Resolved to Trust in Him - April 27, 2010

Good Tuesday morning! Do you ever feel that God has put you to the test? Perhaps you have been put to the test; you know it; and yet you feel like Job - your friends and even your relatives are telling you to admit your sin or worse, curse God and die, as Job's wife told him. In our faith in Jesus, God is going to put that faith in the fire to purify our faith in Him. Of course our flesh is going to holler.

We don't like to be put in God's forge; it's hot and we feel the pain and discomfort of the fiery testing. We would much rather be in that resting phase when God takes us out of the testing to let us heal, rest and recuperate. However, we also know that God is the Teacher, and in time come to realize that our first and perhaps most important test is to learn to trust Him in all things.

Problems come at us in all areas of life. I don't know of a single friend in Christ who doesn't have some money concern, and all of us know of someone in the world who doesn't appear to have any reason to worry about money at all. We are learning to trust in Him in regard to finances and to not compare ourselves with the imperfect standard that is our neighbor.

My friends in Christ also have doubts about the Bible, God's holy Word. We are learning to believe God's Word without reservation, but it isn't always easy. Some of the words are difficult to believe and we feel the temptation to be learned and knowledgeable instead of coming to God as a learner and aware of our ignorance in so much. The world wants us to be intellectual according to its standards and treat God's Word as just another ancient text. I see three ways that you can have no doubts whatsoever about the Bible: 1) you are in Heaven with Jesus. 2) you are already in Hell and have found out the truth the hard way. 3) you have decided to be wise in your own strength and have lumped the Bible into that same collection as all the other mythology and stories from ancient times, in effect ignoring God's Word completely. The remainder of us are going to struggle as we learn the truth of God's Word.

With this in mind, I have resolved to trust in God. Doubts do come in my Bible study. Did the scholars translate this part accurately? Did that part get added later? Perhaps they didn't really understand what that ancient Hebrew word meant? How could all those obviously smart folks be wrong about this? And of course the always present; maybe I'm just too slow to get that part! Trust in God and His Word doesn't come automatically; we have to learn and grow as He shows us the Way. We also have some strong reassurance in our trust resolution.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.

Isaiah 29:14b - ...for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.

Matthew 11:25 - At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes."

1 Corinthians 1:18 - For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

I like how the Bible progresses in these verses from the warning in Proverbs to the prophecy in Isaiah, then Jesus says it has happened, and finally Paul points out that Jesus accomplished it at the cross. The wisdom and prudence of the world will call us foolish for resolving to trust in God. We will feel the urge in the flesh to be known in this world as wise, prudent, intellectual, and intelligent, but none of those will do us any good unless we first trust in God. We all have much to learn from our Lord!

God's blessing go with you this day,

Bucky