What Does It Mean to Fully Trust God?

Question: What does it mean to put my full trust in God? What does that look like practically?

Answer: It means that instead of trusting in my own ability to protect myself or others, to acquire peace, to solve problems, or generally do anything of eternal value, I am trusting God to do these things. The world has never seen anyone who so fully trusted God other than one man, Jesus Christ. But that is what we are seeking to accomplish in every area of our lives as God shows us our self-dependence over and over.

This does not mean that we do not have responsibilities for acting wisely as God directs us. He tells us that we must work to provide for ourselves (Exodus 20:8-11), but He wants us to trust Him to provide our necessities (Matthew 6:25-34). He does this by making us healthy and able to work, or by using others to provide for us when we can’t. This same principle applies to locking our doors, being careful with how we trust others, and so on. We have no guarantees that God will preserve us from all harms, but even if He allows us to die, it was all in His plan and it will have been the better part of wisdom to have insurance in place, if we can, and have had plans for how our families will continue on.

Worry is the main indicator that we are not trusting God in practical ways (Matthew 6:34; Philippians 4:6). You will know that you are not on track with trusting Him when you find yourself fretting about how to do what needs to be done. Complacency and overconfidence is another indicator that you are not trusting. It means you are not seeing how your efforts are ultimately ineffective to accomplish God’s purposes.