Monday Morning Devotion-October 23, 2023
Can You Trust God?
Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him. Psalm 32:10
# Shared and upgraded from May 2018
This week I have been thinking about my good friend Mike Martin. Sadly, I recently learned that Coach Martin has developed Lewy Body Dementia. This disease takes over and radically changes a person’s life. There is no known cure. Last year I completed writing a book with Coach Martin called “11: Making Baseball History." 11 was his uniform number and the name people used to refer to him. The fact that you can just say his number “11” and people automatically know who you are talking about means that he is very well-known. He set a record for most games won (2029). That was more than any college coach in any sport ever accomplished.
In thinking back, it has been many years since Mike Martin recommended a book to me that has meant a lot in my life, especially during difficult times. The name of the book that 11 told me about is "Trusting God" by Jerry Bridges. The title of the first chapter of the book is the title of this devotion. Bridges passed away in 2016 at the age of 86. He wrote 20 books over the course of 40 years.
I have referenced the work of Bridges many times over the years. Here's an example from my book "Monday Morning Devotions" and is found in the chapter "If God is in Control Why Can't I start My Car." The story revolves around one of those frustrating experiences I'm sure we have all had at one time or another. You are ready to go somewhere, and your car won't start. Here's what happened to me:
"I woke up, went to my car on a workday, turned the keys in the ignition and nothing happened. Now there isn't anything that can make me feel more frustrated and helpless than car problems. When something like that happens, I have three possible solutions. First, I turn ignition on and off several times, just in case the car was napping and didn't get the message.
If this fails, I go to my second strategy which is to get out, open up the hood and give it a long hard look. But I must admit this is just for show, because unless the whole engine was missing, I would have no idea what was causing the problem. My third strategy is to call AAA."
What happened in that case was AAA came and replaced the battery with a brand new, 5-year, 60,000-mile warranty battery at the cost of "zero." Say Hallelujah! The faulty battery was under warranty. That certainly made me feel like God was in control and I could trust Him.
You see, the point is that we do not know how a day will turn out. As Bridges points out: "someone has described life as like having a thick curtain hung across one's path, a curtain that recedes as we advance toward it step by step. We can't tell what is beyond but as we move forward, and it continues to move back, without opening, more and more is revealed to us. Sometimes the receding curtain reveals expected events…sometimes unexpected."
Since we do not know what the unexpected will reveal we must trust God.
Bridges further points out three truths we must believe if we are going to fully trust God in times of adversity:
1." God is sovereign! God rules and has the power to bring about any outcome.
2. God is infinite in His wisdom! No one can outsmart Him, out-execute, out-maneuver or out-do God.
3. God is perfect in His love! His love is not based on whether we make stupid mistakes, or not.”
Someone has expressed these three truths as they related to us in this way: "God in His love always wills what is best for us. In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty, He has the power to bring it about."
If God is truly sovereign, then we can and must trust him. He doesn't exercise his sovereignty capriciously. Jeremiah wrote: "Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." (Lamentations 3:32-33.)
We don't always understand why things happen or work out the way they do. Sometimes the expected happens, or the end result may be a wonderful surprise, or we may feel hurt by the outcome. But we have to understand that God's plan is greater than ours and there is a reason things turn out the way they do.
If adversity is the result, we can be sure there is a loving purpose behind it when we trust God. Isaiah writes about such a circumstance. The Lord sent him to King Hezekiah, who was in bad health with some real bad news. The prophet had to tell the king that he was going to die. He told the king: "This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die. You will not recover."
"Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, 'Remember O Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion have done what is good in your eyes.' And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, 'Go and tell Hezekiah, this is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.'"
My goodness was that good news for Hezekiah or what? His faith was rewarded. He had trusted God and was stunned by what he had been told. So, he immediately, in faith, exercised the power of prayer. Then, his trust in the Heavenly Father to whom he prayed was rewarded.
Can we trust God. Absolutely! "Yes" is the indisputable answer.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for always rewarding our trust in a way that is in keeping with your Master Plan for our lives. Amen.