TRUSTING GOD IN OUR TROUBLES (part 2)
1 Peter 4:12 says we are not to be surprised at trials. They are not strange occurrences, but a powerful tool God is using for our good! One of God’s primary goals in allowing the trials and difficulties we face is to get the mixture out of us. I think we are all aware that we have mixed responses to God, to others, to life. There is a part of us that wants God’s way, but another part of us wants our own way! God uses hard times to break the Self-life – the independent soul that strives to be in control and have its way. The Self (by which I mean the parts of our soul not yet surrendered and yielded to God) is always resisting Jesus’ reign as King over us. This resistance keeps us from the good plans He has for us. Our souls have had their way for a long time – we have used strength of mind or will power to get what we want. We have trusted our own wisdom and ingenuity, we have worked hard to try to keep our lives under our control --by our own efforts! But God’s goal is always – every day – to bring us into trusting dependence on Him instead of ourselves. Paul understood that great difficulty in his life was part of God’s plan, part of His training in trust: …that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9AMP) What do we need to do to begin to yield to God in hard circumstances? Here are some ways to practice, to learn to say NO to the natural ways and inclinations of our souls:
This is a battle we must fight with our souls….daily. I can keep on relying on ME or I can choose to trust GOD – the Almighty One Who has power over all things in heaven and earth! I can choose to believe that He is working something good IN me for my eternal joy and His pleasure! God wants us to come to Him in the middle of our painful situations…and let Him be GOD. The old ways of relying on my SELF have to die. God is relentless – He does not want us trusting Him SOME of the time and taking charge the rest of the time! No. He wants us to trust Him all the time in every circumstance, large or small, easy or hard. God wants to use our problems to TRAIN us to find HIM to choose to bow our knee to Him as our loving Father to trust Him even when we don’t understand There is a wonderful account in Daniel 3 of three loyal young men who, when threatened with death by fire, chose to keep on TRUSTING God: “Our God is able to save us” - they knew God’s power was far greater than the king and all his soldiers “and He will save us” – they knew God’s character of love and compassion, they knew He could see what they were facing and trusted He would intervene… BUT EVEN IF HE DOESN’T we will not bow…--they were declaring that God’s way is what they wanted most –more than a miracle rescue! This is the kind of trust God wants us to learn and to choose in the worst of times. He wants us to cling to Him by faith, believing that it is always safe to trust Him totally! The Father longs for His children to be people whose trust in Him will not waiver when He does not do what we want or when He seems to be doing nothing! LOOK UP! BE FULLY CONFIDENT THAT HE IS AT WORK IN YOUR LIFE TODAY IN WISDOM, LOVE AND POWER!
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