[Feature Story] Check-points - How Much You Trust in God?
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April 24, 2022 |
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Do you believe in any situations without change?
When King David was undergoing trials, it seemed that he had already been abandoned by God and his time was no longer there. If the men of David had accepted this situation as it was, they would have betrayed King David.
Yet, they trusted King David even in the miserable situation and followed him to the end in spite of the threat of death. On the other hand, those who looked at the reality and pursued their own benefits eventually betrayed him.
What about the Apostle Paul? He did not only believe and trust the God who showed extraordinary power through him and was glorified. He praised the God who allowed him to be beaten and left to be imprisoned. He also believed and trusted the God who allowed him to be sentenced to death to the end.
In this way, true trust is to believe unchangingly regardless of one’s situations, position, and circumstances.
Don’t you hit your own limits?
If Abraham had said, “I can’t do it with Isaac” to God’s command to offer his only son Isaac as a burnt offering, he would not have been able to become the father of faith, and he would not have been called God’s friend.
But Abraham was able to go beyond his limits and offer his only son Isaac, the seed of promise, as a burnt offering to God.
During the ministry of Jesus, many people encountered an incident where they hit their limits. For example, Jesus said in John 6, “I am the bread of life that came down out of heaven.”
At this time, many of His disciples couldn’t understand His word spiritually and were not walking with Him anymore. However, the disciples who trusted in Jesus like Peter followed Him only saying “Amen” even in situations beyond their limits.
Do you usually show the deeds of obedience?
The boy David was able to defeat the giant general Goliath because he usually threw a slingshot to protect his sheep. In other words, because he trusted God, he was able to increase his ability and guarantee God’s word.
It is not perfect obedience to say, ‘It’ll be okay because I have received prayer’ without showing any action of faith. Peter was able to walk on the water because he was obedient to Jesus. Although it was something beyond his strength, because he trusted Jesus, he was able to rely on Jesus’ words and set his feet on the water without thinking.
In this way, God works looking at your usual deeds of obedience. Only when you obey even if it is more than you are capable of, you can be said to have true trust.
Steps to Building True Trust
The 1st step ? “It can’t be.”
Even if you firmly say, “It can’t be,” when someone gossips the one you acknowledge and trust, God doesn’t say it is trust.
It is because hidden in that word is the thought of ‘what if it is?’
Most people are tempted to listen when someone else says one, two, or three bad things about someone they trust. But if you truly trust someone, you won’t hear anything bad about him, and you won’t even think, ‘It can’t be’.
The 2nd step ? “But even if He does not”
When Daniel’s three friends did not bow down to the golden image, King Nebuchadnezzar says he would throw them into the furnace of fire. Then they boldly said that God would deliver them, and even if He did not so, they would not serve the king’s gods or bow down before the golden image.
Likewise, Daniel’s three friends did not change their heart to trust and serve God unconditionally even in the face of death.
If ‘It can’t be’ is conditional trust, ‘even if He does not’ is unconditional trust. If you build a relationship of trust, you will confess that you are unworthy servant(Luke 17:10).
The 3rd step ? “There must be a good will”
If you can believe that there is a will of God that is higher than your thoughts when it is exactly opposite to your thoughts, then you must be able to truly trust(Isaiah 55:9).
Abraham, the father of faith, was able to immediately obey God’s command to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, as a burnt offering. Because he had confidence that there must be a good will of God.
In your relationship with people, you can also say that you really trust them only if you have an eye of goodness looking at them, thinking, ‘There must be a reason.’
The 4th step ? “Oh, He meant this.”
Joseph, who became the prime minister of Egypt, told his brothers, “Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life,”(Genesis 45:5) delivering the good will of God.
In this way, although Joseph was unfairly sold into slavery by his brothers and was framed and imprisoned as a slave(Genesis 50:20-21), since he realized the good will of God that He wanted to make the people of Israel through Jacob’s descendants, he could fulfill God’s providence completely only with faith and love.
True trust is the level of not only believing that there is God’s good will, but also realizing it and obeying it.
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