Episode 1107: Ten Reasons We Don’t Trust in God

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,107 of the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm Ryan

[00:00:07] Ryan Englin: England with core matters and the blue collar culture podcast. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasure is to live out your.

[00:00:20] Having the ability to grow yourself and your business is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott.

[00:00:31] Scott Maderer: and when God's calling on me to wait and be quiet and let something happen, or when God's letting me know that maybe something needs to be torn down or let go of, or allow something that maybe I really care about something that's really important to me. And it's time to let it die.

[00:00:49] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you [00:01:00] must learn to use your. Your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast, we'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:16] And today's spiritual foundation episode about developing your influence. I talk with you about 10 reasons. We don't trust in God. I talk about what trusting in God really means. And I also talk about why trusting in God always requires action. Even if that action is actually non-action trusting his gut in God is one of those topics that is talked about a lot in Christian circles.

[00:01:45] I've been working to get ready for being the lady director of an event called a walk two MAs coming up soon. And it's been a struggle. We actually started this process before COVID and with COVID and the pandemic and everything [00:02:00] that's been going on, it has been a true struggle to try to bring this walk together and throughout it, people have constantly talked about needing to trust in God.

[00:02:14] Throughout the event God will take care of it. And I had to think about why do I N and I think so many others resist the very thing, this idea of letting go of control and trusting in God. And why do we sometimes maybe misunderstand what that actually really means? So I brainstormed and I came up with 10 reasons.

[00:02:42] And I'll go through those real quick. The first is fear, and I think that's probably one of the, if not the biggest. And it lays at the root of some of the others that I'll be talking about, but over and over in scripture, it [00:03:00] says, do not fear. And I think that's because when we approach this idea of letting go of control and having faith in God, it is a fearful event for a number of reasons to, we worry that things will fall apart, that the stuff around us will fall apart.

[00:03:21] And sometimes it does fall apart when we trust in God and we actually have to trust that maybe it was okay, that fell apart. Our agenda and our plans can fall apart without God's plans falling apart. But it doesn't feel that way. And the third one is related to that. We worry that we will follow.

[00:03:45] And I will tell you, truthfully, I have worried about this and I do fall apart. Oftentimes what I let go and trust in God. But often I fall apart in a way that God then [00:04:00] rebuilds in a better alignment with what he wants me to do. It gives God an opportunity to help me let go of some things that maybe I needed to let go of.

[00:04:14] The fourth one for me is a big one. This idea of our family of origin, our history, how we grew up, if you grew up. Perhaps you were in a family where there was some dysfunction and some lack of control, then we grasp everything and try to control it because by controlling it, then maybe we can bring some peace to it.

[00:04:35] And now we're trying to let go of control and let God have it, which brings us to the fifth one. We often have a history and a memory of past betrayal. And we have to recognize that trusting in God is not dependent upon whether past family members, authority, figures, friends, church members, the church itself betrayed us [00:05:00] because God is above all of those things.

[00:05:04] We often have a, an image of God is an angry demanded. Father figure that is punishing and looking for opportunities to call us out and punish us for anything that goes wrong. And that's the distorted image of God that I think is a sixth reason that we often struggle. The seventh is probably one of the biggest in today's world.

[00:05:28] Lack of setting aside time for stillness and silence and reflection. And I'm really bad about this one too. I try to have a regular time for this, but it's funny because when I most need it is when things are the most chaotic, which is also the time I'm least likely to do it. It's a dangerous feedback.

[00:05:52] The eighth one I've talked about before on the show. It's one of my big things that I have to deal with. And that's the idea of [00:06:00] perfectionism using excellence and neatness and cleanness and perfection of all things as an excuse for not wanting to let go as if somehow God's view of perfection. Isn't the one we should be striving for.

[00:06:18] And God's view of perfection. I don't think is a superficial level view of perfection, but looking at the deeper reality, I think also we struggle with the knife, the limited view of what it means to let go that this isn't something we do for the moment, but it's something you have to do every hour of every day over and over again.

[00:06:40] I don't think we ever arrive at this point. And then the 10th is denial. The fact that at some point we pass on everything that we have control over whether we want to, or not, at some point, those things are out of our control. And if we recognize that it [00:07:00] makes it easier to give up that control because you see what it means to trust in God.

[00:07:06] Do anything. It's not, don't have plans. It's not, don't take action. It's not setting aside and setting to one side with everything you do and just doing nothing. I think that's one of the mistakes we make. We think of faith in God, as God will take care of it, and God will take care of it. But usually the way God takes care of it is through the hands and feet.

[00:07:33] And actually. Of us humans. And so if we just sit back and go, God will take care of it and we do nothing, then nothing happens. That doesn't mean it depends on us. As in, we have to be the ones to bear. The responsibility are to biller the burden. Instead, it just means that we have to be listening to what God is calling us [00:08:00] to do.

[00:08:01] And sometimes what we're called to do is to ask. And to do. And other times what we're called to do is to sit and be still and be quiet and wait. And it's discerning the difference between those, the action and the non-action that I think we struggle with because I always want to do. And when God's calling on me to wait and be quiet and let something happen, or when God's letting me know that maybe something needs to be torn down or let go of, or allow something that maybe I really care about something that's really important to me.

[00:08:37] And it's time to let it die or let it struggle so that it can be born again, even stronger when that happens. That's when it's hard. To let go and trust God. That's when it's hard to wait on the sideline and feel like you're really doing what you're called to do, but that's also the [00:09:00] time that it's the most important to do it.

[00:09:04] Thanks for listening.

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