Word For The Day: Can God Be Trusted

Here is a question that we have all wrestled with, and perhaps you are asking this question today, “Can God be trusted?”

I have been reading “Trusting God,” an excellent book by Jerry Bridges. This week I want to share with you some of what I have been learning.

Adversity and trouble come to all of us at various times and in multiple ways. The unexpected problems and the emotional stress that accompany it take different forms.

It may be an unhappy marriage, a premature birth, or a lost job. Which one of us has never felt the sting of injustice, the pain of loneliness, or the crushing weight of grief?

We feel emotional pain, but we also are often called to bear the suffering of others, when someone you care for is hurting, you also hurt. We also feel the pain when we see what is happening globally—brutal murders by terrorist groups, starvation, human trafficking, and the current global pandemic.

As God’s people, we are not exempt from all this pain and emotional anxiety. So the question is, “Where is God in all of this?” Can I trust God when adversity comes?

When we face adversity and pain, there are three truths we must believe if we are to trust God through the adversity:

🔺God is completely sovereign.
🔺God is infinite in wisdom.
🔺God is perfect in love.

Someone said it like this, “God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom, He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty, He has the power to bring it about.”

Lamentations 3:37-38 says,
“Who can command things to happen
without the Lord’s permission?
Does not the Most High
send both calamity and good?”

Whatever you are facing, remember that God is sovereign in it and that He has a loving purpose behind it.

Lamentations 3:32-33
“Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion
because of the greatness of his unfailing love.
For he does not enjoy hurting people
or causing them sorrow.”

To trust God, however, you must first know Him in a real and personal way. David put it this way:

Psalm 9:10
“And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.”

You may not understand why adversity has come, but if you know God, you can trust Him. Do you have a deep, personal relationship with God because you have sought after Him in your pain, and have discovered that He is trustworthy?

May God bless and encourage you with His presence this week! Happy Monday.

Pastor Phil

Trusting God Quotes by Jerry Bridges – Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/123695-trusting-god-even-when-life-hurts