“For the word of the LORD holds true, and we can trust everything he does.”
Psalm 33:4 (NLT) One of the great questions of life is, “Who are you going to trust?” The way you answer this question will determine whether you’re happy or miserable, whether you succeed or fail, and whether you make something of your life or you waste it. Who always has your best interest in mind? Who will help you make decisions important to your life? Should you trust popular opinion? That may not be a good idea since it constantly changes. Should you trust celebrities who set the latest trends? Trends change, and fads fade. Should you make critical life decisions based on what you read on social media? Just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s truly trustworthy or reliable. What about trusting yourself? The truth is, our emotions can lie to us. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV). When we live by our emotions, we can be easily manipulated by other people and by our changing moods. If you’re going to entrust your life and your future to someone or something, you’d better choose someone who has your best interest at heart, knows everything, is perfect, and will never lie to you. That kind of limits your options—to God. No one is ever going to always tell you the truth. They’re going to shade it. They’re going to filter it. They’re going to make it sound nice. They won’t tell you what you need to hear. But what you need to hear is the truth, because it is the truth that sets you free. Lies about yourself, others, the world, and how life really is only keep you in bondage. To be set free, you must have the truth. As has been said many times, the truth will set you free, but first it makes you miserable. We don’t like the truth. We don’t want to hear that most of the problems in our lives were brought on by poor decisions. We don’t want to hear that it’s our own stubbornness and ego and insecurity that cause the stress in our lives, but it’s true. Psalm 33:4 says, “For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does” (NLT). God said it, and that settles it—whether or not you believe it. God isn’t waiting on your opinion to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong. If God says it, it’s true. You can trust God.
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“We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love . . . because God’s perfect love drives out fear.”
1 John 4:16, 18 (NCV) Generally, there's one of three reasons that many people do not fully trust God: People are afraid that if they give their lives fully to God, they’ll lose their freedom, they’ll lose their fun, or God will turn them into some kind of religious fanatic. None of that sounds inviting. Yet God has an answer for our fear of trusting him. The Bible says, “We know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love . . . because God’s perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:16, 18 NCV). God loves you. You were created as an act of God’s love. Over and over in the Bible, God makes this clear. God thought you up and created you to love you and to let you love him. The greatest expression of God’s love is Jesus. God came to Earth in the form of a human being to show us what he is really like. He then showed us how much he loved us by dying on the cross. The cross tells us once and for all that we can fully trust God. We can trust him with our lives because he gave his Son’s life for us. If God is telling the truth in his Word that he loves you, you know he won’t take away your freedom or your fun or turn you into a fanatic. God isn’t a cosmic killjoy. He’s your heavenly Father. The more you know God, the more you trust him—and the less you’ll be afraid of him. “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.”
Galatians 6:7 (GW) You don’t plant apple seeds and get tomatoes. In the same way, you don’t plant bitterness and get love. You don’t plant criticism and then get encouragement from other people. Galatians 6:7 says, “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest” (GW). Whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest. If you plant in the soil of your sinful nature, you’ll harvest destruction. But if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature, you’ll harvest everlasting life. God has said for thousands of years that our sins can affect future generations. For instance, when you’re angry and you lose your temper with your kids, you’re setting them up to lose their temper with their kids. Sins get perpetuated in families, possibly for multiple generations. Not only does it work relationally and environmentally but it also works physically. We now know your brain can actually be changed by repetitive behavior, for good or for bad. Everyone used to think the brain was pretty much set in stone by the time you were an adolescent. Now we know about brain plasticity and how your brain can continue to be molded for the rest of your life. That’s good to know! It means if your brain has been naturally molded toward depression or a quick temper or anxiety, it can change. But you’ve got to change the way you think. The Bible refers to this as repentance or changing your mind. You canchange your mind, and when you do, it changes the way you feel. And when you change the way you feel, it changes the way you act. Then, you plant in your spiritual nature and watch what amazing fruit God will reap in your life. |
AuthorTaken from Daily Hope by Rick Warren. Categories
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