Trusting God

by Jerry Bridges

If God Loves Me, Why Can’t I Get My Locker Open?

We] do not know what a day may bring forth” (Proverbs 27:1).

even though you do not see any evidence of His presence and His power?

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful” (Hebrews 12:11).

Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? ECCLESIASTES 7:13

Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked? ECCLESIASTES 7: 13

In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense. And just as the faith of salvation comes through hearing the message of the gospel (see Romans 10:17),

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

“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.”

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. LAMENTATIONS 3:32-33

Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. LAMENTATIONS 3: 32-33

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ROMANS 11:33

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ROMANS 11: 33

The primary purpose is for us to become so convinced of these truths that we appropriate them in our daily circumstances, that we learn to trust God in the midst of our pain, whatever form it may take. It does not matter whether our pain is trivial or traumatic, temporary or interminable. Regardless of the nature of the circumstances, we must learn to trust God if we would glorify God in them.

Psalm 9:10, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Psalm 9: 10, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.” Psalms 91:14-16 (NIV) [14] “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. [15] He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. [16] With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

is coming into a deeper personal relationship

midst

o...

per...

pray that the Holy Spirit of God will enable you to get beyond the facts about God so that you will come to know Him better, and so be able to trust Him more completely.

The implicit assumption in the minds of many is: If God is both powerful and good, why is there so much suffering, so much pain, so much heartache in the world? God is either good and not all powerful, or He is powerful and not all good. You can’t have it both ways.

Like Rabbi Kushner, we are reluctant to attribute “bad” things to the intervening hand

The second problem with our popular use of the expression “the providence of God” is that we either unconsciously or deliberately imply that God intervenes at specific points in our lives but is largely

only an interested spectator most of ...

Our unconscious attitude is that the rest of the time we are the “master of our fates” or conversely the victims of unhappy circumstances or uncaring people that cross our paths.

Well-known theologian J. I. Packer defines providence as, “The unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence, guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory.”[3] Note the absolute terms Packer uses: “unceasing activity,” “all events . . . all acts,” “directs everything.” Clearly there is no concept of stop-and-go, part-time governance on God’s part in this definition.

God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people.

God’s providence: His own glory and the good of His people.

“Can you trust God?” and observed that the first meaning of the question is, “Is God trustworthy?”

“The Son is . . . sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3),

“in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17).

All things are indebted for their existence to the continuous sustaining action of God exercised through His Son. Nothing exists of its own inherent power of being. Nothing in all creation stands or acts independently of the Lord’s will.

He . . . brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing. ISAIAH 40:26

He is called “the ruler of all things” (1 Chronicles 29:12), “the blessed and only Ruler” (1 Timothy 6:15), the One apart from whose will the sparrow cannot fall to the ground (see Matthew 10:29).

I read a blasphemous statement by someone who said, “Chance is the pseudonym God uses when He’d rather not sign His own name.” A lot of Christians are doing that for God today. Often unwilling to accept the fact that God is working because they don’t understand how He is working, they have chosen to substitute the doctrine of chance for the doctrine of divine providence.

As Professor G. C. Berkouwer said in his book The Providence of God, Raw reality assaults this comforting and optimistic confession. Could the catastrophic terrors of our century, with the improportionate sufferings they inflict on individuals, families, and peoples—could these be a reflection of the guidance of God? Does not pure honesty force us to stop seeking escape in a hidden, harmonious supersensible world? Does not honesty tell us to limit ourselves realistically to what lies before our eyes, and, without illusions, face the order of the day?[12]

All people—believers as well as unbelievers—experience anxiety, frustration, heartache, and disappointment. Some suffer intense physical pain and catastrophic tragedies. But that which should distinguish the suffering of believers from unbelievers is the confidence that our suffering is under the control of an all-powerful and all-loving God; our suffering has meaning and purpose in God’s eternal plan, and He brings or allows to come into our lives only that which is for His glory

and our...

“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

Isaiah 45:7, I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.

“Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” (Exodus 4:11).

Doctor Donald Grey Barnhouse, one of the great Bible teachers of the mid-twentieth century, once said, “No person in this world was ever blind that God had not planned for him to be blind; no person was ever deaf in this world that God had not planned for that person to be deaf. . . . If you do not believe that, you have a strange God who has a universe which has gone out of gear and He cannot control it.”[6]

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, . . . but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (verse 3).

Briefly, we know that all creation has been subjected to frustration because of the sin of Adam (see Romans 8:20). So we can say that the ultimate cause of all pain and suffering must be traced back to the Fall. God’s weal and woe are not arbitrary or capricious, but His determined response to man’s sin.

I trust him more in the bigger things, more so the little things. It may be because I seek to trust in myself

Not really, understanding the sovereignty of God or his providence and how it works in our lives. Many believe our understanding of God in these ways mediocre at best.

Proverbs 27:1 [1] Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.