March 27, 2026 | By Jay Ashbaucher
Everyone in this imperfect world goes through times when their minds are engaged in worry, fear, or disturbing situations. Such difficult times may involve concern over health issues, money, family, work, life-threatening world events, or any number of other unsettling problems that surface in our daily lives. In this article, when referring to God, I am referring to the Christian God, the God of the Bible, the Creator of the world. Trusting God in uncertain or difficult times is not always easy to do. Why not? Perhaps one’s prayers to God have not been answered, so one concludes that prayer does not work. Or, when bad things happen to us, we may think God does not care. Or, when we see evils go unchecked, we may think that God does not exist.
What does trusting God mean? What good does trusting God do for us? The biblical claim is that trusting God enables us to experience inner peace in the midst of life-threatening conflicts. Also, it enables patience and strength to endure sufferings and to work through uncertainty. If trusting God truly helps in these and other ways, how can we learn to trust God so we can feel secure in difficult times? This article cannot cover all that needs to be covered on this subject, but it can give us a few things to think about that may motivate us to want to further explore how and why we can trust God.
Let’s begin by learning what the Bible says about God in Proverbs 17:3. Here we read about a refining pot for silver and a furnace for gold. This means that silver and gold, in their imperfect forms, must go through tremendous heat in order to be refined and purified. The proverb also says that “the Lord tests hearts”. Put both statements together, and the proverb tells us that God tests us through the trying times we go through. He uses such tests in our lives so that our imperfect lives can become refined and purified, enabling us to overcome the uncertainties and difficulties that arise.
Here are four biblical examples of how God tests hearts. The first example is in Genesis 22:1-2. For the background, read all of chapter 22. Verse one says that “God tested Abraham”. What was the test? The test was to take his only son, whom he loved, and go to God’s designated place and sacrifice him to God as a burnt offering. Of course, God never meant for him to kill his son, but it was a test to see if Abraham trusted God enough to obey the difficult thing God told him to do. Abraham knew God well enough to know that God would keep His promise and spare his son. According to verse 12, God was pleased with Abraham because Abraham trusted God and obeyed God’s will, even though it had to be the most difficult thing God had thus far asked of him. The second example is seen in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9. The apostle Paul was going through a very upsetting test by having things happen to him that were life threatening. Paul said that this sentence of death came upon him so that he would not trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead. Many of us, if not all, have a worry and concern about dying. Are we at peace with dying because we trust the promises of God? The third example we find in Daniel 6:23. Daniel has been thrown into a den of lions to be killed. But the next morning, the king who had condemned him came to check. He found that Daniel was still alive. How could this be? The Bible reports that Daniel was not harmed because he had trusted in his God. God’s test was not only for Daniel, but so others would believe in Daniel’s God. Fourth, in Psalm 73, the writer wonders what good it does for him to be a good person and obey God when he sees that evil is winning. The bad guy is getting rich and is enjoying life’s pleasures, while people trying to be good are suffering. Why trust God when suffering continues to plague us? How can people, including me, trust God in the midst of seeing bad guys win and good guys lose? It may surprise you to know that God is kind to all people as a way to test them to see if they will thank God as their provider, or reject God by saying they do not need him because life is going good without Him.
From the many verses about trust found in the Bible, we can learn a lot about what it means to trust God, plus why and how to do it. I can only touch on a few verses in this article, but you can study and learn from the many others that teach us something about trusting God. As a starter, consider Psalm 9:10. It says, “And those who know Your name will put their trust In You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.” Do you know how many names God has in the Bible? God has hundreds of names, each describing something about God’s character and actions. This verse reminds us that the more we get to know a person, the easier it is to trust them. Thus, the more we know about God, the more it helps us to be able to trust Him, and so experience His calming presence and help in life’s uncertain and difficult times.
Consider Isaiah 12:2, “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord is my strength and song…” How is trusting God a strength? Recently, I was tempted to give in to fear. I had been unintentionally losing a lot of weight, and I felt a pain in the area of my prostate cancer. I imagined that the cancer had spread into nearby bones and that I now had bone cancer. It would be easy for panic and fear to take over. But I have been learning not to let fear come into my life and control me. I talked to God and said things like, “You are my Heavenly Father. I have seen how many times you have done things to show me that you care about me. Thank You. You are a good and loving God and I know that you will not allow anything to come into my life that is not for my good. I would hate to go through the pain of cancer, but If I must, I know you will be with me and give me strength to go through it. I trust you to take care of me, no matter what that may mean…” As I shared these and other thoughts with God, and submitted all to Him, I felt His peace and a restful feeling come over me. Trusting God gave me the strength to conquer fear. I told my wife and daughter this story. My wife gave me helpful, encouraging words, and my daughter, facing difficult circumstances at the time, told me she was also battling some fears, but that she does not allow fear into her life. Jesus taught this when he said, “Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful (John 14:27). The Bible also says, “Perfect love casts out fear…and the one who fears is not perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). Knowing how much God loves me helps me trust His love. Like Isaiah the prophet of God said, “I will trust and not be afraid”. Trusting God gives us the strength to overcome fear.
In another Old Testament scripture, we learn something about God and trust from a man named Habakkuk. Read Habakkuk 1:1-5. Going through some extremely difficult and uncertain times, he is complaining that God is not helping him. He feels God has abandoned him. He asks, “why God?” Why are you allowing bad things to happen and you do not do anything about it? In verse 5, it is very interesting what God tells him. God answers his complaints and why questions by assuring him, “I am doing something in your days – You would not believe if you were told.” I don’t know what you learn from this, but to me God is saying to Habakkuk that He is doing something good, something that Habakkuk would not believe, even if he were told. It encourages me to know that God does not abandon us, and if only we could see what He is doing, it would help us to trust Him. Just because we don’t see God working the way we want does not mean God is not working and caring and doing something that will ultimately be for our good. (Read Romans 8:28-29, and read about the bad things in Joseph’s life, Genesis 37-50; especially 50:15-21)
Consider this example from the life of Jesus. Imagine that you were living when Jesus was crucified. You walk by and see him on the cross. You might think, “What crime did he commit that requires putting him to death?” Or, if you knew something about him, you might think, “He was a good man who went about doing miraculous things, and helping people. We thought he was our Messiah who came to free us from Roman rule. We got our hopes up that he would save us from our enemies. This is a huge disappointment. We trusted him and he is letting us down. The Messiah isn’t supposed to die.” In spite of what people thought, God was doing something for all of them by willing Jesus to die on the cross. If they only knew what God was doing, they would have understood and trusted Jesus, thanking him for doing what was needed to get them right with God and be enabled to live a new and eternal life. Do you think Jesus enjoyed suffering on the cross? No! But he did it, trusting that God was with him and would bring great good out of it. Just knowing that God is doing something to help us, even if we don’t see it, goes a long way toward helping us trust Him and have hope for a good future. Trusting God in uncertain and difficult times is not always easy. God will test us, not to punish us or get us to fall, but to let us see if we will trust His love and faithfulness no matter what. He wants us to trust Him. There are many more “trusting-God” verses that can help us with our “growing trust journey” in the God who never leaves or forsakes us.
