Trusting God
By Jerry Bridges

Chapt. one: Can You Trust God?

A. Adversity and emotional pain hits everyone

a. Heartache, disappointment, grief, lost jobs, lost children, terminal illness, dreams turn sour, in justice, loneliness, humiliation, rejection, infirmity..

b. Also bearing the pain and grief for others.

c. Pain and suffering on a world wide scale.

d. Proverbs 27:1 "We do not know what a day may bring forth"

B. Where is God? Can you really trust God when adversity strikes? Does He rescue those who seek Him?

a. Ps 32:10 Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him. NKJV

b. can you Trust God? is He dependable in times of adversity?

c. can You trust God? Do you have such a relationship with God and such a confidence in Him that you believe He is with you in your adversity even though you do not see any evidence of His presence and His power?

C. Sometimes it is more difficult to trust God than to obey Him.

a. Moral will of God is rational and reasonable and recognizable as good.

b. The circumstances in which we have to trust God often appears irrational and inexplicable.

c. Trusting is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries; no known extent of duration or frequency to the pain.

d. Always coping with the unknown.

e. When we disobey Him we question his authority and His holiness. When we fail to trust, we doubt his sovereignty and question His goodness.

f. The answer lies in the Word of God alone!

D. God is completely sovereign* God is infinite in Wisdom* God is perfect in Love.

a. God in His love always wills what is best for us

b. God in His wisdom always knows what is best

c. God in His sovereignty has the power to bring it about.

d. Lam 3:34-38 For who can act against you without the Lord's permission? It is the Lord who helps one and harms another. TLB

E. The Bible asserts that God is sovereign over good and calamity

a. Rather than be offended.. by comforted by it.

b. Lam 3:27-33 It is good for a young man to be under discipline, for it causes him to sit apart in silence beneath the Lord's demands, to lie face downward in the dust; then at last there is hope for him. Let him turn the other cheek to those who strike him and accept their awful insults, for the Lord will not abandon him forever. Although God gives him grief, yet he will show compassion too, according to the greatness of his loving-kindness. For he does not enjoy afflicting men and causing sorrow. TLB

c. Paul understood….Rom 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the LORD? Or who has become His counselor?" Or who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?" For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. NKJV

E. David understood that in order to trust God you have to know Him…not know about him.. but actually Know Him. Ps 9:10 "And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You."

NKJV