Why should I trust God when everything falls apart?

Krista Ortiz

When my life fell apart I questioned everything.

Because if God would allow everything I had worked so hard for to go so terribly wrong, I had some tough questions to ask — and I wanted to hear from Him!

What I found when I had the courage to come to God with my doubt, was that He could handle my toughest questions and that I wasn’t the first to ask them.

Three Ways We Doubt God’s Goodness When Everything Falls Apart

1. Does God really have my best interest at heart?

God knew there would be times where we would be so enveloped in fear and uncertainty that we would lose sight of His goodness. That circumstances so difficult would often cause us to question whether God really loves us or can be trusted moving forward.

The Israelites were no exception. They were forced to endure desperate circumstances when there seemed to be no end in sight.

But God gave them a reason to trust Him saying, ”For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

We can expect to not always make sense of what God is doing in the present, but we can hold onto the promise that God has great things in store for our future, plans to prosper us and give us purpose. Plans to give us hope when we’re on the verge of giving up and a future despite our darkest days.

2. Is the best really yet to come?

When we struggle to believe the best is ahead, it’s often a result of crippling pain and loss in the wake of our past.

In the Bible, there was a man named Job who had lost everything: His fortune, his health, his home, and every one of his children.

In his pain, Job often wondered if God was listening, or worse, if God even cared. He was so overwhelmed with grief he begged God to kill him for fear there was nothing more to live for. But Job also did something surprising. Job worshipped the God he didn’t understand.

God took note of Job’s faith in spite of his suffering and “the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before…the Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part” (Job 42:10,12).

The pain of our past is an opportunity to see God’s power.

Job’s story reminds us that our own story isn’t over yet. The pain of our past is an opportunity to see God’s power. No matter what you have lost, God is working in this very moment to restore your life and heart immeasurably more than you ever thought possible (Ephesians 3:20). Where you are now is not the end of your story. It's only an intermission. 

3. Does God really love me unconditionally?

Maybe somewhere along the road we took a wrong turn, slipped up and made some bad choices that have us certain we are the exception to God’s love.

David certainly believed the same when he rebelled against God, got a married woman pregnant, then murdered her husband to keep his secret from coming out.

But David goes on to describe the unconditional love He found in spite of the things he had done saying, “[God] reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters…He rescued me because He delighted in me“ (2 Samuel 22:17-20).

God’s not done with you. He delights in you. So come to Him just as you are and confess how you may have gotten off track.