Trust

"Each day God asks us in a new way, 'Do you trust me?'"

~ from a friend

An Inexplicable Peace

"Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
But to him that worketh not,

but believeth on

Him that justifieth the ungodly,

his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the

blessedness

of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,

Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven , and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

...[Abraham] Who against hope believed in hope

...and being not weak in faith

...he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;

but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;

And being fully persuaded that,

what He had promised, He was able also to perform.

And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness."

Romans 4:4-8, 18-22

"Knowing God's Will", by John MacArthur

 God's Will Is...

FIRST:  for us to be Saved

SECOND: Spirit-filled (which means that you be controlled by, totally influenced by the Spirit, which happens when the Word of Christ dwells in you so that you live in the consciousness of His presence.) 

THIRD:  Sanctified (set apart from sin)

"I could give you some more points but I’ll cut it at this point. It is God’s will in 1 Peter 2 that you be submissive. It is God’s will in 1 Peter 4 that you be suffering because you’re an effective evangelist. But let’s just take these three things, okay? Saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, all right? That’s God’s will for your life. Now let me give you something that’s going to wrap this all up.

You say, “Wait a minute, you didn’t tell me anything about what I want to know. I want to know who to marry, what to do, I want to know about next semester, I want to know this, I want to know that. How can I know these details that aren’t in the Bible?”

Are you ready for this? Listen to this, this is a verse that you should really learn to love. I’m going to read it to you. Psalm 37 verse 4, listen to what it says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.”

Now listen to this. Delight in the Lord and He’ll give you the desires of your heart. Now let me ask you a question. If I’m saved, if I’m Spirit-controlled, and if I’m sanctified, am I delighting in the Lord? Sure...sure. And if I’m delighting in the Lord, He will give me the desires of my heart. You know what that means? That doesn’t mean He’ll give me what I want simply, it means He’ll make me want what He wants for me. Did you get that? He will give me the desires of my heart. He will give me His desires.

You say, “Where are you going with this?” Just this, if I’m saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, do you know what God’s will is? You know what it is? Whatever you want. You say, “Wait a minute, whatever I want? Whatever I want is God’s will?” Right, because who is controlling your wants?

...if you’re not a Christian, you’re just playing a game at it, or if you’re not allowing the Spirit of God to control your life and being saturated by the Word, and you’re not living a pure and sanctified set-apart life, you don’t really have much chance to find the unknown part of God’s will.

But if your life is right, you can follow the desires of your heart cause having delighted in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart."

- message to young people by John MacArthur
Listen - 43 minutes

(Or Read)

"What an Envier Doubts"

"Why do we sinfully compare? Because we have “become conceited.” But there is another reason: we envy because we doubt God’s goodness.

We decide that (fill in the blank) is good for us. We don’t have it. Someone else does. Therefore (we conclude) God is good to them and not good to us.

We doubt His love. Oh, maybe not His love in general—we would never say “God is not loving”—but we doubt that He loves us, really.

This is unequivocally NOT TRUE! God HAS BEEN and ALWAYS WILL BE good to us.

"For the Lord is good." Ps. 100:5

"Yes, the Lord will give what is good." Ps. 85:12

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Rom. 8:28

"No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly." Ps. 84:11

The proof of His goodness is at the cross. The guarantee of his goodness is in the resurrection.

"He will do us good, real good, lasting good, only good, every good. He will make us good, and this is to do us good to the highest degree” insists Charles Spurgeon (HT: Julie Kauflin).

God’s priority is to make us good—which is our best good.

So think about it: this “good” that we lack and that someone else has is not a sign God has forgotten us or doesn’t care about us—just the opposite! It is an evidence of his goodness! It is an opportunity for us to learn to trust His ways, to understand His love more deeply, to grow in Christ-likeness.

It is, because He is, good!"

~by Carolyn Mahaney (Link)

The Mountaintop - by Abigail Miller

God's Ultimate Plan

"Why would God want full control of a people and insist on their complete trust at all times?..."

God's Ultimate Plan - David Wilkerson

A Dry Spell

A Dry Spell, by David Wilkerson

Nothing

 "There’s a children’s Bible that I love (The Jesus Storybook Bible) that puts it so simply: 

'All Naaman needed was nothing. It was the one thing Naaman didn’t have.'

I was trying to please God and please people by doing, by having it all together. But all we need is the understanding that we don’t and can’t have it all together…that all our attempts at being good and perfect will fail. That’s why we need Jesus’ blood from the cross, the perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins."

~ Nancy Heerema

(from Why I Didn't "Get" The Gospel Until I Was Sickened By The Ugliness Of My Sin)