By Jennifer Hoyt


Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. Proverbs 3:5-6.

We’re all familiar with unconditional love, the kind that persists regardless of conditions like “must love tacos” or “I’ll love you if you meet these expectations.” But have you ever considered the concept of conditional and unconditional trust?

A recent experience made me reflect on this distinction. It shed light on our tendency to apply conditional trust to God without realizing it. 

Our trust often hinges on conditions like, “I’ll trust you if I can control what you’re doing” or “I’ll trust you if I understand your plans.” We may think we trust God, but it’s those moments when life hits us with a zinger that reveals our true heart.

Let’s unpack. 
I’m a writer. God has specifically asked me to write. Makes sense since I’m a contributor to this here blog, right? :) I’ve also written a Christian Young Adult Sci-Fi novel that I’ve been trying to find representation to open the doors for publication. I've approached a plethora of agents and, so far, every one of them has rejected me. I’ve refined my manuscript and my pitch. Countless hours of toiling over how to create a winning hook and synopsis. Countless hours in book edits and, of course, writing it to begin with.

After a few rejections from more prominent secular agents, I felt super compelled to send it to a prominent Christian agent. The tough part was that this particular agent’s requirements for submissions were steep. Most agents want a query letter and a few sample chapters. He wanted a proposal that provided a hook, synopsis, full bio including writing and media experience, market analysis, comparative/competitive analysis, market plan and the entire book to be summarized into three pages start to finish, topped with a covering letter and three sample chapters.

Let’s just say it took weeks to craft these materials! Just before Christmas, I put everything together. We prayed over the materials and sent them out. Since I felt God inspired me to send my materials to this particular agent, I was pretty sure I knew the answer. This would be it! I waited and waited.


It took twelve long weeks to get a response, and to my great surprise, the answer was another rejection. 


I’d love to say my attitude was to praise God and thank Him for doing all things well, but it wasn’t. I’d love to say that I felt God was good all the time, but it wasn’t. My response was to feel confused, frustrated, angry and to pity myself a little.


Wait a minute God, this was supposed to work! I was supposed to get published. This was supposed to justify all the time I’ve spent not working in the real world. The royalties are supposed to help our family, but also to be seed money for building that ministry you’ve placed in our heart. The book alone was supposed to challenge the deceptive narratives influencing today’s generation. God, where are you, and where did I go wrong?

If you’ve ever felt like you were on a spiritual rollercoaster, where you thought you heard God’s voice but ended up in the wrong theme park, then welcome to my world. I realized I trusted God enough to write, to put my stuff out there, but only if the outcome was wrapped in a neat little bow of my desires. I was all in, as long as God’s plans coincided with my grand vision of success.

Let’s be real, that verse about trusting God with all my heart? It’s like reading a bedtime story — cozy, warm, and sweet. But in actually not relying on my own smarts and letting God be the GPS… well, let’s just say I’m still trying to find the “navigate to the faster route” button. My trust has been conditional. How about you?
Do we trust God when we don’t agree with Him? When someone passes away? When miracles don’t happen the way we expect? If His answer is no? 
Do we trust God when we don’t understand? I think of Abraham sacrificing Isaac. I can’t imagine Abraham’s position. We don’t always have the full picture, which is why we can’t lean on our own human and flawed understanding. But, in all our ways, we need to acknowledge Him so that He can direct our path.

In closing, in youth ministry, we’ve studied a video by Mike Todd where he speaks to youth about what he wishes someone would have told him. In it he says, “I wish someone would’ve told me, God is not interested in your big dreams. God is committed to the plan He has for your life!” This is why we have to, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6.

Leap of Faith! 
By Joyce Pelletier 
Hebrews 11:1-2 - “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible...” 
I invite you to read all of Chapter 11 of Hebrews and see what “Faith” is all about. It’s more than just this chapter. It is a whole gamut of what God’s Word tells us from page one to the end of the book, that never stops giving its message.  
Granted we see page after page of truth and words repeated over and over again. It is interesting to consider that one person reads the first verse of this chapter. Another picks up and reads it and sees something different. The same but different.  
The written Word is consistent with what God wants us to read about, hear and follow through with.  
The essence of Chapter 11 is about so many different people from the Bible experiencing similar, yet different set of circumstances. The key word is Faith. What does it tell us? How did each person mentioned respond to what it says?  
I think it’s safe to say, that God has His influence on what is said, how each individual had to say and respond.  
On our Marriage Encounter Weekend forty plus years ago, it was implied that Love is a Choice. It meant that no matter what a couple might go through it meant if they disagreed with one another but turn to love the other with regards to what Love is described to be in God’s word. If the couple was looking to be tuned in, it with the choice here, and a decision had to be made, it would all come out the way it should. But if one spouse disagreed enough to make a decision that wasn’t mutual and became a “sore” spot, the relationship could be marred and cause the discord to go too deep in the wrong direction.  
In the case of the word ‘’Faith,” it too is a choice. Each of the people in Chapter 11 had a choice of choosing to respond in trust and faith, whatever God intended turned out the way it should.  
I recently had an experience that showed me to act in faith and leave the answer to what God had in mind.  
I received a message from an old friend, whom I hadn’t seen since the late 1970’s. We were close to this family, but after we moved away, we lost contact, and it was now 2023 when I received this email.  
This friendship was different, yet the dynamics changed and attitudes from me were rather guarded and somewhat apprehensive and uncertain. I didn’t know how to respond. There were things about this person that questioned my trust in our friendship.  
I strongly felt I needed to respond to this friend’s email. I prayed for a few days and asked God what and how I was to respond. I felt a strong sense of God asking me to be Kind and compassionate like Ephesians says about our character when communicating with others. I felt strongly about writing a letter of patience and compassion and in a spirit of God’s love. I shared what I felt God wanted me to say and let it go at that.  
I wrote the response and let it go. I figured after I sent the button to send, it was a s done deal. Several days later, I received a response that made me sit down and read what he had to say.  
Later we connected via phone and carried on the conversation and my anxiety of some of what I wanted to share would be negative, especially about leaving the traditional church we were part of in our early “born again” experience. I thought he would be angry, not understanding and expected judgment. I received none of that.  
In my efforts to be kind, compassionate, loving came back the same way. What surprised me more was the facts of his understanding for making the changes in our lives.  
What started out to be a step of faith, became a leap of trust that helped both of us open the doors to each of our lives. No judgment as we both felt strongly about our lives committed to following Christ in the manner in which we both felt led to go.  
My prayer for all of us is, “Father, God, in our world of new friends, old friends, life-changing ideals, show us the paths in which you want us to be on. No matter what happens, to know how we can move forward in prayer of faith, trusting the inspiration you give us and for us to speak lovingly choosing faith in your call, and trusting in the outcome to your amazing will. We also pray that our roadmap stays focused on our faith in you and not our intention to do it our way. In your precious name. Amen” 

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