We all go through seasons, periods in our lives when we just don’t want to obey God. It seems hard to trust Him. We feel like, maybe He doesn’t REALLY have our best interests at heart. Maybe He’s thinking of His own. Maybe He’s just not paying attention. Maybe He’s even forgotten us. Our situation. Surely He has a lot to deal with, right? Why would He care for our small, seemingly insignificant problems?
How do you trust Him, how do you obey Him, when all you want to do is run far, far away from Him? YET, at the same exact time, you don’t; you want to run TO Him. You’re begging Him to help you. Help me, Lord, help me obey, but in your heart, you know that prayer is superficial and you don’t REALLY mean it.
How do you get out of all of this?
Because YOU KNOW, you KNOOOOOOWWWW, that if you DON’T obey Him, you’re gonna either make a mistake and ruin things or be lovingly punished. He’s our Father. When our children misbehave, we punish them, for their good, and likewise, our Father punishes sin in us as well.
So what happens though, when you know you’re in sin, whether you’re doing something wrong or don’t want to do something He’s asked you to do? What do you do when you don’t want to obey Him? You know you should, you KNOW all the right answers, and yet, your heart is so far removed from those answers.
How do you trust and obey God when you don’t want to?
How Do You Trust and Obey God When You Don’t Want To?
While there’s no one right answer here, here’s a couple of things that help me in times of rebellion or disbelief in God’s will.
I remember
This is definitely a lifetime battle we go through at various points for sure, but I think that over time, we get better at obeying. We go through something and then, the next time we are called to trust, it’s a little easier. God asks us in the Bible to REMEMBER.
Remember His faithfulness in the past.
REMEMBER how He’s always provided the best for us.
REMEMBER.
There’s so many rewards to remember in my life.
Right after I got out of the homeless shelter, as a brand new believer, I had to trust Him for food. For shelter. He provided, but not just provided to survive. It was in ABUNDANCE. Just pure abundance.
One week, I had nothing. No couch, no silverware, no laundry soap, no clothes, no bed, nothing. Just a completely bare apartment.
The next week or two, I had a house full of stuff, everything I needed, much of what I didn’t need. Just from different sources.
I remember His faithfulness. His genuine care for me. His love. His provision.
You could make a journal. Every time He answers a prayer, every time He shows you that trusting in Him was good, write it down. I love keeping my prayer journal because it shows me and reminds me that my prayers were answered.
Download your answered prayers book below…
Download the Answered Prayers Book here.
Teach
There is nothing that will slap you right out of that funk than to get a question from someone else, asking YOU how to get through it. Believe me. Part of the reason I LOVE to teach, whether it’s about God, saving money, making money, printables, etc. is that I’m constantly reminded.
When something is ingrained in your mind, when you teach it, it has a way of bubbling to the surface. All that knowledge, all that belief, all that trust, will come bubbling up and as you’re talking to THEM all the while you’re talking to yourself. You hear your OWN advice. You know it’s true.
Ever see in a movie where the character is giving advice and they stop, sit straight up, and realize, that’s exactly what THEY needed to hear?
If you struggle with trusting and obeying God, teach it to others. As much as you can. Keep it ingrained in your mind and on your heart.
Memorize His promises
One of my favorite things to do is to go through the Bible subject by subject. Topic by topic. If I’m struggling with patience, I’ll begin listening to every sermon I can get my hands on (that is Biblical) to remind myself of God’s promises and God’s words.
Whatever I’m dealing with at the moment, you can almost always find me with a book in my hand, researching where it is in the Bible that talks about that particular thing.
Right now I’m refreshing my memory on quotes from the bible on what God says about money. I did the study a few years ago and these are my favorite sermon series’ for that topic:
The Bible is good for anything because it has everything in it. Everything we deal with, struggle with, it’s all there. Maybe directly, maybe indirectly, or maybe in principle, but it’s there.
I tend to stay away from the most COMMON promises too.
For example, if someone is struggling with trusting God, one might lead them to Proverbs 3:5-6. But those verses are so overused.
For ME personally, that’s annoying. I’m sorry. I get annoyed with milk. So if you’re like me, and you want MEAT, you want to grow and learn and REALLY dive deep, find the promises in the Bible that aren’t overdone, and then memorize them.
After a while, you’ll have a good brain full of all different topics. These are things that you can use to deal with in your life, and as you come across struggles and dedicate it to memory, you’ll have something far more precious and useful than the Bible itself because you may not have access to your Bible at all times, but you always have access to your mind.
Filling it up with holy and just promises, is something we should all endeavor to do.
So for this particular topic, trusting God, it reminds me of Romans 5:5. That’s my favorite verse that I think of on the subject.
“…and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Hope is your faith. It’s your trust. You, trusting in God and having hope that He will do as He’s promised, does NOT disappoint.
It means, when you fast forward to the end of the story, when all is said and done, you will NOT be disappointed. God won’t disappoint you. He WILL KEEP His promises.
Listen, I have been waiting 5 YEARS in one area to see that ending. I may have to wait another year or five, I do not know. But I know one thing… I know that when GOD says the trial is over, I will NOT be disappointed. My hope in Him, in His promise, is true. I can take it to the bank. It’s a guarantee.
God is not a liar. If He says something, He will do it.
Here are the Bible verses I have memorized over the years (you can color in the background!)…
Download the Bible Verses to Get You Through Everything Printables here. It’s also a coloring page too, with fun illustrations! 🙂
Verses (this has gotten me through the past 10 years):
- BEING YOUNG: 1 Timothy 4:12
- TRUSTING GOD: Jeremiah 29:11
- MISSION: 1 Corinthians 10:31
- RESPONDING: Proverbs 26:4
- GREED: Proverbs 28:25
- DO GOOD: Romans 12:21
- GOD’S WILL: Romans 8:29
- SELFISHNESS: Philippians 2:3
- PICKING FRIENDS: 1 Corinthians 15:33
- WITNESSING: Romans 3:23
- OBEDIENCE: John 14:15
- PATIENCE: James 1:4
- DIRECTION: Psalm 119:105
- NOT FAIR: Romans 6:23
- JOY: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
- PEACE: John 14:27
- DOING THE RIGHT THING: Proverbs 14:12
- WORRY: Matthew 6:34
Pray
Ask others to pray for you. Tell them you want to obey but can’t seem to. Ask godly people to pray for you.
Also, ask GOD to help you.
Don’t you think that He knows your heart? Don’t you think that He KNOWS you want to obey, but can’t? That you are torn in your spirit and flesh? He made you. He knows. Jesus was torn in His spirit and flesh too! The night He prayed in Gethsemane that the cup be taken from Him, do you think He WANTED to die? He asked God to let it pass from Him.
But He also yielded to God and died on the cross for us.
He KNOWS what we are feeling. He’s been through it, as a man, as a human man. He understands.
Tell Him. Tell Him how you feel. Ask Him to help you NOT be torn.
Here’s the thing, really; He’s the only part of us that IS good. Only HE can help us BE good, which means, only because of HIS power CAN WE obey Him!!!
Wrap your mind around that.
God asks us to obey Him, and yet, we can’t. Only HE can give us the POWER to obey Himself.
When you truly understand that, it’ll help you be more free to pray. Ask Him to help you. He knows you can’t do it on your own. None of us can.
Ask Him to help you walk in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is the BEST way to avoid making mistakes or going down the wrong path. We must align our thoughts, attitudes, and heart to God and His will and at the end of the day, He’s the only One who can help us do that, ESPECIALLY when we’re so tempted to rebel.
Whatever you ask Him, ask Him to help! He’s the solution!!!
Resist the devil
I don’t care what people say, the devil is alive and well and wreaking havoc on the Earth. He wants you to fail and fail hard.
He wants you to not obey God and he’s going to do everything in his power to talk you out of it.
RESIST the devil and he will flee from you, the Bible says.
Don’t entertain those thoughts he puts in your mind. The temptations. Say no right away and he will leave. Ask God to help you resist him. There’s more power in you, as a child of God, than in Satan. You can resist him and win!
Seeing it through His eyes
You know…five years ago, God gave me a promise. He promised me that I would be married again. That I would have someone to hold and love. Someone to love ME.
I spend all my time serving others. Outside of sleeping, my life is literally poured out to others. Both in my own family, my kids, and on this blog.
When you really get down to it, the main reason I serve is because I know what it’s like to have no one serve you.
Mother’s Day comes around and your husband doesn’t do anything for you. When they’re handing out roses at church, and you’re “just pregnant”, you don’t get a flower, because they don’t consider you a mom (yes, that really happened and yes, it’s really rude. Pregnant is a mom!!!)
Your husband leaves, your kids don’t love you. You feel forgotten. Alone. Rejected. Like why are you even trying? No one cares anyway.
I know what it’s like to suffer. To have no one care and I’m not saying no one cares about me now, but that, in my real life, I don’t have any family who does. I serve because I know what it’s like to BE forgotten. Overlooked. Underestimated. Passed over. Rejected.
I don’t want one other woman out there to FEEL like I’ve felt. To hurt like I’ve hurt. To be all alone like I’ve been all alone. To think that no one in the world cares. So I try really hard to serve, to show ladies that someone DOES care…me, and in turn God.
But in serving others, it doesn’t make ME be served. There’s not actually anyone in my life that serves ME. And don’t we all need someone to serve us? Whether it’s a hug or telling them everything will be alright. We all need to be loved on.
I don’t get loved on in person. There’s just no one here.
My ex-husband asked me to give up God or he’d leave. I chose God and he left. Sometimes I pray out to God, 5 years later, “Lord, you’re just going to leave me here??? All alone? You PROMISED! You promised you’d give me a mate.” And while He HAS given me a future husband, for reasons unknown to me, we are separated.
Most my friends say I should just forget him, but I can’t. He’s the man God intends for me. Leaving the situation, would be walking away from God, so as hard as it is sometimes to STAY, I choose to stay because I choose to obey God.
But with every human right, I cry out to God, “What is going on?! What the heck? Why isn’t this happening? Why can’t I have someone NOW?” I mean, in all fairness, this isn’t me waiting 3 months or even a year guys, this is FIVE…YEARS!!!!!
And yet God says to me, “Trust me”.
You know how hard it is to trust that God is still even working in this situation when it’s been THAT many years? How many times I’ve wanted to quit. Throw my hands up in the air. Walk away.
A lot. 🙂 Through tears, I tell you…a LOT!
But I can’t look at things how *I* see them, can I?
God is perfect and if HE promised me a husband, He will provide one. In HIS time. In His own way.
Seeing my situation from HIS eyes looks very different than how I see it.
He’s provided me everything I could ever want. I want for nothing, really. I make a lot of money. I live a VERY good life. I have my dream house. My car is paid for. I have no debt (other than my mortgage, which I choose to keep as I’m told it’s a wise financial decision to build credit, etc.)
My life is really great. I’m comfortable. I’m taken care of. I work hard, God provides. He gives me rest when I need it. He takes care of me. There’s really nothing I can complain about in my life. Nothing.
Without a husband, I’m taken care of. Without a husband, I’m still loved (by God). Without a husband, I’m still free. I can go anywhere, do anything I want. The world doesn’t end, if I don’t have a husband. Do I want one? Yes. Absolutely. But, life is okay without one. It’s better than okay. I have a really great life.
Instead of me focusing on what I DON’T have, I try to focus on what I DO have. The more I focus on what I DO have and what God PROVIDES, the more I see things through His eyes.
He doesn’t OWE ME a husband. He promised, yes, but in His time. I have to trust in His time.
Is that hard? You bet-cha bottom dollar it is!!! It’s PAINSTAKINGLY difficult.
Seeing things from God’s point of view is not easy. But I think that the more we pray and ask Him for us to see it from His point of view, then He WILL give that to us. Right now I’m praying that God help me see it more from His perspective about my future husband. Because it IS tough.
Every time something breaks in my house, I bitterly mumble, “If I had a husband, I wouldn’t have to deal with this.” Listen, it’s hard. Life happens.
But the truth is that we have to align ourselves with Christ. His thoughts. His views. His ideas.
We can always find something to be bitter about.
We can always have something to complain about, but the point is to lift our eyes to God, and ask Him to show us His eyes. The day we can do that, is the day we can fully put our trust in Him and wait out whatever He’s asking us to wait out. 🥰
