Trusting God is a scary proposition.
REASONS WE DON’T TRUST GOD
Reason #1: We Don’t know who God really is.
“Those who know the LORD trust him.” Psalm 9:10
There are several wrong views of who God is and because we often believe these false views of God we walk away with un-trusting behavior that will damage our life. Four typical false views of God include The Cosmic KillJoy, the Sadistic Santa, the Gullible Grandpa, and the FORCE. All four views are incredibly wrong about God and His character.
False Views of God:
The Cosmic Killjoy – God is up in heaven watching down on us just waiting for us to mess up so he can ZAP us into shape. When we believe that God is the cosmic killjoy we make assumptions about who He is and what He is doing with His time. We also tend to look at our life events and world events through a perverted lens – ascribing natural disasters and personal ailments to God because of our dysfunctional behavior. Now, there might be times when bad things happen and it’s a direct result of God’s hand of judgment. However, we cannot blame things like poor health on God when it is a clear result of our own irresponsibility.
The Sadistic Santa – God is a God who gives people everything they don’t want. “God, I’ll do anything for you just don’t make me…” Boom – that’s exactly what God has you do. The Sadistic Santa view of God is very depressing because we shrink God down to being grumpy and mean spirited toward us. He is not a God of blessing but a God of curses and revenge.
The Gullible Grandpa – God doesn’t really care what we doing as long as we don’t disturb Him. He is aloof and turns a blind eye to our poor behavior. This too is far from the truth of who God is. He is deeply concerned about us and He keeps track of details. It even says in the book of Psalms, He bottles up each of our tears.
The Force – God is the FORCE or this power that is in everything and is everything. Actually, this is nothing but pantheism. Star Wars is a really fun movie to watch, some episodes more than others; but we should not get our theology from the films. It is true that God created all things and it is His power that sustains His creation. But He is not a Tree, or a Star, or a solar system. God is the Creator of all those things. When our view of God is that He is the Force, we begin to worship the creation instead of the creator.
Reason #2: Too Many People have LET US DOWN
You know, life really sucks sometimes and the fact is that people will hurt us and let us down. When this has been repeated over and over again in our life we can fall into the second reason for not trusting God. We walk around hurt (emotionally) and we tend to not trust anything except what we can do for ourselves. This strength mentality might work for a while, but after some time our willpower will fail and we will be at the end of ourselves (probably addicted to something or emotionally & relationally dead). Yes, we will be hurt in life by people who love us. But we need to remember that God always has our best interest in mind. And yes, He might hurt us as well but He will never harm us. This difference is like a Doctor; sometimes God might have to hurt us to take care of some sin in our life but the purpose is to get us better. A doctor might have to do surgery (and that would hurt) but it is for the purpose of healing us.
What Happens When We Trust God?
There are several benefits for the person who places their trust in God, but for this post, I will only be sharing three. By placing your trust in God I mean that you allow Him to guide your life, you follow His principles for life that you can find in the Bible and you seek Him whenever you have decisions in life to make. Let’s look at three benefits to trusting God:
A Person Who Trust God has CONFIDENCE
(David speaking to King Saul about Goliath) “Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.” I Samuel 17:36
I have been around long enough to realize that, following Biblical principles will bring about peace in life. I know, at the time of deep stress it seems that it might not be the case; but they really work. And as we step out in faith and apply those principles, and we see that they work, we gain confidence in life. Take the verse above with David confronting Goliath; David had already placed his trust in God on a number of other occasions when he had to protect the family flock of sheep. David KNEW God was with him every time he faced a challenge so now when he faced Goliath David knew he could trust God again.
A Person Who Trust God has DIRECTION
“For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
God will not give you all the details of your life, but He will give you just what you need for today. If He gave you all the plans now then you would not have to have faith – and what’s more, you would stop trusting Him. God is our provider for life – and that takes trust to realize that we are not the provider and HE is. When we can grasp that concept it makes it a lot easier in life to move forward with confidence, free to be who God designed us to be. Do what you are good at & enjoy and leave the rest to God. By the way, if you would like some direction in this please consider my Life Coaching link above.
A Person Who Trust God has LIFE
“The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.” John 10:10
Trusting God requires a step of faith, but when we begin to live our life by the principles in the Bible we will see that real life is all around us. The culture we live in is very self-centered and life-sucking (as in it sucks the life out of us). God’s plan is to give us a better life than we ever imagined.
Please check back tomorrow when I will give you four parts of a plan for trusting God with your life.
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