 

I have also learned that trust is rarely formed in isolation. God often uses the Community of Believers to protect us when our own resolve feels weak. Walking with people of faith has reminded me that identity in Christ is not something we defend alone. It is something we grow into together.

 

Trusting God does not mean the absence of fear. It means refusing to let fear lead. It means choosing obedience when understanding feels incomplete. It means believing that God is at work even when evidence is not yet visible.

 

I am still learning this. Some days trust comes easily. Other days it requires a conscious decision to let go. But I am learning that when control stops working faith has room to grow and in that space my identity becomes less about what I can manage and more about what God can do with me and through me.

 

Trusting God has begun to look far simpler than I once imagined. In our January, 2026 sermon series on fruitfulness mainly from John 15:5 (NIV) we were reminded that fruit does not come from striving but from abiding:

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

 

Fruitfulness is something that flows when we stay attentive to God’s presence and responsive to His prompting and it expresses in ordinary ways like just being present at a moment, being willing to lead in prayer when the moment invites, listening without rushing to fix and praying simply without elaborate words or spiritual jargon and finally just trusting God with the outcome. That teaching stayed with me.

So on one ordinary afternoon in the same January, 2026 during a brief stop at a Nairobi restaurant I sensed an invitation to practice exactly that. I asked the 5 young women behind the counter (in the blurred picture) if there was anything they wanted prayer for. There was no prior preparation. Surprise! They shared and right there in the middle of a normal workday we prayed together. There was nothing dramatic that happened. No sermon was preached. This was a simple act of obedience. Trusting God meant remaining connected, listening and responding without overthinking it!!!!