TRUSTING GOD IN ALL OF LIFE

A fundamental doctrinal truth for every believer in the true and living God is that He is absolutely sovereign. We believe that God is God.

·         Nebuchadnezzar came to understand this: Daniel 4:34,35.

·         Isaiah clearly taught this perspective of truth concerning God: Isaiah 46:9-11.

·         The Psalmist answered his critics very clearly in Ps 115:4, But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

·         James’ instruction to say if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that was deduced from his understanding of God’s sovereign rule in His universe.

Not only is God sovereign, He is the only wise God (1 Tim. 1:17), righteous in all his ways (Ps. 145:17), and intends only that which is to His own glory and the good of His people (Rom. 8:28).

It is this basic understanding of who God is that makes the exhortations of God to His people to trust in Him the most reasonable response to all of life. Because of who He is, and because we believe that He is, we can unreservedly trust Him in every situation and do exactly as He has commanded us with the confidence that His will is best.

Anxiety is all too often the believer’s response to difficulties in life:

·         Anxiety is the sinful response to life and life’s responsibilities. In anxiety we turn to self instead of turning to God. Anxiety is fear without faith. It is vigilance run amok. We scan the horizon constantly, fearfully, but without ever taking action or responsibility and without clinging to God. Bob Kellemen (http://www.rpmministries.org/2015/11/anxiety-stuck-vigilance/)

·         Anxiety is response to life without a sense of confidence in God.

§  The intensity of a situation, the overwhelming difficulty of a relationship, and the crippling fearfulness of the awareness of inadequacy all lead self-focused ones to anxiety.

§  Anxiety then leads to sinful choices: some kind of isolation, avoidance, withdrawal, inactivity; OR anger, manipulation, domination, incessant talk/evaluation, etc..  God is ignored – no soul-quietness.

Clarify:

·         Trusting God does not mean indifference or care-less spirit to life or life’s responsibilities.

·         Trusting God does not mean shirking responsibility and simply letting come what may.

·         Feelings of concern associated with personal pain, financial struggles, or relational strains are not necessarily sinful. Godly vigilance demands that we guard, care, give, love, respond, etc..

Trusting God must be the believer’s default response to life:

Trusting God is the heart/inner posture of one who takes God at His word and constantly sees in the cross of Jesus Christ God’s commitment to his salvation and care.  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:32).

·         One trusting God is able to believe the promise of God even though the promise seems impossible or out of reach: Heb. 11:13.

·        One trusting God is able to keep believing and responding in obedience, even when there is darkness and confusion: Isaiah 50:10 (don’t need to understand everything to be submissive.)

·         One trusting is able to release from his spirit the burden of control (trying to make something happen) and simply focus upon fulfilling his responsibility in life by the aid of the Holy Spirit.

·         One trusting is able to entrust to God, with confidence and thanksgiving, every outcome of life and ministry as he seeks to do His will revealed to him through His Word.

We say to others by our attitudes, words and actions that God is either trustworthy, or He is not!

God is glorified as our lives manifest that we trust Him. What is your life saying to those who know you?