Proverbs 3:5, Philippians 4:6, 2 Corinthians 10

Hannah Latty talks about actively putting your trust in God even when its not easy to do so as he knows the bigger picture.

Hannah Latty

Life is full of adventures, elevations and depths. In Proverbs 3:5 we read; "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." I love this promise. This is an amazing promise that we can hold onto in all the uncertainties of life. "He will make your paths straight" means that He will help us to walk in the right direction, He will guide us into His purposes and His fulfilment.

Recently I was with a wonderful group of musicians called Epiphany who do an amazing ministry around the UK, painting portraits of people and places using music! They have played in parliament, shopping centres, art galleries, churches and in many nations across the world. They silently pray while they play and I believe they download sounds from Heaven as they look at someone through God's eyes. We did several events with them, but my favourite was playing over some of our local Syrian friends who have come to the UK as refugees.

It was amazing to see how God ministered healing to them as they sat and had beautiful music played over them - with percussion, violins, cello, piano, woodwind and vocals. Epiphany's ministry and part of my work with local refugees would not have come about if we hadn't taken time to listen to God and allow Him to download strategy for our lives and use the gifts that He has given us. There were times where I just didn't know the way forward, but in trusting God and submitting my plans to him. He has kept our path straight - and it's super exciting!!

To trust God is ultimately to actively receive His supernatural peace in all circumstances, this is naturally impossible, but with God it's totally possible.

In his letter to the Philippians (4:6), Paul writes, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, 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." We can actively learn to receive this peace as we still our hearts before God in prayer. This helps us to trust.

Trusting God is also an active decision to submit our problems to Him and tell Him that we know He has it all in His hands and that He knows the full picture and we only see the picture in part. This is why we actually can't just 'lean on our own understanding' because we ultimately don't understand it all!

Sometimes when we're going through really difficult circumstances or even when life is fairly simple but we're just really tired, it's often harder to control those fearful thoughts that counteract God's peace and our ability to trust Him. It has to be an hourly decision sometimes even a decision every few minutes! We have to "take every thought captive" (2 Corinthians 10). It's like we're holding a ball (a 'problem') and we literally pass the ball to God in prayer and practice not trying to take the ball off God again in fear.

Of course we can't always just sit back and not do our own part in making the decisions and choices we need to make, this is where Proverbs 3:6 comes in: "in all your ways submit to him." Sometimes we have to make the choices in life, but whilst we make it, we can pray for God to guide us and to close and open doors according to His will.

Just before my husband and I got married, we wanted to buy a house. We made an offer on a house we really liked. Our prayers went something like this, "God please may the sale go through on this house, but we submit it to you and if it's not the BEST for us, then please close the door, BUT PLEASE can the sale go through!" We received a call from our lawyer strongly advising us to pull out of the sale due to some convincing complications on the structure of the house. We were gutted! But followed their advice and believed God was closing the door.

This was September 2007. Two months later, the UK had a financial crash and that same house was worth around £50K less than we would have bought it for and we'd be in negative equity for years and years and potentially unable to move from the area to where we are now etc. God knew and I believe He saved us from this. We actively trusted Him and acknowledged Him with our plans and He kept our path straight.

We can give you countless other examples of this kind of experience where we had to trust God above our own understanding. It's an awesome promise from God that He will keep our life paths straight. It doesn't mean it will be easy but it's definitely better than if we were to make every decision on our own!