THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY PERSON IS WORTHY OF YOUR TRUST
What do you think about this statement: God is good and you can trust him always?!?
One of my long-standing challenges has been to trust God with the circumstances of my life. As good of a life as I have lived, I have found myself frustrated for much of my life. Just because I put my life in God’s hands years ago didn’t mean that God made things easy. I am often riddled with personal questions. Does he really have my best interest at heart, or am I not really that important? Does he see my daily challenges and the frustration they bring, or is he too busy dealing with big worldly issues? Does my broken heart tug at his heartstrings, or is he unmoved by my longings? These are challenges that bounce around in my thoughts regularly. I am guessing that they may be bouncing in your mind also!
I don’t know where you are in your relationship with God right now, but I want you to know that I think God is pleased that you are taking time to read this short blog! Why would I say that? The fact that you would take a few minutes out of your day to read this shows that you are curious about how trustworthy God really is. I believe God is looking for people with open hearts and minds to seek him out. That is why I say that I think God is pleased you are taking time to read this. I am slowly learning that when God says something, it will happen because God will not lie. But I am getting ahead of myself.
This last summer I had the privilege of speaking to a group of teenagers at a summer work camp in Memphis, Tennessee. If you had one opportunity to pour your heart out to a group of young people for thirty minutes several times a day for five days, what would you want to say to them? It was fun to think back about what I wish someone would have sat me down and shared with me when I was that age and then try to put those thoughts into words that would engage them. Here is where I landed and what I wanted them to realize…this was my takeoff and landing statement to them multiple times a day:
WHEN GOD SPEAKS, WHAT HE SAYS IS TRUE IS ALWAYS TRUE, AND WHAT HE SAYS WILL HAPPEN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN.
So, let me give you an example of God speaking from Luke’s book in the Bible. Do you remember John the Baptist? He was the forerunner to Jesus and came to point the way to the Messiah Jesus. A comical and surprising thing happened before John was born and even before he was conceived. The angel Gabriel, who evidently stands in the very presence of God (Luke 1:19) was sent to tell John the Baptist's Father, Zechariah, that God had heard the prayers of he and his wife. The angel continued to tell him that they were going to have a special baby and that they were to name him: John. The angel Gabriel went on to tell Zechariah that this son that would be born to them would bring back to God the people of Israel and that he would make ready the people for the coming of the Messiah. If having an angel bring you such a message from God wasn’t enough craziness, the whole scenario was even more unrealistic because Zechariah and Elizabeth were well beyond childbearing years (Luke 1:18). Zechariah asked the angel the question of how he could be sure this was all going to happen because his circumstances made it impossible, and this was Gabriel’s response:
“I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.” Luke 1:19-20
All these things happened just as the angel had told Zechariah and he did not talk for nine months until the baby, John, was born. What God had communicated to the angel and what the angel communicated to this Father actually happened! I want to help us to think through the scenario that is utterly amazing.
First of all, the angel told Zechariah that God had heard their prayers. If they were well beyond their child bearing years, how many years do you think it had been since they had prayed for a baby? My guess is that it was years ago, yet we are told that God heard their prayers. I am pretty sure that they gave up on those prayers ever being answered years ago. They longed for a child but those days were long gone!
Second, God personally gave this angel the message to give to them. He (the angel) nailed all the facts that eventually became history from that moment on until John the Baptist's life was over. John even baptized Jesus and it was after that where Jesus began his ministry to save the world.
Third, John the Baptist's birth was not an immaculate conception like Jesus’ was. Zechariah had to convince Elizabeth that they needed to “make a baby” so that John could be conceived. I would have loved to see how Zechariah communicated that to Elizabeth with no voice after being muted by the angel!?! Yet it all happened!
WHEN GOD SPEAKS, WHAT HE SAYS IS TRUE IS ALWAYS TRUE, AND WHAT HE SAYS WILL HAPPEN WILL ALWAYS HAPPEN.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 6:16-18 we are told that it is impossible for God to lie. If we begin to understand that God is trustworthy, then What He Says isTrue is True, and What He Says will Happen will Happen. In other words, God always tells the Truth -we can trust that What He Says is True, no matter what life circumstances shoutout to us. That is good news for us! That is why it is so true to take God’s Words and build them as the foundation for your life.
Jesus said that His sheep know His voice and follow Him. In order to know His voice and follow, you have a sense that what He says is true and trustworthy.
Take a minute to think about this: Do you really believe that God can be trusted to always tell the truth - never deceive us, or lead us astray, or lie to us? Do you think that his words to us are always true?
Here is what I am learning and I want you to know: God is Good and you can Trust Him always! My Prayer for you is this: that you… learning and realizing that God is Good and that you can Trust Him… that you will be motivated to seek Him, Know Him, and Follow Him with everything that is within you!!! He is bigger than any circumstance your life throws at you! Find God’s word to you and make it your foundation! Let’s grow in our trust level of who He is together!
Don Erehart
If you are ever in the St. Louis area, please join us on Sunday mornings at Gateway STL Church
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