The problem is we begin to rely on ourselves more and in God less; so often we try to handle our problems on our own instead of surrendering them to God. And because we do not surrender them to God, what do we end up doing?

We lie in bed at night and think of all of our problems. We worry about our social life, our future, and many other things. We try to think of a way to fix our problems when we should be praying and asking God to help us. We should be trusting that God our Father will take care of all of our needs.

So why are we often reluctant to trust God, our heavenly Father? As a society we hear all the time about how people have “trust issues.” Why is that? In the world, many people’s trust issues stem from “family” issues—particularly with respect to the father.

Statistics from the National Fatherhood Initiative show that one out of three children live in biological father-absent homes.Tragically, in today’s world many people grow up without a father, or the father they have may not reflect the role that God intended. After all, fathers are only human beings, short of perfection. The point of this article is not to complain about the frailty of mere mortals, but simply to help all of us realize that even the best human father is still not as perfect as our Father in heaven.

So what is the best way to learn about our heavenly Father and learn how to trust Him?

• By the example of good Christian earthly fathers.

• By reading His word.

• By personal experience.

Jesus said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9, NKJV).

Jesus is the exact representation of the Father. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3).

God the Father is exactly like Jesus! Thus, we are to “behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know him” (1 John 3:1, NKJV). For those who—for whatever reason—have never known a true father, we have to learn by looking at the examples of others. We also learn about what the heavenly Father is like by looking to Jesus, and by reading His word.

Then lastly, we must know God as our Father through our personal experience.

Once we get to “know” God and gain a true biblical perspective what being a father is, then we can begin to trust Him.

We can become more willing to test His “trustworthiness” by personal experience. As we begin to trust Him in little things, our trust in Him grows, and we are more likely to trust Him with the great things in our life as well.

Often a child will be afraid to jump into water but will be willing to do so if his or her father is there waiting with open arms, until eventually the fear is gone.

It’s the same with God. As we successfully take little jumps, we begin to trust Him more, and we become more willing to take even bigger leaps of faith and trust, knowing that our Father will never let us down or fail us.

“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me. Yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed” (Psalm 25:1–3).

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (Psalm 118:8 NKJV).

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for Yah, the Lord is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation” (Isaiah 12:2 NKJV).

It is after we make these experiences and really get to know our Father in heaven that we can trust Him even when we don’t understand His ways or are able to see His plan for our life. This only comes through getting to know Him and experiencing Him personally. It is only then that I can be able to trust Him: when everything seems dark. When I do not understand! When I realize that it is all out of my control and I must totally submit to His will. Submit to the “process,” even if I don’t understand it.

Dark! Darkness like I’ve never experienced before! There is a train that operates through a tunnel in the Swiss Alps. It carries you in your car inside the train. Once I was caught by surprise, discovering this only after booking the ticket. This was not just an ordinary-length tunnel—it was a super-long tunnel in the pitch dark! This train had traveled these tracks many times before. The conductor of the train had traveled these tracks many times before, so I trusted the process. I trusted that the tracks were well laid. I trusted that the train was fully functional. I trusted that the mountain had a tunnel that went all the way through. I trusted all these things believing that I would arrive at my final destination. Even though for what seemed an eternity at the time, I was in utter and complete darkness. Everything was out of my control, and I was forced to submit.

It would have been deadly to try to escape by jumping out of the car, so somehow I endured the trip. It wasn’t easy.

Isn’t that what we do with God sometimes? Just because we can’t “see.” Just because we are afraid. Just because we do not want to yield up control.

Soon I saw a glimmer of light. And when we came out the other side of the mountain into the full brightness of the sun, the view was spectacular. My destination was just ahead and I eventually arrived safely.

How did I get there? I had to trust in the train conductor with all my heart; I could not depend on my own understanding. I couldn’t depend on what I saw, or rather couldn’t see!

My fears, if I allowed them to control me, would have led me to make a very foolish mistake (to jump out of the train to try to escape). So I had to yield to the process. Not give in to emotion. Not get into fear. Knowing that the final outcome would be to my benefit.

With a scoutmaster and some boy scouts, we were once blazing a trail in the woods. Finally we came to a standstill where it was unclear which direction we should go. Debris covered the trail and it seemed that the trail split into directions. And we just didn’t know which way to go. We tried looking ahead to see if there were any faded blazes left on the tree which would indicate which direction we should continue, but we found nothing.

We were faced with a choice: Which direction should we go? Finally the scoutmaster who was behind us said, “Go in this direction.”

The scouts look at him, puzzled.

“How do you know that this is the direction that we can go?” they asked.

The scoutmaster smiled, “Because I am the one who blazed the original trail. I created this path.” Without hesitation we moved forward.

Is this not how it is and should be with God? If we are following God, if we are trusting God, if we are on the path—when we come to an impasse, when we come to a place that it’s unclear what we should do, it is then more than ever that we need to trust the Lord. It is then that we need to look to Him and listen to His voice as He tells us in which direction to go.

And why do we trust Him? Because He blazed the trail; He created the path; He walked it step by step before us. And we can trust Him.

He knows where the path will lead us, and He knows where the path will end. Some have a hard time trusting someone they don’t know or have never seen. But, the fact is that we put our trust in a lot of things every day.

For example: I trust the people that put my car together. I trust the people in the opposite lane who are coming at 65 miles an hour. I trust the manufacturers of airplanes and the pilots that fly them. The fact is I trust a lot of people that I do not know, that I’ve never seen, and that indeed I may never know or see.

The messenger of the Lord describes: “I saw that there was a great lack of faith with the servants of God, as well as with the church. They were too easily discouraged, too ready to doubt God, too willing to believe that they had a hard lot and that God had forsaken them. I saw that this was cruel. God so loved them as to give His dearly beloved Son to die for them, and all heaven was interested in their salvation; yet after all that had been done for them, it was hard to believe and trust so kind and good a Father” (Testimonies, vol. 1, p. 120).

We often seem to practice the old saying, “When all else fails, pray!” But why do we need to fail at all? Why not trust God from the beginning? Why not pray first? Sometimes we do take it to the Lord, but the problem is we do not leave it with the Lord! The fact is if you are worrying then you are not trusting. And worrying is wrong!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6, 7, NIV).

Another good saying to remember is . . . “If you pray, why worry? If you worry, why pray?”

Don’t forget: You are blessed with THE PERFECT DADDY! He’s not just somebody else’s—He’s yours!