Trusting God: Believing He will Complete His Work in You

Have you ever been in a place where you didn’t know what God was doing? How about in a long season and there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel?

Even if it’s just finding yourself struggling with the same issue time and again, we have all experienced dark places where we feel unsure of God’s plan in our lives. These are the times when we learn that trusting God is our only option.

When we wonder why things are unfolding a certain way.

When we wonder if we did something wrong, or if God forgot about us.

This is when God is longing for us to go deep in trusting Him. We must trust in His process in our lives and believe that He will complete His work in us.

Time to be still trusting God.

“Be still and know that [He] is God” Psalm 46:10

Recently I got to enjoy a long, hot, uninterrupted shower since my mom came over and was with the kids. She was teaching them to sew and, as I soaked up my solitude in the bathroom, I could hear them all working away while Grammi gently directed them in the process.

Several weeks back she had taken them to select and purchase fabrics for pillows. They then pinned them, cut them accordingly, and now was the day to stitch them together and stuff them. Each of my kids have different attention spans and capabilities, but they all wanted that finished product.

At one point I heard my older son getting a little frustrated as he was pushing the stuffing in and he saw that the stitches were loosening. Instantly, like a whisper, I felt in my spirit “Trust in the process”.

As I repeated it out loud, I realized that this was God speaking to me.

My kids were in the midst of a process of making these fun pillows, but they had to follow instruction and trust that in the end they would have a pillow, despite what it looked like with each step.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Even though my kids cannot see a pillow when holding some fabric, a pile of stuffing, and some thread in their hands — when complete it will be as they expected.

Don’t lean on our own understanding!

I was like “WOW!” Probably shows where I’m at since God needs this simple illustration get my attention, right? Well, I got thinking and realized, He had been speaking to my heart lately and I didn’t hear Him until now.

There were a few things that He graciously reminded me of that I had read over the past week or so.

It was all about trusting in the process. Not trying to plan it or execute it on my own.

I was reminded = “BIG GOD, little jenn”.

Our Process vs. God’s Process

I tend to be a planner and organizer, definitely energized and able to accomplish much with little. That is how He made me, and because of that, He also knows when He needs to slow me down.

After understanding this, I immediately started to evaluate what I had been focusing on recently and consider that I might be slowly starting to speed up. God’s process is not like mine.

His timing is not like mine.

God’s Process

He told Isaiah “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

It is good to be reminded of that especially when we don’t understand why things happen in our lives.

During some seasons, when we thought we did things the “right way”, we can feel hurt or confused when we don’t get the outcome we expected. It can be smaller things like rising early to pray for self-control to keep our tempers with our children that day, only to blow it when we are challenged to keep our cool one hour later (or less!).

In our marriages we can be trying to do all the right things. We are intentional about praying for our husband, cleaning his shirts, making his favorite meals, etc. Then we make a snarky remark over something foolish when we could have shown gentleness.

There are also much larger struggles like infertility, depression, or singleness. These issues and feelings cause us to go deep with Jesus in TRUSTING Him.

When we are afraid or worried about the outcome of a certain situation this is when Jesus pulls us close. He uses these times to increase our faith and learn to trust Him more.

Psalm 56:3 “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

As women, we can so easily struggle with trying to understand why God doesn’t just change us quickly or change the circumstance for us.

Again, His ways are higher than our ways, so we wrestle with trying to come to God and understand. We like to “understand” why things are going the way they are.

But this is not how God works, is it? He has a process. A work that He gradually does in each one of us to bring us deep.

Lemon Meringue Pie

The process at work in each of one us by Jesus has a very deep purpose for us. His will for us is simply that we trust Him to lead us to the next step in our journey.

Psalm 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

If we truly desire God’s instruction, we will need to trust Him deeply and believe by faith that He is watching us and leading us. There is a purpose in the process.

As I was thinking on this theme of trusting in the process, God brought to my mind a picture of a Lemon Meringue Pie. Kind of odd to me since I don’t like Lemon Meringue Pie and I certainly have not made one (minimal baking skills here, my friend) and yet, this suddenly became an illustration to me.

I began thinking about the detail of the process to make one. Have you ever made a Lemon Meringue Pie? I asked this at an women’s event and not one lady raised her hand. Know why? They are SO extremely difficult to make!!!

To make a Lemon Meringue Pie you must add ingredients in exact measurements. The eggs must be carefully cracked and separated, keeping only the egg whites. You must mix the meringue at the perfect speed, for the exact amount of time. Then bake at a temperature just right – not a second too long.

It takes some bakers years to perfect this process. They need to make slight adjustments at the different stages. A little less sugar, or a slower speed of mixing for those beautiful soft, white whisps to appear. Finally, it requires the perfect temperature and time for those golden peaks to bake on top.

The process of making the perfect lemon meringue pie is much like God’s work in our lives. The difference is that HE is the ultimate baker. He knows all the measurements, mixing speeds, and temperature’s required. Jesus is able to complete the good work in us that He began.

One key ingredient is deep trust for sure.

When we feel He is giving us more than we can handle, we must trust. If we think He is turning up the temperature too high for our liking, we must trust. In the end we will see a beautiful display of His goodness in us. When we have deep trust.

Sanctification

In our relationship with God, we have to walk through some of the messy times where He is cutting away parts of our lives or hearts. Then there are times when He is putting the pieces together and we get a glimpse of that finished product.

Our walk with Him is a process. The process of change and growth.

The funny thing is, we are always at some point in the process. This process is also known as sanctification. On that day that we give our heart to Jesus, we are justified –“just as if I’d never sinned” is an appropriate phrase that going with it. With justification, all our past sins and choices are under the blood.

Now we step forward and make new choices, new mistakes, new sins. We begin to see our need to be continually sanctified – purified, cleansed – by that same blood that saves us.

Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Jesus alone knows how to sanctify us and make us shine with a crown of golden “whisps” and “peaks”.

As we go deep in trusting Him and His process, we are choosing to submit to the sanctification work of Jesus.

We cannot rush or try to add things to our lives that are out of His will. But we must believe that He will create in us a heart that deeply trusts Him.

That He will accomplish His plans in our lives. Especially in the hard times we must trust. He is a personal God, Who cares for you more than you know.

His perfect process is at work.

Trust in that process and you will gain deep faith and be blessed.