Trusting God
Trusting God By Rev. Gary Lewis, Lead Pastor  Last month in the Lamplighter, I shared with you five key verses for you to consider and five practical steps to take. 1.     Acknowledge the disappointments (Psalm 34:18) 2.     Trust in God’s sovereignty (Jeremiah 29:11) 3.     Choose gratitude in the present (1 Thessalonians 5:18) 4.     Look to Jesus as your anchor (Hebrews 12:2) 5.     Walk forward in hope (Romans 15:13)  I want to take some time to talk about what it means to trust God. (No.2) We often use the word "faith" to describe our trust in God. One of the hardest parts of looking ahead to the future is dealing with the uncertainty of what is coming. Faith means believing that God is in control, even when life feels unpredictable. This does not mean life will always be easy, but it does mean we can trust God to use even the hard times for a greater purpose—our good and God’s glory.  Having faith in God is not just about saying you believe in God or agreeing with a set of beliefs. It means organizing your life around the truth that the living, thinking, loving, and saving God we read about in the Bible is more real than anything else in your life.  This means we cannot think of God as just an idea or concept. God is active— God does things! Trusting God means obeying him, and obeying him means relying on the Holy Spirit to change us and help us grow.  In other words, even if God has completely cleaned our hearts and taken away all our sin, we still need to realize how much we depend on him. On our own, we cannot do anything truly good—not even think a good thought or want to do the right thing—without God giving us the power and strength we need. It’s God’s power working in us that helps us desire and do what pleases him. Even when we’re living in God’s grace, we need to always remember this. If we forget, we risk taking credit for what God has done in us, instead of giving God the glory he deserves.  This trust in God should touch every part of our lives. Do we trust God with our families? With our livelihoods? Do we trust him enough to do what is right, even when it would be easier to just go along with what everyone else is doing? Living a life that trusts God will not always make sense to people who don’t share our faith—and that is okay. As Christians, we see the world differently. We believe in a God who loves us and is always, even in ways we do not see, working everything out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  We know bad things will still happen. Life is not perfect, and humans have a natural tendency to sin. We see evidence of this every day, in death, suffering, and the brokenness of the world. This is the time we live in—the kingdom of God is here, but it has not fully arrived yet. The Bible acknowledges this reality, but it also shows us that God is still present and active in the details of our lives.  This is why Sunday morning is so important to me. When I go to church, it feels like I have stepped into a place of safety, like Noah’s ark, while the chaos of the world rages around me. At church, we pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We hear the Word of God from the Bible. We share in Holy Communion, receiving the body and blood of Christ.  I need that time with God. I need to feel God’s presence in a real and powerful way. The church is my safe place, rooted in the life of Jesus, and sustained by his living presence.  In the wise words of the prophet Jeremiah,  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11) ![]() |
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