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There are real spiritual fruits that come with trustful surrender to God’s providence.
All of them come from an increase of God’s grace that takes place as we seek to conform our will more closely with His.
These fruits include benefits, both spiritual and practical, that allow us to live the abundant life Jesus promised us: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn. 10:10).
Let’s take a look at fourteen grace-filled benefits that come from trusting God with every detail of our lives.
1. We gain greater intimacy with God.
We gain greater intimacy with God as we learn how to live with Him in the present moment, sharing more of ourselves with Him as He shares more of Himself with us.
When a soul recognises the will of God and shows a readiness to submit to it entirely, then God gives Himself to such a soul and renders it most powerful succour under all circumstances. Thus it experiences a great happiness in this coming of God, and enjoys it the more, the more it has learnt to abandon itself at every moment to His adorable will.
Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade
2. The more we please God, the more He’ll please us.
As with any loving relationship, the more intimate we are with God, the more eagerly He will respond to the desires of our heart.
…it is all the more remarkable that the more we submit to God’s will, the more He tries to meet our wishes. It would seem that as soon as we make it our sole aim to obey Him, He on His part does His best to try and please us. Not only does He answer our prayers but He even forestalls them by granting the very desires we have endeavored to stifle in our hearts in order to please Him, and granting them in a measure we had never imagined.
St. Claude de la Colombiere
3. God will provide for our needs and those under our care.
God knows everything we need; He knows what we must do to fulfill our responsibilities to our loved ones.
When we rely on His providence, He will be faithful in attending to all matters Himself.
He has given His word and there is only one condition attached—that we seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, that we make this search the one great aim of our lives by bringing everything else into relation with it …
In return for this He will unburden us of all anxiety, He will take upon Himself all our needs and the needs of those who belong to us or for whom we have to provide, and His care will be all the greater in proportion to the degree of confidence and surrender to His will we strive to attain.
Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure
4. Abandonment simplifies our life.
Abandonment simplifies our life by giving us just one thing to focus on in every moment. When we keep our eyes on Him, everything else falls into its proper place.
…whether working for himself or for others; whether enjoying leisure or busily occupied; he has never more than one thing to do: his essential duty, the holy will of God. …
Around him, men come and go and busy themselves about sundry affairs. … whether they are a cause of suffering or joy to him, he lifts his gaze above them and sees only God Who guides them, Who makes use of them to instruct him as to what he ought to do. In all occurrences, therefore, he attends to God alone and His adorable will. This is what gives his life a marvellous simplicity, and extremely simple unity.
Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey
5. We experience freedom from the burdens of material possessions.
We will experience freedom from the burdens of material possessions and all the worldly attachments that weigh down our souls and multiply our worry and anxiety.
Freed from the thirst for wealth, from the possession of it and the burden that accompanies it, we shall enjoy a peace and contentment unknown to those who, appearing to possess riches, are in reality possessed by them and cannot escape the cares they bring with them.
Fr. Jean Baptiste Saint-Jure
6. We will enjoy better relationships with others.
The peace that comes to our soul from trustful surrender will improve our relationships with our spouse, family members, friends, coworkers, and all those who God sends in our path.
A peaceful spirit with oneself and others is one of the greatest gifts of God. Follow that spirit and all His inspirations: He will work wonders in your neighbor and yourself.
Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade
7. We will come to see our blind spots and allow God to heal them.
We all have rough patches to our personality; we usually aren’t aware of them, so we can’t deal with them ourselves.
God will send us what we need to smooth out these rough spots, so that we’ll live more happily with ourselves and with others.
Often enough, that world of passions, weaknesses, attachments, and evil tendencies of all kinds, which we have surging within us, would remain covered with a thick veil and so never attract our attention, did not Providence condescend to enlighten us opportunely by means of a good humiliation or some other trial judiciously chosen for the purpose. Then the veil was rent, and we began to see that which had hitherto been concealed from our eyes, but which, alas! may have been visible enough to our neighbors.
It is not sufficient, however, to have discovered the evil, for it is possible that we may still be ignorant of the remedy to apply. We are very much disposed to spare ourselves. Providence will have none of this cruel kindness.
Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey
8. We gain a better knowledge of ourselves.
Without the help of God, we have no idea how to fully use the capabilities He’s given us.
When we practice trustful surrender, we receive grace to accomplish and endure what we never thought possible.
Look at a pilot in a storm, a soldier on the field of battle, an athlete in the arena. No one can tell what you are capable of, no, not even your ownself, unless you are exercised with afflictions of various kinds.
There is need of trial in order to become acquainted with oneself. No one has ever learnt what he could do except by trying. … In good truth, there is need of trial for the knowledge of self.
Fr. Jeremias Drexel
9. We have an effective way to increase in virtue.
When we abandon ourselves to God and follow His will in the moment, it is an automated way, so to speak, to grow in all the virtues.
We might add that the soul, whilst practicing holy abandonment, exercises herself at the same time and in the most perfect manner in all the virtues, because she meets at every instant opportunities for the practice of humility, or obedience, or patience, or poverty, etc., and because her abandonment elevates these and the other virtues to the highest possible perfection.
Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey
10. We will have more firmness and constancy in our will.
We’re continually being pushed and pulled, in one way and then another, by the various events of life.
Trustful surrender, however, puts strength in our will and keeps it firm and constant.
But according as we advance in holy indifference and abandonment … We have no longer any wish to see persons or events except in God and in His will, so wise and so sanctifying. And by this very fact, we cease to be at the mercy of our constantly changing passions; we cease to be like chaff that is blown away by the first faint blast of the tempest. We become firm in our convictions, stable in our resolutions, persevering in our enterprises, always the same, always calm and serene.
Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey
11. We have confidence in always being in God’s grace.
The most essential duty we have in life is to always remain in a state of grace, and abandonment to divine providence is the surest way to achieve this.
The greatest security we can have in this world that we are in the grace of God, does not consist in the feelings that we have of love to Him, but rather in an irrevocable abandonment of our whole being into His hands, and in a firm resolution never to consent to any sin great or small.
St. Francis of Sales
12. We become the true friends of Jesus.
Trustful surrender enables us to be more than Jesus’ fair weather friends; we become His true and worthy friends when we’re willing to walk with Him in His sorrows as well as His joys.
It is easy enough to love Our Lord when He gives Himself to be enjoyed in sweetnesses… But it is a nobler and a greater thing to forget ourselves, and to give ourselves entirely to God, so far as to find all our contentment in pleasing Him, in adopting the divine will as our own, even though it intends to conduct us, as it undoubtedly does, in the footsteps of Jesus crucified …
If we may measure the love we have for God by the magnitude of the sacrifices we are disposed to make for Him, what love can be purer and greater than that of those who abandon to His good-pleasure not only their temporal possessions, their reputation, their health and their lives, but even their very souls and their eternity, so that in all these things they have no desire but the ordinance and will of God?
Rev. Dom Vitalis Lehodey
13. We share in God’s ultimate triumph of good over evil.
As the friends of Jesus, we have a role to play in the grand battle for souls that He’s waging all around us. Our union with Him takes us into the heart of this battle, therefore we’ll also share in the joy of His victory.
If the divine action is hidden here below under the appearance of weakness, it is in order to increase the merit of souls which are faithful to it; but its triumph is nonetheless certain.
The history of the world from the beginning is but the history of the struggle between the powers of the world, and of hell, against the souls which are humbly devoted to the divine action. …
The combat between St. Michael and Lucifer, that began in Heaven, still continues. … Lucifer is the chief of those who refuse obedience to the Almighty. … Ancient history, sacred and profane, is but a record of this war.
The order of God has ever remained victorious and those who have ranged themselves on the side of God have shared His triumph, and are happy for all eternity. … If a single soul has the whole world and all hell against it, it need have no fear if, by abandonment, it takes its stand on the side of God and His order.
Fr. Jean Pierre de Caussade
14. We will be assured of a happy death.
The best way to die well is to live well. We’ll never have to concern ourselves about whether our relationship with God is where it should be, if we abandon ourselves to His will each day.
At death all our hope of salvation will come from the testimony of our conscience as to whether or not we are dying resigned to God’s will. If during life we have embraced everything as coming from God’s hands, and if at death we embrace death in fulfillment of God’s holy will, we shall certainly save our souls and die the death of saints.
St. Alphonsus Liguori
Conclusion: Lessons From a Loving Father
Abandonment to divine providence is the best and most accessible way to practice, in real life situations, what we learn about God from homilies and books.
We will also grow in knowledge of ourselves. God will teach us many things about ourselves, about our gifts and weaknesses, just as any good father does—including those areas we need to develop, and what we’re clinging to that’s preventing us from achieving His purpose for our lives.
Finally, we’ll better understand His mysterious ways by lived experience, rather than by theory.
And as our knowledge of Him increases, so will our love.
Video Reflection From Fr. Miller:
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