Ep. 25 - Trusting in God

How difficult can it be to trust God's plan sometimes? In this month's episode, Angel discusses why we should trust God, and shares personal stories to where God came through.

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Intro (0:07)

Hey what’s going on everyone welcome to The Message Podcast with yours truly Angel. It is July already and this month’s episode is called “Trusting in God.” I suppose in a lot of ways, this episode is a little bit of a part 2 to last month’s episode “Christianity isn’t Easy” considering that trusting in God is always a struggle as a Christian. Trust me, I get it. While this whole point of this episode is to help you find ways to trust God more, it doesn’t mean that you won’t go through seasons where it’ll be tested. Just remember sometimes situations happen to give us an opportunity to trust Him, and see his marvelous work in our lives. Today I’m going to share some stories as well where God has come through in my life in some amazing ways. I hope this episode is able to help in any way.

We Trust Him in Some Things (0:53)

I feel like most Christians who have a solid foundation trust God with a lot of things right? We trust God with our lives every day right? We thank God upon waking up and ask Him to keep us safe. We trust God to cover us and forgive us of our sins when we fall short, but yet in other areas we don’t 100% trust in God. For example, that “area” is different. Some people don’t trust God that He will help open doors for their dream career. Others may not trust God to come through with a miracle to maybe heal a sick loved one. Sometimes we don’t trust God with our love life. I read a book not too long ago myself called “The Sacred Search” by Gary Thomas.

Anyways in the book, Gary said, 

“Let me ask you: do you trust Jesus? Do you believe that He truly has your best interests at heart, that He would never mislead you—that if you follow His advice, you’re setting yourself up for the best, most meaningful, and most fulfilling life imaginable?”

Isn’t believing that really hard sometimes? After all it isn’t like we can actually see God. The walk takes faith and us as humans naturally believe more what we can actually see or hear. Like I said before, while I am helping you trust God a little more in your life, it’s something that I’m still struggling with sometimes. 

But what has helped me, is Proverbs 3:5-6 it says,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

So in the meantime, I’m really just chilling and focussing on my calling, while God sorts things out for me. What other choice do I have than to trust God right?

Why Should We Trust God? (2:40)

This brings me to the next part of this podcast, why should we trust God? It’s funny cause the answer’s in the question. He’s God. Obviously for many of us that isn’t enough so let’s go a little deeper with this.

Let’s go to the Bible first. In the book of Numbers 23:19 it says,

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

God isn’t us. We humans sin and fall short of God’s glory. In this verse, it clearly says that God never lies. He doesn’t change his mind about something and when he promises something to us, He never fails to complete it. Every Christian can give you some testimony where God has come through in their lives and they experienced a miracle. There’s proof right there in the lives of others that God is faithful, and worthy to be trusted. God knows everything after all! Do we have any alternative? Or would you rather place all your trust on people? Who are known to fall short?

What I want to do next, is share some of my personal experiences that showed me that I should trust in God. Going back to these stories for me helps me during moments where I don’t feel like my faith is where it should be to not worry and let God do his thing.

First Story (4:09)

So this story may sound familiar to some of you guys considering I’m almost 100% certain I’ve shared this story on the podcast, but it still was a big moment where I felt God really came through. So if you know me personally, you know on the road I can be a bit of an aggressive driver. Even during driving school, my instructor told me that and now I get why. Basically my patience can be tested on the road and there can be times that I will go into another lane just to get further along the road. I’m not super aggressive like you see people in those sports cars on the highway super late at night either. Just wanted to clarify that. Anyways at the time I was working for my college as a recruiter. I frequently traveled to different schools across the city and Long Island and that day I was coming from the city. City traffic sucks and I wanted to get home quickly. So the highway I was on had four lanes. Two lanes that split towards the left, and two lanes that split to the right. The problem was, I was on the right lanes and I would miss my exit if I didn’t switch quickly. So without much of a thought besides checking my blindspot, I made a left turn.

What I didn’t see, was that there was concrete in between the two different lanes. Nothing too high up, almost like a sidewalk’s height. But anyways, I hit it at such an angle that it destroyed one of my tires. At the time, I didn’t know how to change a tire. I was on the side of the road for like a minute when a car pulled behind me. I was shocked because if you drive, you know how rare it is for someone to pull over to help, especially if you’re a guy. A guy is expected to know how to change a tire. So they tried to helped me but we kind of messed up and put the car down without putting the tire back in. So now the jack that comes with the car, isn’t enough to get the car up and now we need a professional jack to get this up the ground. Now where am I gonna get that? I had roadside assistance but hesitated since they take almost two hours to come anyway. Anyways I prayed and said, “God, help me out here.” And that’s where things got pretty interesting. 

So my car was in some trouble. First I needed a professional jack to get this off the ground, and on top of that, my car was on soft grass and not concrete, so I would need something under the car to give it more stability. Sounds like I’m out of luck right? Nope! God really showed off here. Within the next twenty minutes, literally five different people back to back, pulled over the side of the road to help me out. The crazy part is the first guy had the jack that we needed. The problem was, it didn’t come high enough. One guy had the jack to get it high enough, but we needed wooden blocks under the car. Another guy had wooden blocks in his truck that were exactly the right size. Why he had them, I don’t know. On top of that he had a special emergency light where he put on top of his car to signal drivers to be careful. I was shocked because literally one obstacle would come up, and the next person had the piece needed. They even blocked a lane so I can safely get back on the road. I couldn’t thank them enough. Some of the people were actual mechanics! How blessed was I to have 6 people in total helping me out? God is funny because when you add me in it, it’s God’s number, 7. I took a picture of this as it happened, and you could find it on my Instagram if you scroll far enough. It think it was around two years ago. God really came through just minutes after I did just a short prayer. He came through because I trusted him to come through, and he most certainly did.

Second Story (7:37)

The second story I have for you guys was just around a year ago involving my father. This one starts really sad so I apologize in advance, it does gets better. So anyways growing up my father had issues with alcoholism. Over the years it finally caught up to him and caused his liver to be diseased. When I had visited him, he had lost a massive amount of weight, and he was retaining fluids instead of getting rid of them. Things really didn’t look good. The diagnosis from the doctor upon reading it had me bawling in tears. While reading it, it made it clear this wasn’t going to get better. It was only to going to get worse and eventually end in his death. No one but God knew how I felt. Growing up I didn’t really get along with my father. I was afraid of him a bit to be honest, and didn’t always trust him when he made promises. After all these years, we were able to fix that relationship. We finally were able to have a mature conversation where he took responsibility for his actions, and wanted to make it right. I forgave him. We began to hang out and laugh like good friends. He showed that he cared and took so much effort into rebuilding his relationship with his sons. That’s what hurt me. The timing.

As soon as things were going good between my father and I, now he’s expected to live less than a year? You guys know I’m practically an open book on this podcast because, I know you guys can relate to some of my experiences. It really hurt. It hurt to imagine him never meeting my wife and telling me “Angel, you picked a good woman.” It hurt to imagine my father never meeting my future children and hearing his sense of humor. It hurt to imagine never getting the chance to talk to him more and get to know the father I barely was around as a child. I cried in front of him, and yet, he wasn’t phased. He insisted to me he’d be okay. Funny how he had more faith than me in that moment. One thing I always admired about him was how emotionally strong he was. I am not making this up when I say this, I don’t ever remember him shedding a tear. Anyways during my crying, God spoke to me. God told me, “You’ll be the bridge to bring him to me.” I knew God wasn’t done with him yet.

My dad later developed a tumor in his liver from complications with his diseased liver. When I went with him to the doctor, I was not phased. As crazy as it sounds, I trusted God would come through. I believed that God wasn’t done with my dad yet, and he’d survive this. The great news about all of this? I was right. They did an experimental procedure on my dad that didn’t include any chemo, and it killed the tumor. My dad has gained weight since, and while he’s on the list to get a transplant, I know he’ll be around for it because his condition is not getting worse thank God. 

Words of Encouragement (10:49)

While this podcast is coming to a close, I want to leave you with some encouragement. God is all knowing. He knows exactly what you’re going through. He knows every thought, and every tear you may have shed. He knows your heart as well as everyone else that lives on this planet. He knows your strengths, and your weaknesses. He knew you before you were even born. He loves you more than you can ever imagine, and all he asks of you is faith, and obedience. God knows what is best for our lives and if we trust him a little more, our faith will be rewarded. While I still struggling with trusting God in some areas of my life, what I do know is, God has never failed me. God has never let me down. I’m positive if you give your trust in Him, you’ll feel the same way in time. 

Last thing I want to leave with you guys is, your trust in him will grow, the more you know about him. Just like your trust is much different with your best friend in comparison to someone you just met, it’s the same concept. Get to know Jesus. Dig deep in the Word of God, and you’ll know Him better. Draw close to Him, and He’ll draw close to you. Look at God as a friend, as a God who cares deeply about your heart. The more you get to know God and all He’s done, the easier it will get to trust Him.

Prayer (12:21)

Now of course I don’t want to end this podcast without prayer because I believe in the power of prayer. I believe God hears and answers all prayers. Maybe not as fast as we’d like sometimes, but God’s timing is perfect and nevertheless they are heard. 

Dear Father, Lord I thank you for the life of whoever is tuning into this podcast right now. Lord I thank you because I know that they were created with purpose. Lord I thank you because they were created to do amazing things in your name. Lord I thank you because you are a loving God with a special plan for all of us. Sometimes Lord, trusting in you isn’t easy. Sometimes we have trouble trusting in things we don’t see yet. Lord help our trust in you grow. Open our eyes to see that everyday you are working in our lives. Give us the peace in our hearts to trust that your way is the best. Lord I know that you are an all knowing God. You know our hearts, our thoughts, our intentions.

Whenever situations may arise and we don’t understand why certain things happen, let us remember that everything happens for a reason and you already know the why. Let us remember Father God that you want the best for our lives and you have plans of good, and not bad, for us. Lord we thank you because we know that while we may not see it, you’re working. We thank you for all you’ve done, that we may have failed to acknowledge. We thank you Lord for what you’re currently doing, and we thank you for what you will do. Forgive us for the times we take matters into our hands and get in the way of what you’re trying to do. Help us do better in worrying less about life and trusting that you’ll take care of it in the end. We thank you, and in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Outro (14:08)

Well folks, that brings up to the end of this episode. I truly hope this episode was able to help you in some way in trusting God a little more in areas where it may be difficult. Trust me I’m with you. Sure I run a monthly podcast on Christianity, but that doesn’t mean I’m not on a journey myself. Doesn’t mean I don’t have my moments where I’m in prayer! letting God know my trust isn’t where it could be. All I do know is! God knows everything and He never fails. I hope my stories were encouraging, and maybe you have your own stories that you can no recall when you need it! I want to thank you so much for tuning in today, I say this every episode but I mean what I’m about to say. I truly appreciate you. I know that life is full of distractions and you’re probably busy, so I truly appreciate you allowing me into your day even if it’s for 15-20 minutes.

Your attention matters and it’s appreciated, trust me. I also want to encourage you to share this message no pun intended here haha, to a friend that may benefit from hearing this episode. Please also leave a review on iTunes if you enjoyed the podcast! It helps the podcast grow if I’m not mistaken on the ranks. Also feel free to reach out to me on social media, or through my website, mynameisangel.com with any questions or comments. Some of you guys reach out and are shocked I respond haha. I’m humbled but I’m just a normal guy who’s trying to use his gifts to help others. Anyways till next time folks! This has been The Message, with Angel. God bless you.