To trust God we must first establish obedience. God adopts us into His family as His children at salvation. And as adopted children we are suspicious and tend to mistrust the good intentions of our adoptive parent. The parent who has shown up in our lives has no credibility with us. We judge God harshly based on our previous experiences. The harsh reality and uncomfortable truth is before salvation our lives are being dictated to by the consequences of sin and the rulership of the devil. And it is not great, he comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Having been rescued from this abusive ruler, it is hard for the ‘average sinner turned believer’ to trust in God.
In this new found relationship, God needs to first establish trust. He does this by giving us His set of standards and the code of conduct or values that He expects. These are contained in the bible, His word that He made available to us. One of the handicaps that keeps tripping us in this new reality is God our beloved parent is invisible. However if we are diligent enough to study His word we can get to know Him through the things that He says about Himself and also through the lives of the people contained in the bible. Their stories shed a light on the character and attributes of God. Their triumphs and failures also highlight the paths to take and the pitfalls to avoid. These testimonies establish the truth that obedience is key in trusting God.
God sent Jesus His son as the acceptable sacrifice to atone for our sins. His death not only freed us from sin and death but it also gave us access to live an abundant life free from fear, worries and lack. According to what Jesus says in John 14:1 trust is a choice and we can choose who to give it to. What Jesus did on the cross gives us access to a phenomenal being who is God Almighty. Not only did He create us to have fellowship but He also made a way to restore the broken relationships as a result of the fall of man.
Holy Spirit helps us understand what the word says, the true interpretation of the word. Jesus promised while He was still on earth that He would send us an advocate. Jesus promised that we would not be orphaned that we would not be alone. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live victoriously here on earth. And the extent of growth in our relationship and dependence on God is equivalent to how much trust and faith we are willing to invest. We display our trust by obeying the commands laid out for us in His word.