The first question I need you to answer for yourself is “Do I want to trust God?” I think we have to start there because if you don’t want to trust God, we need to take a different approach to get to the answer of the question “Can I trust God.” If you aren’t interested in trusting God – then we need to talk about why that is, why don’t you want to trust God? Did something happen to you that caused you to turn your back on God? Or maybe you don’t believe in God at all – which is a possibility. Many people don’t. But if you are reading this right now, I find it extremely interesting that while you don’t believe in God, you are reading this and I don’t want to miss this opportunity to learn more about why. I hope you’ll talk to me, and I invite you to do so, I’m ready and willing to listen.
For you who answers the question, “Do I want to trust God?” with “yes,” let me say this. You are not alone. I want to trust God, and there are other people around you also want to trust God. The big question is, “How?” How can we trust God, especially after going through a painful, personal tragedy.
It’s all well and good to say, “put your trust in the LORD” (Psalm 4:5), “O my God, in you I put my trust” (Psalm 25:2), “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3). That’s what the Bible says, but that just tells us we should, not how.
The “how” is found in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jesus trusted God completely, in good times and in bad times. As we have faith in Christ, he now lives in us, so we have the ability to trust in God as well. Jesus, who lives in us, knows what it is like to suffer pain, and personal tragedy. His experience and his ability to trust in God, no matter what the circumstances, is now living in us.
And yet, life is hard. Life is pain. Life is tragedy.
Things happen for a reason. You throw a ball into the air, it will come back down. You drink a lot of water, and you’ll have to go to the bathroom. This is true for everything. If this statement is true, “God is in control,” then there is nothing that is reason-less, or senseless,
Everything has a reason – that is true, in my experience. Every reason can be understood – that is not true, in my experience and most likely in yours as well.
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the Sunday before He died – what Christians call Palm Sunday – there was a reason. His followers didn’t know what it was at the time, but that didn’t change the fact that there was a reason. It was only later – after Jesus died and rose again, that His followers began to see the reasons for why things were happening. The two disciples who walked with Jesus on the road to Emmaus the afternoon of His resurrection were the first to experience this. And there is where we find our how.
How do we trust God? By going through the Bible and reading and meditating and praying about the love God has for us.
Bad things happen, that’s true. But God is in control and will use all the things that happen to us for our good.
©2009 True Men Ministries
3 comments:
Hey, Rev - I loved this blog. Trust God? You bet - not easy, not one bit - but it's the only thing that's kept my husband and me alive through very difficult times.
Thank you.
Dawn L. Hayes-Stewart
Thank you for your wise words. I am struggling to apply this to my failed marriage where my wife recently left and took our two young children. There are no legal issues, but I am constantly concerned about the emotional, mental and spiritual well-being of my very young children. How do I entrust my children to God in a situation that is out of God's will?
Heart broken mother,
I lost my 3 children to be raised by their father whom I caught molesting our oldest. No one would listen to me, my children, or their councilors. I want to trust god but find myself so angry. I was forced to sign away my rights. How do I go on from here and get my faith back. I felt as if he turned his back on me, although I know he didn't. Please help me save my life!!!
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