Learning to Trust God

I knew that my spiritual life was failing because my Bible study and prayer life were being severely compromised. Though I knew this, it had not really sunk in how serious it was until I was counseling for baptism with a minister in my church. I was going to college, broke and living in an apartment with three other roommates who had no regard for God. I worked at a fast food restaurant, and because the job did not pay much, I worked as many hours as I could possibly get. So after eight hours of school during the day I would go straight to work and work into the night to make as much money as possible to pay the bills.

The minister and I talked about my life and I told him about my dilemma of having to work so many hours to pay the bills in addition to the time that school required of me. He then compared my situation to the parable of the sower (Luke 8). He showed how, though I was excited about the Truth that I had been learning, I needed to make sure that I did not allow temptation to cause me to “fall away” (v. 13). He also helped me understand clearly that though it was important to work and do my part, I could not let the cares of this world overtake me, compromising my Bible study and prayer life so that I could not bear fruit (v. 14).

After realizing my sin of putting everything else before God, even with the things that seemed so important at the time, I repented and turned to God. I worked only the hours I was given and did not purposely seek any more. Though I did not see how things could work out, I put my faith and trust in God knowing that I had to obey Him and draw close to Him above everything else. I knew that God is loving and faithful and that He would somehow open a door.

Several days later, after fasting, trusting that God Almighty would provide, God did in fact open the doors. An older gentleman and his wife offered to let me live with them at their home. Not only did they let me stay with them, they did not allow me to pay them anything! Even more, the same kindly man gave me a job making two-and-a half times the money I was making at the fast food restaurant. Not only was I making much more money than before; it was a job in the very field that I was going to school for, giving me critical and foundational experience for the remainder of my career. Within the very same period of time I was given another job in the same field, allowing me to learn different aspects assisting in my future career.

A very important lesson from this experience was that even when we cannot see how turning from our way to God’s way is going to work, we must trust Him and put our priorities fully into His hands. When we learn to obey in faith, He always opens the doors and He always provides a way (Proverbs 3:5–6)! We can have full trust and faith that His ways are better than our ways and He will hold us up and provide all our needs!

If you are faced with a seemingly unsolvable problem, you can turn to God with your whole heart and He will reveal the solution! To learn more about staying close to God, watch the telecast, “Teach Me to Pray” and ask Him to help you put into action what you learn.