Adapted from Always True by James McDonald
Trust in the Lord
with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will
make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5
Yesterday we started a series of
devotions based on God’s promises that He has made to us throughout the
Bible. The first promise is God is With Me – I Will Not Fear.
The Rocky Mountains are about three thousand miles
long. They are ancient, permanent, and
immovable. God used mountains as a
reference point when He gave us these reassuring words:
The mountains may depart and the
hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my
covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord
who has compassion on you. – Isaiah 54:10
who has compassion on you. – Isaiah 54:10
In this
scripture, God is assuring us that His love is everlasting, more solid and
stable than the mountains. We can depend
on Him to always be in control.
The second
promise is God is in Control: (I Will Not Doubt)
Doubt is a lack
of assurance or confidence that God will not keep His promises. Christians usually do not set out to doubt
God. We don’t question our faith without
reason. Life’s pain or unexpected
questions may catch us off guard. The
reality of hardship trips us up and we spiral down fast when we let doubting
questions stir our reasoning or worse, we listen to other doubters or bitter
people. Someone has said that doubt is a
cancer of the soul. Like a machete to
your garden or a wrecking ball against your house, doubt pounds away and
damages the structure of the most important thing about you – what you believe
about God. We have to reject doubt to be
able to see God’s promises come true.
Trust – Faith in
Action
Trust is an active confidence that God’s promises are
always true. Trust is the verb form of
faith. To be able to hold on to the
promises of God we have to be able to believe in them and live by them. Holding on to God’s promises and living by
faith gives strength and stability to our lives when we don’t understand
everything that is happening. Remember,
God is always at work, even when you don’t see it, so Faith will give you
strength while you wait for Him to work.
God is Sovereign
No matter what happens to us, no matter what comes our
way, our God is in complete control – that is sovereignty. There is no problem too big, no matter too
complex, nothing too hard for him. He
can do anything. He is in complete
control.
- God is sovereign over the universe – The planets and stars all hang where they are for a reason. It is no accident. If God was not in control of all that,
planets would be colliding.
- God is sovereign over humanity – Every breath, every
heartbeat is a gift from God. The
countless cells that have to come together perfectly to create human life
– compliments of our sovereign God.
- God is sovereign over sin – When you choose to sin or the sin of someone else
in your life is affecting you, God is sovereign over that too. As painful as it is, God can use the sin
of other people to fulfill His purpose in your life. The story of Joseph in the bible is an
excellent example of this. Genesis 20:20 You meant evil against me, but God meant it for
good.
- God is sovereign in waiting – Waiting for God to work in your life during a
particularly hard time can be the hardest time in your life. But it can also be the time in your life
that God changes you – for the better.
As horrible and hard as it may seem, look for the things God has
taught (or is teaching) you while you are waiting for His answer. It can feel like an eternity when you
are waiting in the desert but He will work in His time. Our role is to trust that He is in control,
allowing our faith to increase.
Take a moment and look back on your life. Do you see the sovereign hand of God along
the way in circumstances, relationships, and events of your past? There has been nothing done to you or in your
life by others that can change God’s plan for your life. He is in control. In fact, the events that have derailed your
plans for yourself may be some of the biggest parts of God’s plan for you. Be assured that He is still sovereign in the
storm.
Scripture to
Claim:
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12
