“Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:8, NIV).
For many months while my late husband, Patrick, was sick, I prayed for the outcome I desperately wanted. I prayed for healing. I prayed for more time. I prayed for doctors to have answers and treatments to work. And underneath so many of those prayers was the hope that if I trusted God enough, somehow everything would turn out OK.
But eventually, I found myself living through the very outcome I had prayed to avoid. And I discovered something about trust I wish I hadn’t had to learn: Sometimes the hardest part of trusting God isn’t believing He can change our circumstances. It’s trusting Him when He doesn’t.
Maybe you’ve been there too.
You prayed, but the marriage still ended. The diagnosis still came. The child still walked away. The door still closed. The person you loved is no longer here.
How do we trust God then?
Psalm 62:8 gives us an invitation I’ve come to treasure: “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.”
I love that Scripture puts those two things together: Trust God, and pour out your heart. We don’t have to choose between faith and honesty.
Trusting God doesn’t mean pretending something doesn’t hurt. We don’t have to call something “good” when it is genuinely heartbreaking. And it doesn’t mean we stop asking questions. We can bring God our disappointment, confusion, and even the unanswerable questions.
Grief has taught me there are some things I will never be able to reason into place. No explanation could make losing Patrick feel reasonable. And no answer to why could give me back what I lost.
Eventually, I began to see that maybe trust wasn’t God asking me to understand what He was doing. Maybe God was inviting me to believe He was still good when I didn’t understand at all.
There are still things about my story I don’t understand and moments when grief catches me off guard. I wish with everything in me that the story had turned out differently. But I’m learning I don’t need an explanation for everything to entrust everything to God.
Some days I can do that with confidence. Other days my trust looks much smaller.
Is that where you are today? Friend, you don’t have to manufacture a stronger faith or pretend you’re less heartbroken than you really are. You can pour out your heart to God and say, “I don’t understand this. I wouldn’t have chosen this. But I’m choosing to trust You here too.”
Because maybe trust isn’t just believing everything will turn out the way we hope but also discovering that even when it doesn’t, God will still be there.
Father, You know how hard it is for me to trust You when I don’t understand what You’re doing. Help me bring You everything I’m carrying and rest in the truth that You are good, even here. Thank You for being my refuge and holding what I cannot. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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When circumstances make no sense and answers don't come, it helps to have someone walk that road with you. In Hope for the Heartbroken, bestselling authors Karen Ehman, Ruth Schwenk, and Amber Emily Smith offer 52 weeks of scripture, reflection, and prayer for anyone learning to trust God in the middle of loss. Order Hope for the Heartbroken today, because you don't have to figure this out on your own.
Ruth Schwenk has been encouraging women all over the world through her online ministry for almost two decades, and she would love to connect with you. Join Ruth on Instagram here, and download her free resource, “10 Prayers to Pray at the Close of Every Day,” here.
Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (NIV).
Trusting God doesn't mean we won’t feel afraid. It means we don’t have to stay there. What’s one fear you can hand back to God today?
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© 2026 by Ruth Schwenk. All rights reserved.
What We Believe
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