Anxiety. It’s a multi-faceted problem that can truly impede one’s walk with Christ. I personally have dealt with different seasons where anxiety stole my focus away from the Lord, and there were many reasons for this, both spiritual and carnal.
Today, I want to address one of the biggest causes: a lack of trust. If you struggle with trust issues, especially if you have been abandoned by family, in relationships, or in close friendships, this message is for you.
Revelations the Lord Gave Me About Trust
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in Yah, the LORD, is everlasting strength.” –Isaiah 26:3-4 (NKJV)
This comes from a revelation the Lord gave me last August, during a season when I was struggling with feeling very overwhelmed and anxious. In one week, the Lord led me back to Isaiah 26:3 and Isaiah 26:4 and the theme of “trusting in the LORD” several times.
Now, when the Lord sends multiple confirmations in one week, you’d better pay attention. Confirmations are essentially seeing a verse, topic area, or a sign related to something you have been seeking the Lord on repeatedly multiple times, either in written form or through the mouths of others, especially pastors and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Early in that week, I first came across Isaiah 26:3 through YouVersion’s “Verse of the Day,” and later that same day, near my desk at home, I found a notecard where I had previously written down Isaiah 26:3-4. The next day, the YouVersion “Verse of the Day” was Deuteronomy 31:8, “And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (emphasis mine)
That same afternoon, the revelation hit while on my way home from work. On the Uber ride home, I opened my Bible app and saw my last bookmarked passage was Psalms 37:3-5: “Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.” (emphasis mine)
During that ride, my heart was heavy with recent struggles with anxiety and fear, and I said mentally, “I hear you, Lord.” I knew I was struggling to trust God and that I had struggled with trust issues for the majority of my life. I knew it was why I still struggled with not letting go of anxieties and fears. I then meditated upon the verse and asked God why I couldn’t trust Him.
It was in that moment that He put the word “safe” upon my heart, and He revealed to me that my trust issues came from not feeling safe in my former relationships. This stemmed all the way back to when my father was barely there when I was growing up, and he left so much, and I didn’t feel he loved me. With the Lord, we can trust that He will keep us safe, that He will be our refuge, that He will never leave us.
That same night, I attended a biweekly discipleship class. The topic was “heart leaks” (crevices in our heart that haven’t been reached by the gospel) and how not acknowledging areas we struggle in from childhood trauma, etc., can bleed into future relationships. The clincher is when the pastor said, “If you were abandoned, you’ll leak trust.” That’s when the light bulb fully came on in my mind, and I leapt for joy, especially since the verse of the day that I had been meditating upon was about God never leaving us!
I was also led later, by the verse in my Our Daily Bread mailer that just arrived, to Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” (emphasis mine)
The next day, I came across Isaiah 26:3 again in my Bible study guide. That day, in my reading of Isaiah, the first chapter in my four daily Old Testament chapters’ reading, was none other than Isaiah 26, and my eyes fell immediately upon my previous highlight of Isaiah 26:3-4. Needless to say, I definitely felt and (and still do) called to really work on trusting God in this season.
Taking a Hard Look in the Mirror
If you have been struggling with anxiety, you need to ask yourself the hard questions: Am I struggling because I refuse to fully trust God with this? Am I ultimately afraid of losing myself by surrendering completely to the Lord? Have I been entertaining thoughts, music, movies/TV, etc., that have opened the door to a spirit of anxiety?
Now, the latter, I will address in more depth in a future blog post, Lord willing. Just be aware that anything you listen to or watch can open a door for the enemy to mess with you, and entertainment you may have thought was harmless, especially if you are a new believer, could be the opening he is using. This is why horror movies and anything glorifying the occult (witchcraft, sorcery, divination, New Age) should be a hard “no” for a child of God, especially if you have a history of depression and anxiety.
Getting back to the issue of a lack of trust, if you are struggling to trust because of past trauma, take a hard look at your heart posture toward the person(s) who caused it. Have you forgiven them, or are you still holding onto bitterness in your heart?
Unforgiveness will only hurt you, not them; trust me, I spent a long time not forgiving certain people, and it only hurt me, and it ultimately hindered my walk with Christ. I want to address forgiveness in depth in a future post, Lord willing, as it can truly make or break one’s spiritual growth.
Write a letter to the person who hurt you, as a means of closure, addressing how you were hurt, but ultimately ending the letter by forgiving them. You can choose to send the letter or not, but the important part is that you write it and let out everything you have kept bottled up inside.
One of the hardest things when it comes to a lack of trust in the Lord is the father aspect. If your own father hurt or abandoned you, you may find it hard to trust your Heavenly Father. The important thing to remember is that He will never leave you nor forsake you, that nothing can separate you from His love. Please rest in those promises and let Him heal you so that you can fully trust Him.
Moving Forward with Trusting God
If trust hasn’t come easy to you, then I encourage you to learn a lot more about Christ and His nature by truly soaking up the word and reading and studying it much more. It’s there that you get to learn more about God’s love, mercy, protection and all of His beautiful promises. We must learn to trust again, especially trust Him like a child, to truly have a childlike faith.
If you recognize that this has been a struggle, take this to the Lord in prayer. Ask Him to reveal to you what you need to do to fully trust again and ask Him to help you.
Most importantly, start praying much more and bring everything that is weighing you down to the Lord. And, when you bring it to Him, lay it down and leave it with Him. Trust Him to take care of it. Don’t try to pick it back up by ruminating about it again later in your thoughts.
Prayer is crucial in our walk with Christ; don’t abandon it or make it a rare occasion when you need something from Him. Prayer should be daily, multiple times throughout the day, in fact. Even when you don’t know what to pray, even just simply calling out to Him and asking Him for help in your situation is all you need sometimes. In future posts, Lord willing, I plan to write about the foundations and importance of prayer.
Now, when it comes to anxiety, particularly, memorize Psalm 23 and recite it whenever you feel anxiety rising up. Sometimes you may need to recite it two or three times, aloud, and that is okay. The more and more you recite it, the more you will find His peace, and the more you will begin to trust in His promises more.
Remember Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” To truly trust in the Lord, you need to learn to trust Him even when you don’t see physical proof yet that He is working. Always trust that He is working and keeping you safe even if your mind or the enemy is trying to tell you the opposite; that’s true faith.
Saved by His Grace 
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