Trust or Bust - #204

“Trust” in the Scriptures refers to having a bold confidence resulting in a sense of total security, surety, and peace. It is placing all your eggs into one basket, a basket someone else is holding. It is putting all your weight upon God with a firm conviction and assurance that He will never fail you.
 
Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at  http://www.thepuritycoach.com

Transcript

Scripture is clear, we are to trust God. “Trust” in the Scriptures refers to having a bold confidence resulting in a sense of total security, surety, and peace. It is placing all your eggs into one basket, a basket someone else is holding. It is putting all your weight upon God with a firm conviction and assurance that He will never fail you.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A powerful weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity and godliness. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #204 entitled “Trust or Bust.”

Let’s face it; it is hard to fully surrender your soul, every moment of every day, totally and completely to God. This is why David cries, “O my God, in you I trust” (Psalm 25:2). Daily choosing to trust God fully, completely, and unreservedly with everything, is a central, vital, essential, and critical part of the Christian life.

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” (Psalm 37:5)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

“Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4)

Do you long for God’s richest blessing in your life? Do you desire to live in spiritual victory and lasting freedom? Then choose daily to lift up your soul to God and trust fully and completely in Him to take care of you. All of you, all the time.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.” (Jeremiah 17:7)

Scripture is clear, we are to trust God. However, trusting God is far more than just believing in Him for your salvation. “Trust” in the Scriptures refers to having a bold confidence resulting in a sense of total security, surety, and peace. It is placing all your eggs into one basket, a basket someone else is holding. It is putting all your weight upon God with a firm conviction and assurance that He will never fail you.

With that definition and understanding of trust, would you say you are trusting God with every part of your life? In Psalm 118:8 David says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.” Why? “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.” (Proverbs 29:25) Do you want to be safe from the sinful cravings of the flesh and the roaring lion who wants to devour you? Trust in God.

We saw a moment ago in Psalm 37:5 that you are to “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” You are to “trust in the Lord, and do good” (Psalm 37:3). It is vital to your Christian walk that you “trust in him at all times, … pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)

“Those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10)

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7). Think about what the Psalmist is saying. You cannot do it alone. You cannot fight your sinful temptations and habits on your own and win—you have tried too many times and failed, and so have I.

But God is your strength. He is the one—the only One—who enables you to stand firm and say “no” to your temptations. God alone is a shield about you. He is your glory and the lifter of your head (see Psalm 3:3). Only God can protect you from the relentless attacks of the enemy upon your heart and mind. 

Your soul—the real you—must learn to trust in Him always. All of you, every part of you, every fiber of your being, and ounce of your will must rest confidently and securely on God’s omnipotent and unfathomable ability to help you overcome.

Truth be told, the thought of giving up all of your fleshly desires, passions, whims and wishes to God can be intimidating. I know it used to terrify me. Why does the thought of giving it all to God, all of the time worry you? What is it you truly fear? What are your concerns revealing about the condition of your heart? 

For many of us it goes something like this: “If I surrender my desires and ‘needs’ to God, He will take them away and leave me with either nothing in return, or He will give me something of lesser value, little pleasure, and no enjoyment.”

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” (Psalm 56:3)

Read that verse again. Do you comprehend what David is saying? Do you understand how it applies to your struggle with surrendering everything completely to God and trusting Him with the outcome? Instead of giving in to the fear that God is not going to meet your needs, instead of worrying He will not satisfy your desires, instead of distressing over the thought that He is going to withhold from you the pleasures you deserve and need—when you are afraid, put your trust in the only One who is totally, thoroughly, and completely trustworthy. Put your trust in God!

Why should you put your trust in God? Because “When you go through deep waters, [God] will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.” (Isaiah 43:2)

We are daily engaged in spiritual warfare. Fighting the three-headed beast is never easy. That is why God uses the word “when” and not “if”: When you go through the waters; when you go through the rivers; and when you walk through the fire.

However, notice that God also uses the word “through.” Yes, you will encounter the waters that drench you and the rivers of temptation that will try to wash you away in its undercurrent. They most assuredly will make their presence and power known. They will tug and pull at you; but they will never suck you under. God will not let them. You will not drown in the battle. You will pass through. That is God’s promise to those who trust in Him.

Yes, you will encounter the heat of the trial. Yes, as you pursue godliness it will be a struggle, possibly even painful at times. However, the flames will not consume you. God will not allow you to be burned by your struggle, or your failures. You may feel the heat, but you will pass through. That is God’s promise.

You must choose to “submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). When you lift up your soul to God, when you choose daily to fully yield and totally surrender every part of your heart to your Creator and Savior, He will not leave you to fight the enemy on your own.

“Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” (Psalm 73:25)

Can you say with all truthfulness and honesty that there is nothing on earth you desire besides God? If not, why not? What are you going to do about it?

Why do some Christians struggle with trusting God? Consider this: to trust someone, you must first become familiar with them. I submit that you struggle with trusting God in large part because you do not truly know God. To know God is to trust God.

Imagine a college-age couple going out on their first date. As they enjoy a slice of pizza together, she looks into his eyes, smiles, and then demands that if they are to continue pursuing this relationship, if he wants to go out with her on any subsequent dates, before the end of their first date he must give her a copy of the keys to his car, his safety deposit box, and his apartment … and she must also know all his passwords—computer, phone, tablet, bank account, everything.

How do you think he should respond? How would you respond? Of course, he won’t do that! He does not trust her. He doesn’t trust her because he doesn’t know her yet. To know her and thus trust her, he must invest time with her.

God wants you to surrender everything to Him, every nook and cranny of your life. He wants you to lift up your soul to Him—including all your passions, longings, and desires. Everything.

Yet you hold back. You are hesitant to give Him everything, because you are not sure you can trust Him. You are not confident He has your best interests at heart. You struggle trusting Him simply because you do not know Him. To know Him, you must choose to invest time with Him daily, talking with Him and listening to Him talk with you.

You can trust God because He is trustworthy. It is not just something He occasionally does when the mood suits Him. It is part of His character. It is who He is. If you could remove trustworthiness from God—which you cannot—He would instantly cease to be God—which He cannot.

God “remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13). This means you can lift up your soul to God, surrendering everything you are and everything you have to His lordship and leadership because He is trustworthy.

“This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Oh, my friend, do you know Him? Do you truly know your heavenly Father, the creator of the universe, the designer, lover, and sustainer of your soul, the almighty God Himself? As you , actually grow in your relationship with Him, you will put all of your trust in Him for He has never forsaken, or turned His back upon, those who have put Him on the throne of their heart. “Those who know your name put their trust in you.” (Psalm 9:10)

In the Bible a name is far more than what it is today. It is more than just an identifier (such as “Hi, my name is Steve Etner!”). In Scripture, a name tells you something about that person’s character. This is why knowing the names of God is vitally important.

The names of God reveal something about who He is and shows us the ways in which He is there to help us in our times of need. Psalm 20:1b tells us that the name of the God of Jacob protects you. To know the names of God is to begin to know the God whom those names describe, the One in whom you can always trust.

“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name.” (Psalm 91:14 )

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

“Though all the peoples walk each in the name of his god, as for us, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.” (Micah 4:5)

Here is a powerful truth for you to sink your spiritual teeth into and chew on. Psalm 18:30 tells us that God’s way “is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.” Don’t miss this: “His way is perfect.”

“His way” refers to the journey or path He has chosen for you. The way of Yahweh (God) is perfect. Do you believe that? You should. God Himself is perfect; therefore, His way must of necessity also be perfect.

Why is that so hard to believe? The answer, in part, is because up to this point, you have been focused on what the flesh wants versus what your soul needs. You have placed your emphasis on the desires of something spiritually dead, which has no eternal significance: King Me. 

You tend to think, and thus believe, that the desires of the flesh are what must be satisfied. You are under the deceptive false impression and evil delusion that sinful pleasure is what will make you feel alive. So, you interpret your “need” as physical and emotional satisfaction and fulfillment rather than spiritual growth and enlightenment. With that faulty, finite understanding, is it any wonder you worry God will not keep His end of the bargain?

OK, we’re going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode as we look forward to continuing this study.

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com

One of those resources I would like to highlight for you here is my book entitled “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me” available on Amazon.com. Let’s face it, life gets messed up when King Me is sitting on the throne of your heart. You know I’m right. To become the man or woman who is living a life that consistently honors God in all you say and do, you must first remove the “I” from your life. It’s not about you. It never was. It never will be.

In this interactive Bible Study, “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E.” examines such questions as: Why do I keep doing the things I don’t want to do? Why can’t I gain victory over the stupid issues in my life? Why can’t I be consistent in living a life that glorifies God? How on earth do I live a life that is fully surrendered to God? The answers to these questions, and many more, are found in Scripture, and my book “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E.” helps you unpack them and understand how to apply them to your life.

So, if real change – lasting change – is going to happen, you need a different leader sitting behind the big desk in the oval office of your heart. Whomever is reigning in your heart will be calling the shots in your life. You must choose to remove the “I” from L.I.F.E. and allow God to take your place – His rightful place.

So head on over to Amazon.com and purchase your copy of “Removing the ‘I’ from L.I.F.E. – the Dethroning of King Me” today.

And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes!

So, until next time this is Author, Speaker, and Purity Coach Steve Etner reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.