A few weeks ago, my husband and I were walking through the doors of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, thankful that God had opened so many doors to make this trip possible. By the end of the first day, I was devastated. I had received an answer to part of why we were there, but it came with no immediate solution. That evening, I found myself questioning why God would work so faithfully to get us there if this was going to be the outcome.
The next morning, during my quiet time, Jesus and I had a very passionate discussion. He made it abundantly clear that I needed to put on my big-girl pants and start trusting Him! He had brought me there for a reason, and His purposes are greater than mine.
As I processed that conversation, I realized how easy it is to say I fully trust Jesus—but do I really? Have you ever been disappointed by the way something turned out after trusting God? Looking back, were you truly trusting Him, or were you simply telling Him what the outcome should be?
As I began reading story after story in the Bible, it dawned on me that every one of them involves trusting God. I started with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18, where God promised they would have a son. They trusted Him for a while, but eventually took matters into their own hands. Yet it was 25 years after God’s promise that Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
Then you have Joseph in Genesis 37. At 17 years old, he received dreams of greatness, only to be sold into slavery by his brothers. He spent the next 13 years as a slave and a prisoner before interpreting Pharaoh’s dream and becoming second in command over Egypt. It would be another 10 years before he was reunited with his father and brothers.
Then there are the Israelites, who trusted God to lead them from Egypt to the Promised Land—a journey that took 40 years. The stories of trusting God continue from Genesis to Revelation.
I love the way Jeremiah 17:7 (NLT) defines trust: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.”
When our trust, hope, and confidence are in God, He moves to the center of our lives. The problem comes when we place our trust, hope, and confidence in ourselves. At its core, that’s the most basic form of idolatry.
Jeremiah goes on to describe what happens when we misplace our trust: “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. They are stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land” (Jeremiah 17:5-6, NLT).
When we place our trust in ourselves or in other people, we end up spiritually dry and empty. The difference between trusting people and trusting the Lord is ultimately the difference between living a cursed life and living a blessed one. It’s easy to drift into trusting ourselves instead of God. So how do we keep our trust, hope, and confidence pointed in the right direction?
Jeremiah answers that question in the very next verse: “He is like a tree planted by water, that sends its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8, ESV).
When we remain firmly rooted in God’s Word, we stay connected to the Source—Jesus Christ—who provides the living water we need to grow and flourish. The secret is not finding our strength in anything this world offers, but sending our roots deep into the Source and guarding our hearts.
The world constantly entices us to place our trust in ourselves—our abilities, our finances, our relationships, or whatever feels secure at the moment. It promotes a vision of truth that is shaped by feelings, culture, and changing opinions. But God’s truth is absolute. It never changes because it is rooted in the unchanging character of Jesus.
In Jeremiah’s picture, the heat comes. The drought comes. Yet the tree does not fear. It is not anxious. Its leaves remain green, and it never stops bearing fruit.
Trusting the Source doesn’t eliminate difficult seasons, but it changes how we walk through them. We can choose to simply survive, or we can choose to thrive. In the middle of those seasons, we can pause to reflect on the journey, recognize what God is teaching us, and become more aware of His constant presence. We begin to see His love, grace, and faithfulness surrounding us in ways we might have otherwise missed.
The world will always urge us to trust only ourselves. But when we set the world’s voice aside and place our trust completely in the Source, our roots grow deeper than our circumstances, and God’s grace sustains us. The promise God gives us isn’t a life free from hardship. The promise is His presence, His faithfulness, and His grace through every season of life.