5 Signs We Are Striving, Not Trusting

5 Signs We Are Striving, Not Trusting

By Steve Backlund

Striving can be difficult to recognize because it often looks like responsibility. We are praying, planning, working hard, trying to make good decisions, completing goals,  and doing everything we know to do. Yet underneath all that activity can be an internal pressure that says, “I have to make this happen.” This is the root belief of striving. 

Working hard and striving are not the same thing. We can work incredibly hard while experiencing God's rest; or we can be doing almost nothing while internally striving through worry, fear, and trying to control outcomes.

Hebrews 4 emphasizes entering God's rest. Romans 4 gives us a picture of Abraham becoming “fully convinced” that God was able to do what He had promised. These passages help us recognize when we have moved from trusting into striving.

Here are five signs we are probably striving, instead of resting: 

1. We Feel Like Everything Depends on Us

One of the clearest signs of striving is the internal belief, “Everything depends on me.” This is very different from diligence, responsibility, and hard work.

Hebrews 4:10 says, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”This does not mean we cease from action, but it speaks to what is happening internally while we work.

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28–30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you...and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” I love that Jesus connects a yoke with rest. A yoke is designed for work. Jesus is showing us how to carry responsibility yoked with Him rather than under the pressure that everything depends on us.

Rest is not the absence of activity. It is the absence of the belief that everything depends on us. God is teaching us how to work hard and carry significant responsibility with less internal pressure.

2. We Take Responsibility for Things That Belong to God

Striving causes us to move from “I have a part to play” to “I have to make this happen.” Somewhere along the way, the line between our responsibility and God's responsibility becomes blurred. This can happen with our children, marriage, health, finances, ministry, leadership, job, or people we care deeply about. We can love, pray, plan, communicate, lead, and obey without carrying responsibility for things we cannot control.

Faith takes responsibility for our part without taking responsibility for outcomes only God can produce.

Right now, God is bringing greater clarity to what is ours to carry and what is His. Rest says, “I will faithfully do my part, and I trust God with what I cannot control.”

3. We Focus More on Our Ability Than God's Ability

Romans 4:20–21 says Abraham “was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,” and was “fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.”

Notice where Abraham's attention went. It moved from his ability to God's ability.

Striving keeps asking, “How am I going to make this happen?” Faith keeps returning to, “What has God said, and what is He able to do?”

In this season, God is strengthening our confidence in His ability. Our limitations do not get the final word. His faithfulness does.

4. We Rehearse the Problem More Than God's Faithfulness

This is another thing I find fascinating about Abraham. Romans 4 says he was “strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.” He certainly knew the facts. His body was as good as dead, and Sarah's womb was barren. Yet, the impossibility did not become the primary focus of his meditation.

There is a powerful progression in Romans 4:

Promise → believing → giving glory → strengthened faith → fully convinced.

We don't overcome striving by striving harder to have faith. Sometimes the greatest faith workout is to stop continually rehearsing the problem (and just trying to believe higher) and start rehearsing the faithfulness of God.

“Father, You are faithful. You are able. You have brought me this far. You are working in ways I cannot see. I trust You.”

I believe that God is shifting our attention from the size of the problem to the greatness of His ability.

5. We Believe We Cannot Rest Until the Problem Is Resolved

Striving tells us, “Once this gets resolved, then I can have peace. When the finances improve, the relationship gets better, the prayer is answered, the decision becomes clear, or someone we love is doing better, then we will rest.”

God is revealing something better. Our peace does not have to wait for the outcome. We can experience God's rest while the outcome is still developing.

God's rest is not a reward we receive after the battle, but it is a place from which we fight the battle.

Something is shifting in this season. God is replacing internal pressure with greater confidence in His faithfulness. We are becoming more persuaded that He is working even when we cannot yet see the outcome. We are not becoming passive. We are becoming persuaded.

Here is a chart to help us recognize the difference between striving and rest:

Declarations

1. I work from rest because I know God is at work with me.

2. I am free from the pressure of believing everything depends on me.

3. I focus more on God's ability than on my responsibilities .

4. I clearly recognize what is my responsibility and what belongs to God.

5. I experience God's rest even while situations in my life are still being resolved.

6. I am becoming more persuaded and less pressured in every area of my life.