Trust

A lesson on Trust by Jon Draskovic

Proverbs 3:5-6 and 29:25

What does it mean to trust in God?

Ideas from the class:

- to give up control, rather than trying to manipulate events.

- turn my burden over to God. Peace is the result.

- Jesus is in me and I am in him.

- trust that there is a reason for there being “down” days

- no matter how bad things get in life, I believe God will handle it, and so I don’t worry about things

- being fully dependent on God.

Trust is quite personal. Everyone has different areas where trust is a challenge. Jon gave us two examples.

- living with limited financial resources

- one person needs to abstain from alcohol. Another person can go to the bar and evangelize there with no problems. Both are trusting in God in those two vastly different decisions.

The class suggested:

- raising children

- making decisions about a direction in life

- marriage

- airplane flights

- trusting strangers

- problems recognizing that I am trusting in God during the very moment that I am exercising trust.

From the Christian perspective, what makes it so hard to trust in God?

- we see so much evil in the world and ask God, “Why are you permitting this?”

- we (like children) like to push the envelope.

-the Christian life of discipleship is not easy. The Bible tells us about good people who have bad things happen to them, and bad people to whom good things happen.

Even in the face of difficult/bad events we are called, as Christians, to follow Jesus.

Matthew 15:21-28 The Canaanite woman, with a demon-possessed daughter.

What did it mean for the Canaanite woman to trust?

- she was persistent, desperate, had to acknowledge Jesus was the master, and had to humiliate herself.

John Calvin – Most of us think faith is an assent to the history written in the gospel. But faith is recognizing that God is the actor. God is more than a thing we worship. When we put our trust in God, we receive the Holy Spirit. And then we need to bear fruit.

A visual aid on trust, based on 1 Cor 2:14 and surrounding verses.

The “natural” person – is without the Spirit; Christ is outside the circle of his life.

This person is on his own throne.

The carnal/worldly person – has accepted Christ into his life circle, but the person is still on his own throne.

The spiritual person – has accepted Christ into his life, and Christ is on the throne. This person fully trusts in Christ.

In our lives, what does it look like to be that third, spiritual person?

- we are praising God

- we allow God to be in charge of our life

- God is our guide

- I believe that God is making me into the person God wants me to be