What does it mean to actually trust God?
First, we trust in God for salvation. We recognize how we have rebelled against God, we turn away from sinful behaviors and thought patterns, we ask God to make us right with Him because of Jesus’s payment on the cross, and we trust Him to actually forgive us. We believe that He has made us right with Him and will give us a home in heaven. When doubt creeps in (Am I actually saved? Did God really forgive me?), we reject the doubts and choose to believe. I think of a trust fall. I trust that God is going to catch me.
We must trust God not only for salvation, but also for every single millisecond of every day. When is this light going to turn green? I’m going to be late! Why did that person just say that to me? That was so rude. There are so many seemingly small areas of life in which we so often don’t practically trust God. We need to actually believe that “all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
In Galatians, Paul wrote to a group of people who trusted Jesus for salvation but then tried to become holy through behavior change alone. Paul said to them, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2-3). Paul is saying here that we must trust God for salvation, and then we must continue trusting God for every single thing that happens in life. That’s how we become perfected in Christ.
Keep trusting. Keep trusting. Keep trusting. Endless trust in an endlessly trustworthy God.