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One of the clearest indicators of spiritual growth is trust. A person who trusts God, knows God. Such a person can remain at peace and immovable through the storms of life. They are also unafraid to go anywhere or do anything for God.

Do you want to grow in trusting God? Here are four practical tips to help you develop deeper trust:

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1. Know God’s Promises

What has God promised you? Sometimes we try to trust God for things He never promised, and when nothing happens, we feel discouraged—or even blame Him. But that’s misguided.

If you want to trust God for something, make sure it aligns with His will.

How do you know what He has promised? The Word of God is filled with promises for His sons and daughters. This is a broad topic, but here’s a quick highlight: when you were born again, you received “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Isn’t that exciting? I’ll leave it up to you to discover what “all things” includes. A good hint is to look at the life Jesus lived on earth—a life full of power, victory, provision, and wisdom.

Study the Word of God and the life of Jesus to understand the promises God has for you. Knowing these promises will increase your confidence and deepen your trust.

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2. Spend Time With God

Knowing God’s promises means little unless you know the One who made them. A promise is only as trustworthy as the person who gives it. If you can’t trust the promiser, the promise loses its value.

So how do you build trust with anyone? By getting to know them. And how do you do that? By spending time with them. The more time you spend with someone, the more you get to know them—and the more you trust them.

It’s the same with God. If you want to trust Him more, spend time with Him. And as you get to know Him, your trust in Him will grow naturally. Eventually, you’ll have no problem believing even the most unlikely promises—because you know the One who made them.

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3. Embrace the Wilderness

Everyone thinks they can swim—until the floaties come off. Let’s be honest: what we often call “trust in God” is really just trust in things going well.

That’s why, when God trains us to trust Him, He often leads us through a wilderness season. Just look at anyone who walked with God in the Bible—Abraham, Joseph, David, even Jesus—they all had wilderness moments.

The wilderness is uncomfortable, but it’s good for you. It holds up a mirror, revealing where your trust was really just based on comfort or circumstances. In the wilderness, all your supports are stripped away until God is your only anchor.

So the next time you pray, “God, help me trust You,” get ready to embrace the wilderness. Don’t worry—it will shape you for the better.

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4. Act

Trust always expresses itself in action. A person who trusts God does something about it.

You may feel like you trust God, but that feeling isn’t confirmed until you act. Action validates trust. It’s how trust is birthed into reality. Trust that doesn’t lead to action is just hype.

So be bold—take action. Practice trusting God in small, everyday situations, like resisting the urge to double-check if you locked the door when you know you did. This trains your mind and body in the courage required to trust God in bigger things.

Moses would never have split the Red Sea if he hadn’t stretched out his hand in faith. He trusted God and acted, even while the crowd around him was ready to stone him.

The truth is, no matter how much you grow in trusting God, your flesh will always resist. That’s why learning to trust God is not a one-time decision but a daily practice of subduing the flesh and choosing faith.

God wants you to be happy. I really think you needed to hear that.

I don’t know why—but we (Christians) and the world at large (influenced by what we think of ourselves), tend to think that happiness is an afterthought in Christianity. We feel, and prove by how we live—that happiness not the main purpose of our lives, but something that we will arrive at at one day (most likely in heaven). Happiness, for Christians, seems to be a deferred state of being.

I’m here to tell you that this is not God’s design for you. Some of my favorite moments in the account of creation are those when God paused to take note that the thing(s), He created were good.

Why take note of that? It seems as if, He was trying to say to us: “Hey, when I made the world—it was all good. Everything was perfect. Goodness is my perfect will and design.”

Goodness is a of the fruit of The Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). What this means is that every good thing, is God’s and has its start with Him (James 1:17). Happiness belongs to God, because it is good. Yes, it is a good thing to be happy.

God wants his children to be happy, no less than you would want your kids to be. As a matter of fact, the simple answer to the question: “What does God want from me?” is for you to be happy. God created you to be happy.

I feel like it’s hard for us to receive that. Say it out loud: God created me to be happy.

This has been God’s want for mankind (and all creation) from the start. His desire is for us to live in the fullness of His Goodness, having no lack of any good thing (Psalm 34:10).

Do you want to know why God created you to be happy? Because He Himself is happy. God is the embodiment of happiness and gladness. He is exuberantly joyful. Paul writes in Romans 14:17 that The Kingdom of God, or in other words, the atmosphere of God’s rule is “righteousness, peace, and joy in The Holy Spirit”. God’s rule is characterized as such, because God Himself is The Righteousness, The Peace, and The Joy. Well, what does this mean for me? Well I, having been created in the very image of God, am modeled after Joy Himself. I have the right to be happy. God designed me for it, spiritually, physically, and mentally.

I love how Paul writes that these traits of God’s Kingdom (righteousness, peace, and joy) are all in The Holy Spirit.

Paul had to add this disclaimer, because there also exist righteousness, peace, and joy that are counterfeit. God doesn’t want any of these for you; He wants you to have the real thing, which is only found in Him. He wants you to have His own righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), His own peace (John 14:27), His own joy/happiness (Galatians 5:22 — joy is the fruit of The Holy Spirit).

Do you know what God’s happiness is in? God’s happiness in Himself. The source of God’s joy is God! Therefore, God desiring that you experience the same happiness, offers Himself to you, as your Greatest Reward (Genesis 15:1), so that you may be happy (Psalm 126:2, Psalm 103:1-5).

Your happiness, to God, is not an afterthought….it’s not an add-on. No, to Him, your happiness, is a basic, fundamental purpose, for which God created you. He created you to be made exceedingly glad, by His Love.

Isaiah 55 paints a clear picture of God’s purpose for humanity. At first, God makes an open call for salvation, for any who wants it:

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
    come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
    come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
    without money and without price.
² Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
    and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
    and delight yourselves in rich food.
³ Incline your ear, and come to me;
    hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
    my steadfast, sure love for David.”

Isaiah 55:1-3, ESV.

Then in verses 10 & 11, God speaks about the power of His words to always accomplish what He purposes them for:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
¹¹ so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11, ESV.

The right after, He paints a beautiful picture of what the culmination of this purpose looks like:

“For you shall go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall break forth into singing,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:12, ESV.

The culmination of God’s purpose for us looks like joy and peace.

Praise God!

My friend, God is inviting you to freely come and experience His Goodness, in order to “taste” and see…to prove for yourself how good He is (Psalm 34:8) and experience how pleasurable life is in His presence (Psalm 16:11). He adds taste, delight, bliss, and meaning to everything. A beautiful day is made brighter…a breathtaking view, even more vibrant. Everything exudes breathtaking eternal glory, in the light of His Face.

I hope this truth has liberated you. You are free to be happy. Take it easy and Enjoy Him.

It’s easy to get excited when God speaks. It is hard to remain in what He has said.

What a refreshing moment it is when God speaks. It is supernatural. It elicits excitement and faith out of us. Yet, no matter how explosive, excitement seldom carries one over the finish line—because excitement will most certainly always fade. Excitement fades even when God is the one who elicits it out of us. This is not because God is not exciting enough, but because we have the tendency get distracted. We must remember that excitement is a response, not a source. It doesn’t have any power of its own. It only works when attached to the source that elicits it—and the means by which it gets attached is abiding.

In John 8:31-32 Jesus speaks the famous words, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

— A few things to note here:

1. Jesus is speaking to people who had already believed in Him.

The people whom Jesus tells to “abide in His word” are people who had just believed in Him (John 8:25-30). They had seen His work, heard His message and had been convinced that He is The Son of God.

Powerful? Indeed. Yet, this is what Jesus says to them in direct response to their new faith in Him. He tells them to abide. Jesus is saying to them “Hey. It’s wonderful that you believe in Me. Great start! But here is what you must do now: No matter what takes place hereafter—you must abide or rmain in what you just believed in.”

Remember, Jesus would go the cross soon, and His believers would be tempted to doubt. Even after His resurrection, the church would face terrible persecution and many believers would be tempted to abandon the faith. This is why Jesus tells them to abide. He is telling them to remain in the truth they have believed about Him—even after the excitement fades, and as a matter of fact, when their excitement is replaced by temptations of doubt, anxiety, and fear.

The application for us? It may be easy for us to start out with faith and excitement, at the moment we hear God. Yet, it is hard to remain excited in what He has spoken to us mid-journey, as we’re faced with different challenges and trials. God is telling us that this is normal. He is saying to us, “don’t fret about your fleeting excitement—focus on remaining on My words. It is not excitement that fuels your life; it is Me and My promises!”.

2. Knowing is the fruit of abiding.

I find it interesting that Jesus tells a group of people who had believed the truth about Him that they have yet to know the truth. How could they have believed in the truth, if they did not know it already?

The answer to this lies in what God defines knowledge to be. We generally interpret knowledge as having good information/being well-informed about something; but God defines knowledge as having the complete experience of something.

So here, Jesus is telling his believers, that they will come to know or experience the truth they’d believed about Him—only if they continue to remain or abide in His word, for the long haul. This makes sense, as the truth they would come to experience—rebirth into God’s family—was not yet available to them, since Jesus has not yet defeated sin and death. Only those who remained believing in Him, after His resurrection and glorification, would come to know truth and be set free by it!

The application for us? Knowing or experiencing God’s promise is not the fruit of excitedly receiving His promise, but abiding in His promise till the end.

My friend, what has God promised you? What is He speaking to you right now? Did you start out with faith and excitement, but lost sight of His word on the way? I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone. God is a Faithful Friend. The Holy Spirit is your Great Helper—and He’s reminding you to abide and remain in Him today, no matter where you are on the journey.

Faith is an easy choice in good weather, but a challenging one in the midst of the storm. Still, it’s in your possession, and just as powerful in the midst of the storm! Choose it! When you choose to abide and remain by faith, in the Voice that excited you at the start, you will be empowered to run with great endurance—oh and excitement returns by the way, since you’ve attached to the Source.

Hope is a basic necessity for every member of creation. God designed us to exist in a constant state hope. The Kingdom of God is The Kingdom of Hope. There is never a moment of hopelessness with God. However this is rarely our experience of life. Most people live in state of subconscious fear that some tragedy will befall them – unwittingly expecting hopelessness to be their reality. Because of this, hopelessness is always lurking in the corner, casting its grim shadow on the confidence needed to live a life marked by peace and freedom.

So what are we to do about this?

The solution starts by we believing that living a life that is marked by perfect and uninterrupted hope is possible. Here is a word of wisdom that is applicable to any aspect of life: we are always limited by what we think is possible. Uninterrupted hope, by the way is something that we  must choose to believe, against all odds; because the conditions of this fallen world are definitely not going to lead us there!

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”

– Proverbs 13:12 NKJV

No man is designed to live without hope. Living without hope is essentially – breathing without air. The absence of hope empties the very core of man; yet when hope is restored, Solomon describes it as being “a tree of life”. This is because the absence of hope is really the absence of life. The absence of hope is  a product of  the absence of life. Hopelessness is a symptom of being separated from the life of God.

Hopelessness is a symptom of being separated from the life of God.

You know, hope was Adam and Eve’s default and only state until they sinned. Their sin created hopelessness. Sin is unlike God, and it creates things that are not in God. So here’s the thing: if you are born again and abide in God, hopelessness has no place in you. And here’s the reason why – 2000 years ago, God executed a plan to rid humanity of its rampant hopelessness by one means – eradicating the very substance that created hopelessness in the first place: sin.

Jesus started His ministry by quoting the words Isaiah prophesied of Him:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³ To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…” – Isaiah 61:1-3 NKJV

Jesus is essentially saying here that God anointed or enabled Him to carry out the following tasks: bring good news to the spiritually bankrupt (or dead), heal those in despair, bring freedom to those held hostage by fear, comfort those in mourning…

All of these can be summed into one category: HOPE. Jesus in the own opening statement of His ministry tells us that He has come to do one thing: to restore hope to a people who are hopeless – people whose hearts are sick.

What I find so interesting is what Jesus goes on to say…

 “…that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of The Lord, that He may be glorified.” – Isaiah 61:3 [continued] NKJV

Jesus came to restore hope to us by way of causing us to be planted as trees of righteousness or trees of life (for there is no life without righteousness).

So where Solomon writes that the fulfillment of hope is “a tree of life”, we find that the mission Jesus accomplished by dying as our sins on the cross and by resurrecting us with Him in victory – results in we becoming those trees of life! Whereas the absence of life in our hearts was manifested as hopelessness – the restoration of life to our spirits now makes us the fulfillment of hope. We are those trees Solomon speaks of in Proverbs 13:12!

We are those trees Solomon speaks of in Proverbs 13:12!

We not only have hope, but we, ourselves are the very symbol of hope! As a matter of fact, Paul tells us in Romans 8:19-21, that because of what we have received through Jesus Christ, we now are God’s own symbol of hope for all creation – that creation is eagerly awaiting to be brought into “the glories liberty of the children of God”!

So my friend, the next time you are tempted to feel hopeless – remember who you are – you are so significant. God has planted you as a tall, powerful, mighty tree teeming with His kind of life. My friend, you are never far from hope, you are the very proof of it…you are the embodiment of hope! Hallelujah!

If God raised you back from spiritual death (what would have been an eternal one at that) –  can you not have hope for the little things of this temporal life? Oh you can – the life in you is the very emblem of hope!

“Why do I exist?”

Ever asked yourself this question? Of course you have! Every human being that has existed and will exist, has and will ask this question. It’s a simple, yet foundational question that cannot go unanswered. Without the correct answer to this question, no person can live a meaningful and fulfilled life.

So let’s answer this very important question. WHY DO WE EXIST? Better yet, WHY DID GOD CREATE US? Many Christians believe that God created them to worship Him or to glorify Him. There is a level of truth in this answer, but it is only some truth and what it lacks in the remainder of the whole truth, disqualifies it from being the correct answer. The correct answer is that God did not create us to worship Him but to love us. The difference between the two answers is much bigger than you may imagine. The former gives the notion that God is primarily interested in our worship of Him. The latter gives the notion that God is primarily interested in us. The difference is monumental.

Most Christians secretly hold a misconstrued view of God – one that paints Him as a king who is almost selfishly hungry for the praise and worship of men. I once had this wrong view of my Father. Although I never verbalized it, I essentially thought that what mattered most to God about me was the praise I had to offer him.  So I strived day after day, to “give God glory”, as a task I had to perform to please God. All this stemmed from my misguided understanding that the purpose of my creation was to fulfill God’s need for my worship. This is wrong.

The truth is God has never needed anything from anyone, including worship (Acts 17:25). God is complete. He is completely satisfied and full…so much that bringing us into existence was His way of sharing His fullness with us! Did you know that God actually created you to share His quality of life with you? God created you so that you would be a “partaker of His Divine Nature”. (2 Peter 1:2-4)  Our creation was on God’s part, an act of such deep love, in which He was lavishing on us everything He had! God didn’t create us because He needed subjects to rule over…or because He needed servants to serve Him…or worshipers to tell Him how great He is. No, God created us to share His fullness with us! Our creation was purposed from God’s desire for us to have in us, the “life He has in Himself” (John 5:26).  And it is this life that He fought for through Christ to restore unto us, when we lost it because of our sins!

We were created to bask and delight in God’s love for us. Worship is our natural response to His love.

I remember about a year ago…I called one of the pastors of my church and asked if I could visit him. As soon I walked into his office, he greeted me and soon after went on this long monologue about how God trains his special forces. He passionately began to assure me that God has trains them differently...that they have to endure training that is distinctly difficult from the norm. Now, this went on for quite a bit…and as I sat there listening to him, I was simply floored, because unknown to him,  I had come seeking prayer and counsel…having felt weary and just weak from intense spiritual battles that I was enduring at the time. He had no idea…but God was speaking to me through him.

 

 

Don’t you just love it when God does that!

 

 

 But that day, God drove into me something that I had heard hundreds of times before – the intensity of the training is always reflective of the greatness of the assignment. I believe that everyone wants to accomplish something great…but the truth is that greatness comes with a cost that few are willing pay. This is the cost of training – a cost that is neither glamorous nor enjoyable. It is rather an intimidating feat that incites most to retreat.

 

 

I am reminded of a ruddy-faced boy, who serves as the poster-boy for possibly the best underdog tale in history. What I find most shocking about David’s story is not the fact he kills Goliath, but rather instead, what he mentions to King Saul as he is preparing to face Goliath – that he has struck and killed lions and bears that arose against him in the wilderness.

 

 

Hold up! Hit the brakes! Come again?

 

 

David, you’re telling that you’ve been attacked by b e a r s and l i o n s … and you KILLED them!? Umm…people..have you SEEN what bears and lions look like? If you haven’t go visit your local lion at the zoo this weekend. I cannot ever imagine, as David describes, “catching a lion by its beard, and striking it ” dead! That has got to be one of the wildest and most intimidating things I have ever heard. David’s story is not a cute story of a boy killing lions and bears but, the story of boy fighting for his very life against these wild beasts…

 

 

You see, this was how God trained David – in the wilderness…in real danger…with bears and lions. God trained David alone and in the secret –  with no one rooting for him.  And you have to realize that David did not have much going for him. He was the underdog of his family…the little boy that was typically forgotten – there was no one rooting for him anyway. I’m sure it was heart-wrenching to not be presented as a son by his own father, like his brothers were before Samuel…and I imagine that event is reflective of how he was generally treated by his family anyway. David was a loner…a misfit among his own..and on top of having to deal with these circumstances…David to had to face bears and lions in the wilderness. It must have been devastating. 

 

I speculate that David was quite intimidated and afraid the first time he had to fight a bear for his life…but I believe that he began to realize, after seeing that he killed one wild beast after another, that God was up to something…that God was preparing him for greatness. Unlike what those around him thought, when David was out alone in the wilderness, he was doing more than playing shepherd-boy. No..there in the wilderness, while but a shepherd, God was training David for a calling no one imagined. God was making “a king for himself” out of a shepherd boy. [1 Samuel 16:1]. In one of his psalms David writes,

 

 

“Blessed be the Lord my Rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle”

 Psalm 144:1 [NKJV]

 

Kings are mighty warriors and a source of great comfort to their people. But I find it  amusing that when the Israelites were confronted by Goliath, it was not Saul who stood against Goliath and rallied the people but the ruddy-faced, shepherd-boy, David! David displayed the true qualities of a king because had already been trained to think like one in the wilderness. You see, by the time David faced Goliath, his way of thinking had been drastically shifted from the norm, so much that he was greatly perplexed that the others were afraid of the giant – it was totally strange to him that they were intimidated! Why? Because unlike the others, David had been trained by God in the wilderness…because overcoming obstacles, having become the norm for David, obstacles were no longer obstacles for him.

 

 

Overcoming obstacles, having become the norm for David, obstacles were no longer
obstacles for him. 

 

 

This is why when David faced Goliath…he did not see a giant...he did not see a problem…he did not see intimidation. Goliath was an intimidation to the others…even to King Saul…but not to David. David had been so well trained by God that when he saw Goliath, he saw dead bears and lions…he saw triumph. As my dad always says, David was so confident of his triumph against Goliath, he was instead preoccupied with asking what prize was for killing the giant!

 

 

I want you to know that is exactly what God wants to do with you and I. Today, you may be facing bears and lions that are intimidating.  You may be undergoing what seems to be, an insurmountable training. But the truth is that God has called you to be great…He has called you to be a giant-killer…and this training He has put you into is to bring you to a place where you are radically fearless…a place where obstacles lose their intimidative nature in your presence…a place where you will emasculate giants before you slay them!