Have you ever trusted God and been disappointed? You placed your trust in God and He let you down. After many such disappointments, we can lose hope. When we lose hope, we are tempted to despair or walk away from God. If we manage our expectations at the start, we spare ourselves a lot of anguish.<\/p>\n
We must be careful when we place our expectation on God. God isn\u2019t manipulated. Yet we try to manipulate Him by our actions and words. We believe if we say or do the right thing, we can get Him to do what we want. That may work on people we know, but it doesn\u2019t work on God. God is sovereign and He operates outside of cause and effect. He behaves in line with His will and purposes, not ours. Jesus taught us to pray for God\u2019s will to be done (Matthew 6:10), so it\u2019s foolish to try to get God to align with our wills. Don\u2019t expect God to do what you want Him to do. That kind of expectation will lead to disappointment.<\/p>\n
Many years ago, when my boss invited me to start a software business with him, I prayed about it and felt I got God\u2019s approval and blessing. So I sold my half of my house to fund the business. After a couple years, all the money was spent and the business failed. I couldn\u2019t understand how God could have misled me. After much prayer and reflection, I realized that God never promised success. In retrospect, I learned more from the failure than I would have from success. My biggest mistake was having placed faulty expectations on God.<\/p>\n
Our trust is often misplaced. We believe we are trusting in God but don\u2019t realize we are trusting in a substitute. We\u2019re trusting in a specific outcome or desired result from God. We\u2019re trusting in our knowledge of God or doctrine. We\u2019re trusting in a message delivered by a person or by God Himself. We\u2019re trusting in our pastor or priest or spiritual director. All these things can be replacements for trusting in the person of God.<\/p>\n
In my book, Four in the Garden<\/em>, Cherished declares he will trust in Creator\u2019s help. Creator responds by saying, \u201cIn your time of need, look to Us, not to Our help. If you expect the help We aren\u2019t intending to give, then you may lose hope when your expectation isn\u2019t fulfilled. Our help will come, but We are more apt to give you endurance than rescue you. Endurance creates more character than rescue.\u201d Like Cherished, we need to learn to place our trust in God alone, not in His help or rescue or answer. When we look to the latter, we envision how the answer will appear and set ourselves up for disappointment when God doesn\u2019t deliver our imagined answer.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t misunderstand. It\u2019s okay to ask God for specific things, but we don\u2019t place our trust in the answers. We place our trust in God, believing He hears us and will act according to His mercy.<\/p>\n We trust in God\u2019s promises, but even that can be misplaced trust. The Bible declares that God\u2019s promises are sure, so we do well to believe them, but we shouldn\u2019t pin our hope on them. Our trust ought to be in God alone. We pin our hope on God. Some people regard God\u2019s promises as an ace up their sleeves, something they can pull out to save themselves when needed. God is the one who saves us, not His promises. Trusting in promises can lead to disappointment when we misinterpret them. Instead of trusting in a promise, it\u2019s better to trust in the One who made the promise.<\/p>\n Many of God\u2019s promises are spiritual and conditional, but we can twist them into false expectations. The benefits God promises are often spiritual blessings, such as contentment, wholeness, inner abundance, or joy. Earthly blessings like prosperity aren\u2019t guaranteed, so expectations of earthly comforts or rescue often go unfulfilled. The conditions attached to these promises usually involve putting God or others first, so selfish interests tend to invalidate the promises. I believe God\u2019s promises are not intended to be enticements for reward. Rather, they are statements of consequence. Our motivation shouldn\u2019t be to gain reward but to live with integrity as its own reward. By doing so, we discover that God\u2019s blessings will follow (consequence).<\/p>\n Our focus needs to shift from God\u2019s promises onto God Himself. These promises are statements that reflect God\u2019s nature and character. Our core trust is in God\u2019s character, God\u2019s person, not a collection of promises. So we believe in the promises, but we trust in God. Promises give us something firm to hang our hopes on, so it will feel less substantial to trust in God only. We may feel more insecure trusting in God alone, but that is the nature of true faith and will keep our expectation centered on God, not outcomes.<\/p>\n Promises also have an unspoken condition, that of relationship. Promises are usually given within the context of relationship. What weight does a promise have if we have no relationship with the person who makes the promise? The strength of a promise is often tied to the strength of the relationship. If you are relying on God\u2019s promises, make sure your relationship with God is active. \u201cNot everyone who says, \u2018Lord, Lord,\u2019 will enter the kingdom of heaven,\u201d Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23. After these people give noble reasons why they should be accepted, Jesus declares to them, \u201cI never knew you.\u201d God will not reject those who have nurtured a relationship with Him. In these verses, Jesus says that the one who does the will of His father will enter the kingdom of heaven. The way we learn God\u2019s will is through having relationship with Him. Relationship is the basis for receiving all the promises of God.<\/p>\n In the end, it is relationship that saves us, not our knowledge or doctrine or good deeds or church attendance. It is whom we know, now what we know. It is whom we trust, not what we trust.<\/p>\n So, how can we insure that our expectations are sound? What can we expect of God that won\u2019t leave us disappointed? We can trust in God\u2019s love and His ability to guard our souls. He doesn\u2019t protect us from lack, but He can protect us from want. Those who trust God know they will be okay, no matter what. In this sense, we will be okay in that we are taken care of by God within our present circumstance, even when our resources are completely gone.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t confuse the loss of resources as God abandoning you. God is present in loss and can inject His love and care when poverty visits us. At such times, God\u2019s provision is most pronounced because that\u2019s when it\u2019s most needed. When I was without food and had no money to buy it, I rejoiced and told God I relied on Him to feed me. That day, a classmate brought donuts to morning class, a stranger gave me his extra sandwich for lunch, and a friend treated me to dinner. God\u2019s care was never more real than that day.<\/p>\n In summary, we trust in the person of God, not in what we want Him to do for us, believing He is trustworthy and that His will is good. If we trust in God\u2019s love and maintain relationship with Him, we won\u2019t be disappointed.<\/p>\n ###<\/p>\n Rick Hocker is a game programmer, artist, and author. In 2004, he sustained a back injury that left him bed-ridden in excruciating pain for six months, followed by a long recovery. He faced the challenges of disability, loss of income, and mounting debt. After emerging from this dark time, he discovered that profound growth had occurred. Three years later, he had a dream that inspired him to write his award-winning book, Four in the Garden<\/em>. His goal was to help people have a close relationship with God and to share the insights he gained from the personal transformation that resulted from his back injury. He lives in Martinez, California.<\/p>\n For more articles, visit http:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/articles.html<\/a> Have you ever trusted God and been disappointed? You placed your trust in God and He let you down. After many such disappointments, we can lose hope. When we lose hope, we are tempted to despair or walk away from God. If we manage our expectations at the start, we spare ourselves a lot of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[26],"tags":[82,83,84,85],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Hhvw-58","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":250,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/trust-versus-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":0},"title":"Trust Versus Fear","date":"December 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The opposite of trust is fear, and fear causes us to make wrong choices. Trusting in God frees us from desperate actions because we believe God will take care of us. When we don't trust in God, we are left to rely on ourselves. But when we doubt our ability\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":269,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/accepting-all-outcomes\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":1},"title":"Accepting All Outcomes","date":"May 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Life rarely turns out the way we prefer. Someone hurts us. We get sick. We suffer loss. If we believe in God, we turn to God for help. We pray for reconciliation, for healing, for provision. Sometimes, our requests aren't granted, even when our requests are legitimate and sincere. One\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Spirituality"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":390,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/spiritual-surrender\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":2},"title":"Spiritual Surrender","date":"July 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The word \u201csurrender\u201d conjures an image of giving up, of raising a white flag and throwing down one\u2019s weapons in a painful acknowledgement of defeat. In its spiritual application, however, it is an act of liberation, not defeat. Spiritual surrender is a posture of yielding to God. It is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/creating-an-opening-for-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":3},"title":"Creating an Opening for God","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Among those who believe in the power of prayer, some seem to have better results than others. Why is that? No formula exists that can force God to do what we want. God is not manipulated. But we can take steps to make us more receptive to His generosity. Preparation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Openness to God"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/a-deeper-relationship\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":4},"title":"A Deeper Relationship","date":"November 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A \"relationship with God\" sounds like a lovely thought. But what does it look like? Has anyone defined it for you? How does one have a relationship with a being whom we can\u2019t see or touch? Seems ridiculous, doesn\u2019t it? A healthy relationship is interactive. Giving and receiving must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Making God Real"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":272,"url":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/when-god-feels-far-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":318,"position":5},"title":"When God Feels Far Away","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In my book, Four in the Garden, the protagonist, Cherished, loses his connection to Creator. Because of this loss, Cherished feels as though Creator has abandoned him. In the story, I had neglected to show that Creator stayed close. I recently revised my book and added this missing scene. In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Trust"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rickhocker.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}God\u2019s Promises<\/strong><\/h5>\n
The Strength of Relationship<\/strong><\/h5>\n
What Can We Expect of God?<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Reflection<\/strong><\/h5>\n
\n
\nWebsite: http:\/\/www.rickhocker.com<\/a>
\n<\/u>Email: mail@rickhocker.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"