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No one is completely independent. It is almost impossible for a human being to keep from trusting something. It just seems to be a part of our nature to seek something outside of ourselves to trust, so the only question is what we’re going to choose as the object of our trust. We’re surrounded by many things and many people who compete for our trust. As we live from day to day, our most important challenge is to make a wise choice as to the source of our security. One of life’s most basic questions is whether to put our trust in God.
Most of us at some time or another have experienced the disappointment of misplaced trust. We’ve put our confidence in something or someone and later found out that that source of security was not as dependable as we thought. One of the most important truths we can learn about God is that He is different in this respect. He will never let us down. Our faith in Him will never be disappointed. We can not only trust Him, but we can put our complete and total faith in Him — without the slightest fear that we will ever be disappointed. God is not only a perfect source of security; He is the only source of such security that is available to us in this world. We are foolish if we don’t avail ourselves of His dependability.
To say that we trust God, however, means more than simply having a warm, secure feeling when we think about God. Putting our confidence in God means trusting Him in our actions as well as our thoughts. The person who actually trusts God will do things differently than the person who doesn’t. Faith will make a difference in our obedience to God. And if our faith doesn’t show up in action, then we really don’t have the thing that the Bible calls “faith.” For example, Hebrews 11 is a chapter full of examples of people who actually did things based on the fact that they trusted God. And James reminds us, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (Jas. 2:26).
So the question is simply this: do we trust God or not? How we answer that question is one of the most important things about us. Whether to make God the source of our ultimate security is simply the biggest issue we’ll ever face.
Monday: Psalm 36:5,6
Key Idea: Faithfulness is a part of God’s own character.
Questions for Family Growth: What do we mean when we say that God is “faithful”? Does God expect us to trust Him blindly without any evidence of His trustworthiness? To what does David compare God’s faithfulness? What other attributes of God are mentioned?
Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 8:12-36.
Tuesday: Psalm 31:23,24
Key Idea: We should be faithful to God, because He has been faithful to us.
Questions for Family Growth: In this passage, who are the “faithful” whom the Lord “preserves”? What are the faithful encouraged to do in v.24? What does it mean to “hope in the Lord” (v.24 NKJV)? How can we increase the quality of our faithfulness to God?
Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 9:1-6.
Wednesday: Psalm 20:6-8
Key Idea: God is the only source of perfect security that is available to us.
Questions for Family Growth: What does David mean when he says that “some trust in chariots and some in horses”? If we need strength or protection, what is our only real hope? What does 1 Pt. 2:6 teach us?
Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 9:7-9.
Thursday: Psalm 37:3-9
Key Idea: We ought to put our complete trust and confidence in God.
Questions for Family Growth: In v.3, what admonition is given? What are we encouraged to do in v.5? What about v.7? It’s easy to say that we trust God, but in practical everyday terms, how can we tell whether we’ve really put our trust in Him?
Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 9:10-12.
Friday: Psalm 34:8-10
Key Idea: We gain greater trust in God by making real commitments to Him.
Questions for Family Growth: In v.8, how do we learn of God’s goodness and trustworthiness? In practical terms, how do we do that? In v.9, what does it mean to “fear the Lord”? In v.10, who are those who “lack no good thing”?
Wisdom for the Day: Proverbs 9:13-18.
Gary Henry – WordPoints.com + AreYouaChristian.com
