Trusting God

God wants us to trust him. The Bible goes so far as to say, “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Trusting God to forgive us, and having confidence in Christ to save us from the penalty of our sins is just the beginning (as the rest of Hebrews 11 goes on to illustrate). We face important opportunities to trust God when we encounter health issues, financial challenges, relationship problems, and all the varied concerns about our security and safety. In all situations our task as God’s children is to be faithful in doing what he has commanded us to do and to sincerely trust him to provide. Consider God’s directive to the Israelites when he instructed them to gather their manna in the wilderness. He told them, “Gather it, each one of you” and so they did (Exodus 16:16). But considering all the variables between each family’s abilities, capacities and needs, we would assume that some would not have enough and others would have too much. But as God would have it, “whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack” (Exodus 16:18). Our faithful God lovingly and perfectly provided for his people when they diligently worked and sincerely trusted him for the outcome. He did so then, and he does so now. Not wanting this truth to be forgotten, God had Israel memorialize this event when he told Moses, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout the generations” (Exodus 16:33). For centuries that jar sat nestled in the ark of the covenant in the middle of the Old Testament worship center as a perpetual reminder that God can be fully trusted, day in and day out, because he is a God who perfectly provides.

For more sermons and devotionals on Hard Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org   

Doubt

It’s not just Thomas; every Christian has moments and even seasons of doubt. But the best prescription when doubts arise is to go back to Christ’s credentials and the reliability of the biblical documents. Consider the fact that our confidence is rooted in one who regularly pointed to how the entirety of his life perfectly fulfilled the ancient and exacting prophecies of Scripture (Luke 24:24-27). There is no avoiding the truth that the Old Testament manuscripts about the Messiah preceded their fulfillment by hundreds of years – several discoveries have repeatedly confirmed this fact. From his ancestral heritage (Jeremiah 23:5), the city of his birth (Micah 5:2), the time of his appearing (Daniel 9:24-27), to his death and resurrection (Isaiah 53:4-12), these and many other exacting prophecies show that Christ is not some random rabbi whose new religion happened to catch on. And because any motivated student can quickly research and discover that the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, which predicted the life and ministry of Christ, along with the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, that recorded his life and teachings, are the most broadly documented and best preserved and transmitted manuscripts in all of human history, it is hard to dismiss the foundation of Christianity because of some passing feelings of skepticism. An objective look at truth has a great way of dispelling our periodic doubts. So expect our spiritual enemy to inject doubt from time to time (that’s what he has been doing from the beginning), but respond with your own counterattack by going back to Christ’s credentials and the integrity of the biblical documents

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Doubt

When we experience uncertainty, doubt or insecurities that the world is sure to bring, let us be sure that the cause is never our equivocation about God’s faithfulness. Let us always remember that God is true to his word. With Peter, let us affirm that even if God seems slow about keeping his promises, it is only an illusion because as it has always been so it will always be that God never forgets what he says and never fails to deliver on his promise (2 Peter 3:9). To that, add the fact that nothing ever surprises our sovereign God. He knows the end from the beginning and nothing is too small to escape his notice. If God our omniscient God has revealed it in his perfect word we can be confident that he is sure to follow through.

--Pastor Mike