Lesson Eleven
CHOOSING TO TRUST GOD
(Chapter 13)
CENTRAL IDEA
We must choose, by an act of our will, to trust God in major and minor difficulties. We can do this regardless of how we may feel because we know that God is sovereign, wise, and loving.
Examining Trust
For many years in my own pilgrimage of seeking to come to a place of trusting God at all times—I am still far from the end of the journey—I was a prisoner to my feelings. I mistakenly thought I could not trust God unless I felt like trusting Him (which I almost never did in times of adversity). Now I am learning that trusting God is first of all a matter of the will and is not dependent on my feelings. I choose to trust God, and my feelings eventually follow.
Having said that trusting God is first of all a matter of the will, let me qualify that statement to say that, first of all, it is a matter of knowledge. We must know that God is sovereign, wise, and loving—in all the ways we have come to see what those terms mean in previous chapters. But having been exposed to the knowledge of the truth, we must then choose whether to believe the truth about God, which He has revealed to us, or whether to follow our feelings. If we are to trust God, we must choose to believe His truth. We must say, “I will trust You though I do not feel like doing so.”
Trusting God is a matter of faith, and faith is the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). Only the Holy Spirit can make His Word come alive in our hearts and create faith, but we can choose to look to Him to do that, or we can choose to be ruled by our feelings of anxiety or resentment or grief. We are responsible to trust Him in times of adversity, but we are dependent upon the Holy Spirit to enable us to do so.
The whole idea of trusting God is, of course, based upon the fact that God is absolutely trustworthy. We must also lay hold of some of the great promises of His constant care for us. One such promise we will do well to store up in our hearts is Hebrews 13:5: “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Because God will never leave you nor forsake you, you are invited in the words of Peter to “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). He is not just there with you; He cares for you.
There are three pitfalls in trusting God that we must be careful to avoid. First, during times of temporal blessings and prosperity, we are prone to put our trust in those blessings, or even worse, in ourselves as the providers of those blessings. In adversity we tend to doubt God’s fatherly care, but in prosperity we tend to forget it. If we are to trust God, we must acknowledge our dependence upon Him at all times, good times as well as bad times.
Another pitfall we need to watch for is the tendency to trust in God’s instruments of provision rather than in God Himself. We must be careful to look beyond the means and human instrumentalities to the God who uses them.
The third pitfall is that we are prone to turn to God in trust in the greater crisis experiences of life while seeking to work through the minor difficulties ourselves. A disposition to trust in ourselves is part of our sinful nature. It sometimes takes a major crisis, or at least a moderate one, to turn us toward the Lord. A mark of Christian maturity is to continually trust the Lord in the minutiae of daily life. If we learn to trust God in the minor adversities, we will be better prepared to trust Him in the major ones.
Developing Trust
1. Read Psalm 56:3-4 and 1 Samuel 21:10-15, which is the historical setting for the psalm.
a. What emotions was David experiencing at the time he wrote this psalm (see 1 Samuel 21:10-12)?
b. How much trust in God did David show in 1 Samuel 21:13? Why do you think this?
c. When David chose to trust God, how did his feelings change (see Psalm 56:3-4)?
d. Tradition says that Psalm 34 was written shortly after Psalm 56, after the crisis was over. How do you explain the relationship between David’s statements in Psalm 56:4 and Psalm 34:4?
2. a. Have you had an experience in which you chose to trust God despite your emotions? If so, what happened to your emotions after you decided to trust God?
b. Why do you think emotions work that way?
3. a. Why is God worthy of your wholehearted trust?
b. Is it possible for us to be worthy of His trust? Explain.
4. a. What attitude did Job express in Job 23:8-10?
b. In times of distress we must be careful that our feelings do not mislead us. Do Job’s feelings contradict the truth of Hebrews 13:5? Why or why not?
5. Read 1 Peter 5:7. Is learning to trust God and cast our anxieties on Him something we get better at? If so, how? If not, why not?
6. Sometimes when we are anxious, there are things we need to do. Sometimes there is nothing we can do. Make a list of the things you are anxious about at this time in your life. Which things do you need to act on, and which things do you need to leave in the hands of the Lord?
7. a. Do you tend to forget to trust God when things are going well? Explain.
b. In what ways do we need to trust God in good times?
8. a. What contrast is made in Proverbs 18:10-11?
b. Do you get your sense of security from your achievements and possessions or from the Lord? How do your actions reflect this?
9. a. What does God promise us in Psalm 50:15?
b. What do we need to do after God answers our call, according to this verse?
c. In what specific ways might you do this?
10. a. Are you more able to trust God now than when you began this study?
b. If so, what has helped you most?
c. What help do you still need?
11. How would you explain to an unbeliever why you choose to trust God?
Adoniram Judson by Faith Coxe Bailey
A Chance to Die by Elisabeth Elliot (about Amy Carmichael)
Daws by Betty Lee Skinner (about Dawson Trotman)
George Müller: Delighted in God! by Roger Steer
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom with John and Elizabeth Sherrill
Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor
Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot (about Jim Elliot)
The Tapestry by Edith Schaeffer (about Francis and Edith Schaeffer)
William Carey by Basil Miller