~From Chapter One of Trusting God, by Jerry Bridges~
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......."I sympathize with those who find it difficult to trust God in adversity. I have been there often enough myself to know something of the distress, the despair, and the darkness that fills our souls when we wonder if God truly cares about our plight. I have spent a good portion of my adult life encouraging people to pursue holiness; to obey God. Yet, I acknowledge it often seems more difficult to trust God than to obey Him. The moral will of God given to us in the Bible is rational and reasonable. The circumstances of our lives frequently appear to be dreadful and grim or perhaps even calamitous and tragic. Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God's revealed will. Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries. We do not know the extent, the duration, or the frequency of the painful, adverse circumstances in which we must frequently trust God. We are always coping with the unknown.
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.......Yet it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him. When we disobey God we defy His authority and despise His holiness. But when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness. In both cases we cast aspersions upon His majesty and His character. God views our distrust of Him as seriously as He views our disobedience. When the people of Israel were hungry they spoke against God, saying, "Can God spread a table in the desert? ... Can he supply meat for his people?" The next two verses tell us, "When the Lord heard them, he was very angry...for they did not believe in God or trust in his deliverance" (Psalm 78:19-22).
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.......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 (Romans 10:17), so the faith to trust God in adversity comes through the Word of God alone. It is only in the Scriptures that we find an adequate view of God's relationship to and involvement in our painful circumstances. It is only from the Scriptures, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that we receive the grace to trust God in adversity."
4 comments:
Melissa, I enjoy your blog and look forward to your entries. I found you from Kat's blog and appreciate the loving relationship you two show to us. It is hard to have a daughter leave home, but she seems to be doing so well. Thank you for sharing your home with the blog world. Greta Rose looks to adore her Mimi as much as you do her. Sincerely, Kimberly
Thanks for sharing this. It is hard to Trust when we don't understand why God has allowed something...but we must cling to Him! There is no other...
Thanks for this. I especially love "obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God's revealed will. Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries." I cannot fathom what it would be like to go through adversity without God. He has seen me through so many valleys and placed me back upon the mountaintop.
I like reading Bridges. I'm working on The Disciplines of Grace right now (in spanish). He has such neat insights.
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