TRUSTING in GOD

A very good piece of article about TRUSTING in GOD from an email.

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The Christian life is an active life. If you convince yourself to be passive, you will fall into the snare of the enemy. Nothing will kill you like passivity. The Christian life is likened to a race so you cannot win this race passively. Either you are in the race to run or you are not in the race at all. No one will cause you to run. You have to "turn on the engine, step on the gas, and switch on the gear."

"I don't care" - is a terrible way of thinking. It's really dishonoring to the Lord, does not do justice to what the Lord has given us, and comes short of His grace.

TRUST - this refers to "faith". You believe. Faith is beyond reason. If you can reason it out, that's not faith. Trust means you don't see it but you still believe. I want to give you a few things related to God that we must believe. This will sustain us every day and through certain crisis times. What do we trust in? Generally, we trust in God. I mean, a very subjective trust in God. What else do you trust in - yourself? Now, you're sitting there breathing. Do you trust you're being able to maintain yourself to some degree of sanity? Is it because of you that you are still alive? It is GOD! You just have to trust in God. There's no reason to this. He is the Creator. People would say, "God is bad. Why would God let you suffer?" You can reason or explain it but in the end, I just trust in God.

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8 TRUSTS:

1) The first thing that you must learn to trust is God's SOVEREIGNTY. God is transcendent, Almighty, omniscient, all-knowing. This God because of who He is, is all-sovereign - i.e. He is the One with sovereign authority in this universe. You just don't question that. Anyone who does is crazy/audacious. Who are you to question God? Yet, the fallen man that is one with Satan, was the first one to question God by posing a question to Eve. Learn not to question. You will come to a point where you cannot figure anything out. You have to learn to just acknowledge God's full sovereign authority. Our job is to honor; our job is to trust; our job is just to believe in God. This sovereignty has to do with His authority. You don't go around and question God's authority. That's a very serious thing. Certain things happen in this world that you don't understand; you just trust. Don't ask, "Why?" Romans 9:21 says, "Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?" Dare the clay question? The Potter has absolute authority over everything including you and I. Honor/Submit to the Lord's sovereignty. This protects us. This saves us. A practical way of trusting in God's sovereignty, is to trust in God's timing. Many times this is what causes us to "flip-out". Sometimes it is easier to trust in God's ability than to trust in God's sovereignty.

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2) We can only trust in His MERCY. Day by day, what can we trust? Lean on His mercy. Mercy has to do with compassion. In Luke, you see the compassionate Man-Savior. That is a man living, shining God out. Anyone of us deserve God's love? No! We are sitting here today because we have been made vessels of mercy. So Paul says, "Present your body a living sacrifice." I exhort you all to be daily recipients of His mercy. Mercy kept you. Mercy saved you. Mercy is why you are still here. If you are really like this, that in itself will touch a lot of your pride. Anyone who touches this, will not be proud. His mercies are new every morning so we need to feed on it. One day, you will have no more boast. You will just bow your head and say, "Lord, it's altogether your mercy." If you are like this, you will be a more thankful person. You know why you complain? Because you doubt.

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3) You have to trust in God's FAITHFULNESS. God is faithful to Himself but in particular, to His own Word and promise. In other words, trust in God's Word. Heaven and earth will pass away. Anything you lean on will fade away but only His Word will never pass away. We can be faithless but He remains faithful. He cannot be unfaithful to Himself to justify our own unfaithfulness. Time will come when you cannot believe anybody, but you can believe His Word. Feed on God's faithfulness. God is faithful to His selection.

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4) Trust in the Lord's GOODNESS - i.e. trust in God's intent. His intention is always good. There is no one good but God. God is good - that is, His heart is good. There is no evil there.. Everything with God is good. Whatever happens you should be able to say, "God is good to me!" There are people who have gotten offended and mad at God because such and such happened. Outwardly, it could be unfortunate but I'm talking about our attitude toward God. God did not create a messed-up universe. We know that there is another one (Satan) in this universe - put any evil intention on the devil.

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5) You have to trust in God's RIGHTEOUSNESS. God is in the realm of justice. Righteousness is the foundation of His throne. Everything God does is righteous. This means, there will be issues and wages of sin. His righteousness relates to judgment. God is so righteous that He had to have His own Son crucified. God is not mocked. You don't get away with things.

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6) You also have to trust in God's DISCIPLINE. In Hebrews, it says God chastises because of love. If we were illegitimate sons, God wouldn't care but because we are real sons, He disciplines. Watchman Nee was in prison for 20 years. That was not pleasant. You know what is a real martyr? It is one who has all these kinds of trusts in God ~ all reasoning are out the window.

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7) Trust in God's CARE. He has numbered our hair. He knows what we need. Don't be anxious. God cares. God supplies. God will sustain. It seems that in the good days you don't need to trust that much but in the difficult/shaky times, I hope these things keep us so that no word of doubt, no murmuring, no reasoning comes out of our mouth. WE HAVE ONLY ONE REASON FOR EVERYTHING - GOD! How you are, how you go on, has a lot to do with how you treat these things and how you think.

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8) Finally, trust in God's POWER. Today, of course, this power is in us as the God of resurrection. With man all things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible.

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Learn not to ask so much.
Just THANK
EXTOL
EXALT
BOAST
BLESS
Him for all that He is - He is the I AM.

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If we say, "Lord, I can't overcome," the Lord will say, "My child whatever you can't do, I will do it for you. I resist the proud, but give grace to the humble."