How to Believe and Trust in God

If you want to believe in God, face a problem that is more than you can handle. I grew up with an alcoholic father; I always believed in God. When, at age forty-two, I faced my own alcoholism, my belief in God did not seem to help. I felt like there was no hope or help.

I had to surrender all of my best thinking and follow a program of recovery that others had found made it possible to stop drinking and live happily. Like my father before me, I had stopped drinking many times, sometimes for years at a time. It was the restless, irritable, discontent feeling that defeated me.

I learned something that might seem like common sense to many, but had never seemed possible to me. Each day I could commit myself to living by spiritual principles, principles we call "godly". I was not instantly relieved of my suffering. I had to trust that my life would change. "Don't quit five minutes before the miracle happens," they said.

"Trust that others have followed this path of right-living, and you'll see," they said.

I looked at my life up to that point and felt like I had nothing to lose. It took awhile. I wanted it to be easier. I began to choose to do the "right" thing, make a loving choice in every situation without compromise on the spiritual principles of rigorous honesty, self-responsibility, selfless love rather than to follow my instincts to be selfish, self-centered, and self-seeking. Of course, mistakes and missteps were made; I'm only human. I faced the consequences squarely, admitted my wrongs, and made amends where I could: a new direction.

Somehow along the way, it has got easier. The God of my understanding has evolved from belief to Something More. Trusting the experience of others who walk a spiritual path brought me to trusting God with my life.