For example, a woman lives in a physically abusive marriage or a teenager lives in an area where a gang determines what they can and can't do. (i.e. - situations that are chronic and very difficult to transcend.)
They go to church and hear they need to trust God.
Should they be trusting that this is what God wants for their life or something else?
How can trusting God in these circumstances be justified?
What I would get from that (vague) statement is that, in spite of everything that I think is wrong or can't understand, trust that God exists - that I'm not alone. Trust that as bleak and hopeless as things may seem, that God is still there, even if He doesn't magically make everything perfect.
There is much that I think is wrong and can't understand... but I also believe that God does have bigger plans or has a larger view. I have to trust that, no matter what my pains, fears, or disappointments here are, on a larger scale or a higher plane or however you want to phrase it, God is still watching (over) and will make things right.
Note, I don't know what form "will make things right" will take... it may be as simple as "Welcome home, I know that was hard, but it's all over now." And, technically, I don't "KNOW" that it will happen, but I BELIEVE that it will happen. And that is the "trust" that I put in God.
I would argue that Hebrews 11:6 answers this question directly:
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
To be pendantic about it, God is only pleased when you have faith - i.e. you "trust in God" - and specifically, there are two things that you trust / believe in / mentally assent are true:
Or, put possibly even more simply, God wants you to trust that he is the One you should be searching for. Not money, not power, not your own selfish desires, but Him, and Him alone. In the same way that Solomon sought wisdom, and God chose to add power, money, and all the desires of his heart, so too, God rewards those who seek God first - who trust that he is the aim for which man was made - and direct their efforts towards reaching him.
Or, as Jesus said:
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Fideo is Latin for Trust - it is the root from which we get 'fiduciary.' When you put your trust in a bank, you are willing to say, "I believe that you will take care of my stuff and return it to me when I need it. I trust you with my very well-being." God would demand nothing less.
As you point out, just saying "trust God" is horribly vague. Trust him for what?
In situations like this, it's important to keep an eternal perspective. Paul reminds us that:
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
If we remember that this life is not about this life, but about preparing us for eternity, the right question becomes easier to ask: "What does God want me to learn from this bad experience?"
And again from 1 Corinthians:
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
So we see what it is we're supposed to trust about God: that he has an eternal plan for us, that we're supposed to be progressing and learning and improving, and that he will not allow us to be put in a situation where we are unable to do the right thing. (This does not mean, of course, that doing what's right will always be easy.)
