How To Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes In Your Life - Part 3
October 9, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read"Even if a whole army surrounds me, I will not be afraid. And even if enemies attack me from all sides, I will still trust God." That line from Psalm 27 closes this episode of Pastor Rick's Daily Hope, and it captures the central challenge Rick Warren is addressing: how to trust God when life is full of changes you don't like—and when those changes feel relentless.
This is the final part of a message called "How to Trust God When You Don't Like the Changes in Your Life," part of a broader series, Strategies for Stressful Times. Warren offers five practical steps for navigating unwanted change, each grounded in a specific biblical passage. The core thesis is that God uses change and struggle to build character, and that the key to peace is not escaping difficulty but learning to see it as an education.
Stop Asking "Why" and Start Asking "What"
Warren's first move is to redirect the instinctive question we ask in hard times. Instead of going to God and demanding, "Why is this happening?"—why the pandemic, why the social unrest, why the personal pain—he urges listeners to ask, "What do you want me to learn?" The distinction matters. "God doesn't owe us an explanation on why he does everything in the world or why he allows everything in the world," Warren says. But he does want to teach us something through it.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:35) **Second Step: Learn from God's Word** - Pastor Rick transitions from asking God to the necessity of actively learning from Scripture and those who teach it.
- 2 (02:45) **Third Step: Ask "What Do You Want Me to Learn?"** - Instead of asking "why," believers should ask God what lesson He intends through their circumstances.
- 3 (04:37) **The Reason for Relentless Struggles** - The persistence of struggle is directly tied to the tension between God's desire to change us and our resistance to that change.
- 4 (06:55) **Self-Examination on Contentment** - Pastor Rick asks the listener to evaluate what they have learned about themselves, not the world, over the past 18 months.
- 5 (07:57) **Fourth Step: Focus on What Never Changes** - When facing unwanted change, a person must anchor themselves in the unchangeable realities of God.
- 6 (10:30) **Fifth Step: Keep Telling God "I Trust You No Matter What"** - This repeated declaration of trust is the key to maintaining peace during seasons of rapid change.
- 7 (12:49) **Final Exhortation and Prayer** - Pastor Rick closes the message with a challenge to live without fear, even when feeling attacked from all sides.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
The bigger the changes that happen in your life, the more time you need to spend with God, reading the Bible, talking to him in prayer, and listening to what he wants to say to you. Join Pastor Rick as he highlights the importance of spending daily time with God so you can experience his peace and rest.
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