How can one learn to trust God's will?

By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10

7. Learning to Trust God’s Will

Discerning God’s will is only half the spiritual struggle; the other half is surrendering to it with total confidence. Trusting God’s will is not a passive feeling that arrives automatically; it is an active spiritual discipline rooted in faith, humility, and daily practice.

Here is how an Orthodox Christian learns and strengthens authentic trust in the will of:

1. Renounce Self-Reliance ("Lean Not on Your Own Understanding")

The primary barrier to trusting God is the illusion of total control and intellectual self-sufficiency.

• Proverbs 3:5–6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

In our human limitation, we are like a blindfolded runner: we cannot always see the obstacles ahead or the exact path laid out for us. We may experience confusion or fear simply because the horizon is hidden from our sight. Trust means recognizing that even when the road ahead is dark to our eyes, God sees the entire journey and directs our steps for our eternal good.

2. Place Your Will Entirely Inside God's Will

In Unseen Warfare, St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain offers a profound spiritual principle for inner peace and trust:

"Offer the whole of yourself as a sacrifice to God, in peace and quiet of spirit. To help your progress on this path, and free it from weariness and confusion, place your will in God’s will. The more completely you succeed in placing it there, leaving nothing for yourself, the more strength and comfort you will gain. Let your will be so attuned as to desire only what God desires, and to desire none of the things He does not desire."

He further counsels:

"Always and with every action renew the intention and resolve of your soul to please God in all things. Make no plans for the future, since you do not know 'what a day may bring forth' (Prov. 27:1), but keep yourself unbound and free. This does not forbid any man from taking reasonable care and pains about things required by his state and position, since such care is in conformity with God’s will and does not interfere with inner peace, devotion to God or man’s progress in the spirit."

Trusting God does not mean abandoning practical duties or responsibilities. Rather, it means fulfilling your daily responsibilities faithfully while letting go of the anxious, controlling desire to dictate the final outcome.

3. Build a "Remembrance of His Faithfulness"

When fear and doubt assault the heart, look back at how God has preserved and carried you in the past.

• Reflect on specific moments where God demonstrated that He is trustworthy—times when a closed door protected you, when an unexpected trial revealed hidden strength, or when divine grace sustained you through grief.
• Just as God commanded Israel to set up memorial stones after crossing the Jordan (Joshua 4), we must keep active in our memory the instances where God’s hand was evident. Remembering past mercies dissolves present anxieties.

4. Ground Your Day in the Sacraments and the Agpeya

Trust cannot survive in a prayerless heart. It is fed daily through:

• The Liturgy and the Holy Mysteries: Gathering in the ekklesia* — church; Greek loanword and partaking of the Holy Eucharist unites us directly to Christ, giving us divine strength that surpasses human reasoning.
• The Agpeya (Book of Hours): Regularly praying the canonical hours trains the soul to repeatedly confess: “Lord, have mercy,” “Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God,” and “Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
• Meditating on God's Word: As St. Paul teaches, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Immersing your thoughts in the Scriptures drives away panic and anchors the mind in God's promises.

5. Practice the Thanksgiving of the Cross

The ultimate test of trust occurs when God’s permissive will allows trials, illness, or loss. The flesh demands an explanation, but faith offers thanksgiving.

• In the Divine Liturgy, the Church continually prays the Prayer of Thanksgiving, thanking God “for everything, concerning everything, and in everything.”
• Like Job, who proclaimed amid the ashes, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21), the Christian trusts that a loving Father permits nothing that cannot be transformed into an instrument of salvation. When we thank God in the middle of the storm, trust ceases to be merely a concept and becomes an act of holy sacrifice.