IN GOD WE TRUST

IN GOD WE TRUST

Do you know what it seems to me is one of the greatest draws of men and women to God?  Times of trouble.  It seems this is the most significant reason we turn to Him and start to trust Him, is when we are in such deep manure, that it seems to a soul the only way to be extricated from the mire we find ourselves engulfed in.  "Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer." (Psa. 4:1)  As David called and trusted He would answer, so should we do in times of distress.  Only let us not only call on Him when we are in trouble, let us pray to Him at all times!  "Pray without ceasing." (1 Thess. 5:17)

In this age, we have a habit of labeling people; you know, we have a name for the type of behavior you can typically expect out of certain ones.  For example, some are frowned upon and given the label, "users".  Just like you don't appreciate people who use you, do you expect God to appreciate those who use Him?  "Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD." (Psa. 4:5)  When you pay your respects to God during both good times and bad times, at that time can you trust He will be willing to move to your needs.  Believers normally do this, so it is quite natural they trust Him to help when they call.

When you trust in the Lord, doing good, obeying His commandments and statutes, as you dwell where you are, you can literally feed on His faithfulness in your daily walk.  "Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." (Psa. 37:3)

"Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;)" (Heb. 10:23)  We who believe in God and the bible trust all His promises will be kept.  Those of us who have obeyed His commandments and statutes and believed in Christ Jesus that He died for all our sins look forward to that day when we stand with Him in the heavenly places.  We trust that by His grace we are saved.  But let us not believe that His grace gives us license to sin, as some seem to allude to, claiming they are no longer under the burden of the law, as if it is now okay to transgress; it is a life of love and service!  "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." (Gal. 5:6, 13)

Let me not mislead.  We no longer sacrifice animals, because we trust in Christ for His grace.  "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom. 10:4)  So we trust in Christ for sufficient grace to enter His kingdom, but we still obey His commandments and statutes; "What shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid.  How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:1 - 2)  Indeed, we strive to be like Christ, who is forever sinless, knowing that we can't be, but we strive for that mark.  What sins we commit after accepting Him as Savior we trust Him to wash away in the power of His precious blood.  This is the concept of grace.  Not that there was not grace in the Old Testament, for Noah and others found it, too. "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD." (Gen. 6:8)  I was compelled to correct a gal recently who stated we "were in the age of grace, and no longer under the weight of the law", and I had to give her chapter and verse that Jesus didn't come to destroy the law, nor was grace from God absent in the Old Testament, as she was alluding to.  There was nothing wrong with the law, the problem was with the people!

Trust that He will give us rest.  Believe that all His promises are true, and not one word will fail.  So many people I have witnessed to have said they don't believe in the bible.  These same people have claimed to be Irish Catholics and protestants of varying denominations, and of course, there are the atheists and heathens who think they are being smarter than I working for money instead of God, like an Asian woman I witnessed to in a donut shop.  Folly runs rampant in every country, doesn't it?  "Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all that He promised: there hath not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised by the hand of Moses His servant." (1 Kings 8:56)  No believer disagrees with me here that this was wise of Solomon to say when he said it then, and so does it apply today.

Trust that the Lord will answer the call of believers, but be careful what you ask for, you might just get it!  "Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." (Jer. 33:3)  I used to ask for Him to greatly increase my faith, and to give me great faith, and He allowed it to come to pass that I was answered in a way far beyond my expectations, and it continued for a year and a half, and while I'm sure it was what I needed in His eyes, I certainly didn't want it in that manner!  I learned a time after it had started that in order to demonstrate great faith, your faith has to be greatly tested!

Those who trust in Him can believe He will deliver them.  Though the devil attack you for a year and a half, God will deliver you who believe on Him!  "Because he hath set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name.  He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him." (Psa. 91:14 - 15)  No matter what manure I must wade through for however long, I will trust Him to change me and make me white as snow in the end.  We who believe can trust our deliverance from death.  Trust God through all trials; "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." (Isa. 43:2)  I'll give you an example; remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?  "And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.  Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, 'Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?'  They answered and said unto the king, 'True, O king.'  He answered and said, 'Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.'" (Dan. 3:23 - 25)  What an amazing passage of Scripture this is, because it tells of men who trusted God, and God was even physically with them while they were in the fiery furnace, in no pain nor of any harm from the fire.  For their trust was truly great!

There are, unfortunately, a people who cannot trust God; no, they will wallow in trouble all the days they do not soften their hearts and give them to God.  These are the wicked, and their lot is such as this; "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.  'There is no peace', saith my God, 'to the wicked.'" (Isa. 57:20 - 21)  I know someone suffering this now, and his language is so foul, no sentence comes out of him that has no cursing; his language is so limited.  He goes unemployed, for he understands not that his language keeps him from earning a wage.  "A man's belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.  Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." (Prov. 18:20 - 21)  He looks forward to donating blood to buy his beer and chew tobacco, and I feel compelled to pray that the Spirit of God open his eyes, that he might trust Christ to change his life for the better and his salvation.

Is there trouble between you and a brother or sister?  Forgive, and trust God for peace on that issue; "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil." (Eph. 4:26 - 27)  If you let unforgiveness hold onto your heart, expect your heart to be troubled for it until you do forgive.

"Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us.  Selah." (Psa. 62:8)  When you are in great distress, call out to Him.  His reward for your trust is that He will bring you through whatever the tribulation.

At some time in your life, is there ever a time you can recall that you didn't sleep well at night, because of some great fear for your safety, or maybe that something was going to happen because of some matter earlier in the day?  Did you ever realize later that was a lack of trust in the Lord to keep you safe?  "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety." (Psa. 4:8)  Easier said than done, true, because we don't physically see our Lord protecting us, but we must prove we have faith in the invisible God!  "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me." (Psa. 3:5)

Zophar counseled Job to repent that he might receive invulnerability once more of God from all his calamities.  In knowing the story, Zophar's ill thoughts of Job are unfounded, yet, his advice is correct; trust God for protection from destruction.  "And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.  Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee." (Job 11:18 - 19)  The believer can trust in the hedge God puts between us and the evil of the devil and his demons.

No matter how great the enemy, trust God to blot them out of your way and cause them to be but a bad memory for you.  For if they are not your brother or sister, how could they be a believer in our great God?  "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.  Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it." (Deut. 25:17 - 19)  As God smote the most savage enemy of Moses and the Israelites, so trust Him to do the same for you, because you believe on Him!  "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower." (Psa. 18:2)

Is there one reading this who is barren, and has no children to count on in their old age?  Trusting in God, we have children in Christ, because those younger than us are our sons and daughters in Christ, just as Paul called Timothy his son, though he was not so, biologically speaking!  "And again, I will put my trust in Him.  And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." (Heb. 2:13)  Though my wife and I are barren, yet, we have daughters and sons in Christ for our old age!

Now what of the law?  So many fear the law, as though it were a schoolmaster, and Paul indeed thought it a schoolmaster; to teach us to trust in Christ to justify us by faith in Him!  "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Gal. 3:24)  And what more shall I say of the law?  As I said in the fifth paragraph of this study, Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it!  "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:17 - 19)  So trust in God.  Yea, trust in Christ Jesus to fulfill the law; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.  He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but He that believeth not is condemned already, because He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:16 - 18)

Let us trust explicitly in the Lord, for "They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.  As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever." (Psa. 125:1 - 2)