Trusting in God is one of the foundations of the Christian life.  It’s extremely difficult to live in faith, surrender, love, obedience, or other parts of relationship with God if you don’t trust Him.  But when you do trust – these “requirements” or “duties” come much easier.

One of the most effective ways of growing in trust is to experience and do life with God.  When you’ve seen Him come through, when you’ve walked life with Him, trust is inevitable.  I’ve seen the Lord work miracles on my behalf, and that makes me much more confident in His ability to take care of me.

That doesn’t mean that He won’t push the boundaries of your trust or stretch you or reveal more parts of life where you don’t trust Him yet.  It’s all part of growth.  But here are a few ways that you can grow in trust in God as you’re doing life with Him – even intentionally trusting Him in certain areas of your life.

10 Ways to Grow in Trusting God

1. Be genuine with yourself and God.  When you hide a part of yourself, you aren’t walking in truth.  And without truth, trust is neigh unto impossible.

2. Speaking of truth, fill your mind with truth – and choose truth.  The Bible says to take every thought captive.  Don’t agree with the thoughts that flit through your mind that aren’t truth.  In conversations with yourself and others, ask yourself: Is what I’m saying or thinking the truth?  Am I assuming something?  Or is this how God sees the person or situation?

3. Remind yourself of who God is – consistently.  It’s easier to choose to trust God when it’s top-of-mind that He is the God Who provides, the God Who sees, the God of peace, God our healer, God almighty, God with us, the God who saves, etc.

4. Spend time with Jesus.  It’s easy to believe all kinds of crazy things about someone you’re not around.  But the moment they step into the room, those lies vanish because the reality is standing in front of you (this can be both positive and negative, I might add, depending on the person).  When you spend time with God, the lies about Him vanish – and it’s much easier to trust Him because He is trustworthy (Numbers 23:19).

5. Refuse to be controlling.  Someone recently told me, “The opposite of faith isn’t doubt – it’s needing to be in control.”  When we take control, we’re telling God and others, “I don’t trust you to do this; I’m going to do it myself so that I know it gets done right.”  And yes, there are times when you need to do it right!  But taking control – especially as a habit – is working against learning to trust God.  (That said, refusing to be controlling isn’t an excuse to be irresponsible or sluff off on responsibility.)

6. Early Christians were called “believers.”  You can’t believe in what you don’t trust exists (Hebrews 11:6).  Remind yourself of the simple parts of your faith (this isn’t doctrine per se, just the basic building blocks of Who God is and what He has done for you).

7. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you through your day, and ask Him for specific direction in the small things in life.  This base-level learning to hear and obey will bear fruit in the form of greater trust in God, His will for you, and the way He cares for you and your life.  (Obedience also builds truth in you – see 1 John 2:4.)

8. The Amplified Bible describes a person who trusts in the Lord as one “whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character]” (Isaiah 26:3).

9. Remind yourself of what God has done in the past.  Nothing builds faith in God quite like remembering His works.  This faith will also build trust.

10. Ask God to help you trust.  Your trust will then be fueled by the Holy Spirit – and that’s huge!

Do you have any other ways that you grow in trust?  Feel free to comment below!