Finding Our Confidence in Trusting God
There is great danger in our daily living as too often we live day to day trusting in our ways of existing, depending on the confidence found in our desires, and ignoring the help God Desires to provide in leading us to a greater relationship with Him. Our greatest failure is ignoring God and His help and in that, we fail to build our Trust in Him. But, Believing In Jesus we receive God's Gift of Faith and develop Trust that leads us beyond existing to growing in His Grace, learning to Trust, to Praise, and Love Him in our Triumphful living (*7).
Our faith is God's gift to us (Eph 3:8 & Rom 12:3 (*1)), Jesus bears witness to this faith in His example for us, and in our acceptance of Jesus as Savior, we also receive the Holy Spirit that provides and guides us to the Trust that Jesus commands (John 14:1 (*2)). The Greek word of the New Testament for faith is translated as a noun, a thing, a most special thing but still a thing. This Thing called Faith is a most personal present from God. In His unearned Grace of giving us Faith, we can do nothing to earn it, deserve it, or in any way be worthy of it. And, that is just the way God desires it and in that, we can make no claim on having done anything to receive it.
However, Trust is different. Trust is an active imperative command of Jesus that we are to do! In Trust, we come to the point of maintaining belief beyond the evidence (*5). Saint John, a most close disciple and apostle of Jesus tells us in chapter 14 that Jesus commands us, "Let not your hearts be troubled, Trust God..." (*2).
Just as in our behaviors with friends and in their behaviors toward us, we learn to depend on friends building confidence our friends are dependable. In our own lives in our behaviors and experiences with God the same activity, confidence and trust occurs as it develops!
Just as we choose friends to trust, in trusting God we learn He is truly trustworthy beyond our expectation, knowledge, and understanding. But, even as we come to know God IS trustworthy, we must learn to rely on that trust to build our confidence in Him. Again, Trust is an action verb we must do! In doing this, we begin with three things to build trust.
First: Trust in God begins with prayerful communications with Him on a daily basis and Jesus is the example for us in this activity. He prayed often and alone. God wants a relationship with us simply because He made us out of love (*6). With our prayers we thank him for His grace, talk about our needs, and most of all listen and watch for His response. Listening is most important. God gave us two ears and one mouth possibly indicating we are to listen in stereo far more than we talk and He gave us two eyes to observe with vision to understand far more than just what we see. We can pray about our wants but we cannnot hang our trust on God providing all our wants. Praying for discernment in knowing the difference between needs and wants is important too.
Next: We need to Read, Reflect, and React to God's Holy Scripture. The Truth we find in scripture is God's word that people have Trusted for over 3500 years. It is not situational ethics or something to ponder, but the very essence of how to live life in a loving relationship with Him!
Third and final part of this message: Prayer and Bible Study should be a daily event both in the privacy of aloneness and in the company of other believers. Prayer, and especially prayer, should be often in our daily thoughts. In communications with God we build our trusting confidence in God with our daily experiences in seeing what He does for us in the little things of life (*3). In that trusting God in the little things in life, we learn and it prepares us to Trust in the more important troublesome events of life that truly tend to test our faith.
With having great confidence in God in the Trust we build, we may not always be happy with our circumstances but with the Trust we have built in our daily living we come to be thankful regardless of our circumstances (1Thes 5:16-18 (*4) see note). From being thankful regardless of our circumstances we can feel Joy in recognizing God's grace regardless of the surroundings we live in. When we recognize His grace regardless of circumstances, we are sustained to have a triumphal end to the valleys of life that could easily overwhelm us.
From the movie "The Book of Eli", Denzel Washington's character tells a friend, "There is no Testimony without a Test." This is great and Godly wisdom in that we are not to live life seeking to avoid all Trials and Testing. In our Trials of Testing, seeking God's desires for us results in finding Confident Triumphal living in the paths God presents to us to achieve His Will for our lives.
Thanks be to God.
Our faith is God's gift to us (Eph 3:8 & Rom 12:3 (*1)), Jesus bears witness to this faith in His example for us, and in our acceptance of Jesus as Savior, we also receive the Holy Spirit that provides and guides us to the Trust that Jesus commands (John 14:1 (*2)). The Greek word of the New Testament for faith is translated as a noun, a thing, a most special thing but still a thing. This Thing called Faith is a most personal present from God. In His unearned Grace of giving us Faith, we can do nothing to earn it, deserve it, or in any way be worthy of it. And, that is just the way God desires it and in that, we can make no claim on having done anything to receive it.
However, Trust is different. Trust is an active imperative command of Jesus that we are to do! In Trust, we come to the point of maintaining belief beyond the evidence (*5). Saint John, a most close disciple and apostle of Jesus tells us in chapter 14 that Jesus commands us, "Let not your hearts be troubled, Trust God..." (*2).
Just as in our behaviors with friends and in their behaviors toward us, we learn to depend on friends building confidence our friends are dependable. In our own lives in our behaviors and experiences with God the same activity, confidence and trust occurs as it develops!
Just as we choose friends to trust, in trusting God we learn He is truly trustworthy beyond our expectation, knowledge, and understanding. But, even as we come to know God IS trustworthy, we must learn to rely on that trust to build our confidence in Him. Again, Trust is an action verb we must do! In doing this, we begin with three things to build trust.
First: Trust in God begins with prayerful communications with Him on a daily basis and Jesus is the example for us in this activity. He prayed often and alone. God wants a relationship with us simply because He made us out of love (*6). With our prayers we thank him for His grace, talk about our needs, and most of all listen and watch for His response. Listening is most important. God gave us two ears and one mouth possibly indicating we are to listen in stereo far more than we talk and He gave us two eyes to observe with vision to understand far more than just what we see. We can pray about our wants but we cannnot hang our trust on God providing all our wants. Praying for discernment in knowing the difference between needs and wants is important too.
Next: We need to Read, Reflect, and React to God's Holy Scripture. The Truth we find in scripture is God's word that people have Trusted for over 3500 years. It is not situational ethics or something to ponder, but the very essence of how to live life in a loving relationship with Him!
Third and final part of this message: Prayer and Bible Study should be a daily event both in the privacy of aloneness and in the company of other believers. Prayer, and especially prayer, should be often in our daily thoughts. In communications with God we build our trusting confidence in God with our daily experiences in seeing what He does for us in the little things of life (*3). In that trusting God in the little things in life, we learn and it prepares us to Trust in the more important troublesome events of life that truly tend to test our faith.
With having great confidence in God in the Trust we build, we may not always be happy with our circumstances but with the Trust we have built in our daily living we come to be thankful regardless of our circumstances (1Thes 5:16-18 (*4) see note). From being thankful regardless of our circumstances we can feel Joy in recognizing God's grace regardless of the surroundings we live in. When we recognize His grace regardless of circumstances, we are sustained to have a triumphal end to the valleys of life that could easily overwhelm us.
From the movie "The Book of Eli", Denzel Washington's character tells a friend, "There is no Testimony without a Test." This is great and Godly wisdom in that we are not to live life seeking to avoid all Trials and Testing. In our Trials of Testing, seeking God's desires for us results in finding Confident Triumphal living in the paths God presents to us to achieve His Will for our lives.
Thanks be to God.
lonnie
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(*1)
Ephesians 2:
3All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,7in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.8For it is by grace you have been saved,
this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God--9not by works, so that no one can boast.10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
One in Christ
11Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (that done in the body by the hands of men)--12remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
Romans 12:3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
(*2)
Romans 12:3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
(*2)
John 14:
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.4You know the way to the place where I am going."
Jesus the Way to the Father
5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.(*3) This very message came after a morning prayer. I had been thinking and studying the Greek for the past week on the meaning of Trust in our relationship with God. I knew I would know when it was time to write about it. In my prayerlife, I pray for the Spirit to guide the words that I write. That was in my morning prayer. As soon as I said 'Amen' the words came. I did not even go to the compter, I was filled with this message and immediately picked up my pen and paper and started writing.
(*4)1 Thessalonians 5:14And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.16Be joyful always;17pray continually;18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.19Do not put out the Spirit's fire;20do not treat prophecies with contempt.21Test everything. Hold on to the good.22Avoid every kind of evil.23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Please note: verse 18 does not tell us that we have to be thankful for our circumstance, but to be thanful in our circumstances. No matter how bad our circumstances, we can find much for which to be thankful.
(*5)Trust overcomes the immediate facts of a situation allowing a person to continue to believe in spite of the facts. When bad things happens to us and it looks like everything around us is out of control and we continue to to believe in the object of our faith, then we are trusting. An earthly example: We have a friend we know and have known for years. You have never seen or have knowledge of any criminal activity and to the contrary this person you trust has always been someone you could depend on in any situation. Then, someone breaks into your house while on vacation and only your friend you trust knew you were gone. On top of that, the police find evidence the friend was in your house while you were gone and in fact you asked him to check on some plants. But, fingerprints are found where they should not be. In spite of the evidence, you still believe your friend did not fake the entry and steal valuable possessions. This is trust inspite of the evidence.-(*6)The Essence of God
(*7)Growing in Grace: Grace at 168 Miles per Hour
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