Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts

by Jerry Bridges

How was John Newton helped? First he chose to be helped. He realized it was his duty to resist “to the utmost of our power” an inordinate amount of grief and distraction. He realized it was sinful to wallow in self-pity. Then he turned to the Lord, not even asking, but only indicating his willingness to be helped. Then he said, “I was not supported by lively sensible consolations, but by being enabled to realize to my mind some great and leading truths of the word of God.”4 The Spirit of God helped him by making needed truths of Scripture alive to him. He chose to trust God, he turned to God in an attitude of dependence, and he was enabled to realize certain great truths of Scripture. Choice, prayer, and the Word of God were the crucial elements of his being helped to trust God. The same David who said in Psalm 56:4, “In God I trust; I will not be afraid” said in Psalm 34:4, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” There is no conflict between saying, “I will not be afraid” and asking God to deliver us from our fears. David recognized it was his responsibility to choose to trust God but also that he was dependent upon the Lord for the ability to do it. Whenever I teach on the subject of personal holiness, I always stress that we are responsible to obey the will of God, but that we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit for the enabling power to do it. The same principle applies in the realm of trusting God. We are responsible to trust Him in ...