How do I grow in my trust in God when I am struggling to trust Him?

First, be encouraged that you are struggling to trust God. Sometimes when we are struggling, we feel that we are all unbelief, but if we were all unbelief we wouldn’t be struggling. So, the first thing is not to be wholly discouraged by the fact that you are struggling.

Second, recognize that there have been plenty of people in the history of the Christian church whom God has blessed and used who have been strugglers.

Third, there are many passages in Scripture, particularly in the Psalms, in which the authors are struggling with this issue. One of the best things to do in this respect is to take a quick run through the book of Psalms. Note down the numbers of the psalms where there are expressions of struggles, then ask: “What are the causes of these struggles? What particular psalms resonate with the particular kind of struggles that I have?” Something you find in all these psalms (with one exception) is a struggle, a turning point, and then transformation. That is not just a one-off story in the Christian life; that is the story of the whole Christian life.

Don’t have the aspiration, “I want to get rid of this struggle once and for all.” It’s an ongoing reality. It will continue in different ways at different times, but the fact of the matter is that God grows Christians by these means. Think of a tree growing. It grows with the storm. It grows with the rain. It may grow on dry days as well as wet days. The same is true of the Christian life—it is not a straight-line road or an easy path to heaven. We are sinners and there is a lot that needs to be dragged out of us before we are fully transformed into the likeness of the Lord Jesus.