Welcome to Relationship Advice by Nancy Pina
IN TODAY'S RELATIONSHIP ADVICE ISSUE:
Guest Article: Can You Trust God?
By Dr. Charles Stanley
Today’s Relationship Advice by Nancy
"It isn't what you have, or
who you are, or where you are,
or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.
It is what you think about."
* Dale Carnegie, 1888-1955, American Author and Trainer
"Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without
coming away better and happier."
*Mother Teresa, 1910-1997, Albanian-born Roman Catholic
Missionary
Can You Trust God?
By Dr. Charles Stanley
When things are going your way, it is easy to trust the Lord. But
when painful trials come into your life, leaving you frustrated,
anxious, or despairing, do you trust Him then?
In the face of adversity, many people wonder, Does God really love
me? and conclude that a truly caring Father would not allow sorrow
and difficulty to touch His children's lives. Oftentimes they
start to question whether or not He is even able to do anything
about our circumstances.
In Psalm 50:15, God said to David, "Call upon Me in the day of
trouble; I shall rescue you." Can we rely upon Him to do that? It
is important for followers of Jesus Christ to understand that He
is not only able but also trustworthy to fulfill every single
promise in Scripture. Even when we cannot fathom why God would
allow certain situations to occur, there are three absolute
essential truths that form the basis for trusting Him no matter
what.
The first truth is that God is perfect in His love. In other
words, He always does what is best for us. If we really believe
this, we will trust Him even in our most difficult trials.
But Satan, who wants to undermine our faith, frequently takes
advantage of Christians' troubles by calling the Father's motives
into question. He whispers, "If the Lord really loved you, He
would not have allowed this to happen"—he wants us to associate
the sting of spiritual discipline with a lack of divine caring.
However, the exact opposite is
true. Hebrews 12:6 says, "Those whom the LORD loves He
disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." So,
while human thinking says peace and happiness are a token of
divine love, the Bible says that difficulty and discipline are
actually evidence of our membership in God's family. The reason is
simple: the Lord cares for us so much that He will not allow us to
stay as we are. Instead, He wants to transform us into the
likeness of His Son.
We can depend on God's love because of His character—it is His
very nature to love. (1 John 4:8) The Bible says, "In Him there is
no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5); in other words, He is absolutely
holy, righteous, and perfect and therefore could never mistreat
one of His children. He will always do what is positive and caring
in our life. Calvary is another proof of God's profound love for
mankind. We were all in dire need of forgiveness and rescue from
the penalty of sin, but we could not save ourselves—our debt could
be satisfied only by the payment of a perfect life. (Deuteronomy
17:1) The heavenly Father made our salvation possible by sending
His Son Jesus to die on the cross as our
substitute, which is indisputable evidence of His sacrificial,
infinite love for humanity. (Romans 5:8) God's love is also
revealed in the covenant expressing His intention to make us His
children. (Jeremiah 31:33). Once we trusted Jesus Christ as our
personal Savior, we became members of God's family. And our
perfect heavenly Father is patient, loving, and kind toward us; He
understands that we are children learning to live in this life.
God loves us flawlessly. Every single thing He performs or permits
in our life is an expression of His love, though He allows some
situations that we, in our humanness, think could not possibly be
for our good. But remember that God is omniscient—He sees the end
from the beginning and knows exactly what fruit will come from our
pain and challenges. So while we may not understand His reason for
allowing certain hardships, our difficulties in no way indicate He
is anything but a good God.
The second essential truth is that God is infinite in wisdom. He
never has to poll the angelic host—or anyone else—to get a
consensus about the correct action to take. In His unlimited
wisdom, He always knows what is in our very best interest and acts
accordingly. Regardless of what our circumstances look like, we
ought to remember that God knows the optimal course of action in
every situation and can do only good for His children.
Sometimes we look at difficulties facing us and think, "Well now,
Lord, I know You are infinitely wise, but I think You must have
forgotten something." Be assured He has not overlooked a single
factor. In our limited understanding and reasoning, we simply do
not know every detail. We may have all the information that is
humanly possible to gather, but God is aware of everything
influencing the situation as well as all the potential
consequences for you and those around you. Therefore, He alone
comprehends the totality of every single decision we make. And
because He is infinitely wise, He simply cannot make a mistake.
(Proverbs 3:5-6)
On occasion, we may be able to understand what God is up to, but
oftentimes we cannot. While every situation is 100 percent clear
to Him, He is under no obligation whatsoever to let us in on the
rationale for His actions or decisions. For example, God did not
reveal why He let Joseph languish unjustly in prison for a number
of years before elevating him to the position of prime minister.
(Genesis 39-41) Nor did He spell out why the Israelites had to
live over four centuries in Egyptian bondage before He
miraculously rescued them and made them into a nation. (Exodus
12:41)
While we have no right to expect to know God's reasons, our lack
of such information is the very thing that creates our feelings of
frustration, anxiety, and doubt. Consider the irony of the
situation. If we in our limited human wisdom could completely
comprehend God's motives and actions, that in itself would be
cause to doubt Him, since His thinking would be no better than our
own! But the fact that God's logic vastly supersedes ours (Isaiah
55:8-9) is why we can trust Him—we have no legitimate reason for
doubting because He is an infinite, all-wise God who knows the
best thing to do in our life every single time.
The third essential truth is that God is completely sovereign in
His control. He has perfect authority over everything in creation.
In other words, if even one tiny event in the universe happened
outside of God's power and control, we could no longer trust
Him—in that case, we could not have absolute certainty that He
would work every situation for our best interest. But we can trust
Him because He is sovereign and therefore has perfect, complete
control over every last detail of life.
When Pilate asked Jesus, "Do You not know that I have authority to
release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" the Lord
answered him, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had
been given you from above" (John 19:10-11). Earlier, Jesus
reassured His disciples that not even a common sparrow—worth only
half a penny—could fall to the ground apart from the Father's
will. (Matthew 10:29) In other words, whether the circumstance is
large or small, God has absolute control.
You might ask, "Then what about fires or plane crashes or
terrorist attacks? Where is God in all that?" He is still in total
control, though this is a difficult idea for the human mind to
reconcile. Some people find comfort in the idea of luck, fate, and
chance because trusting God can seem difficult when tragedy
strikes. But what happened to God's perfect love, infinite wisdom,
and total sovereignty if luck, fate, and chance play a role? These
words shouldn't even be in the believer's vocabulary—we would
never be able to trust God if events could take place outside of
His control.
We live in a wicked, vile world where we are subject to the
consequences of sin. Many occurrences which are not in God's ideal
will are allowed through His permissive will despite the pain they
cause. Why? Because in His omniscience, God knows what is
ultimately best, including long-term consequences of tragedies
that seem heartless and cruel. But we should not doubt God or
throw away our trust when we lack understanding. Instead, we
should surrender to Him, accepting by faith that He is good and
worthy of our full trust.
Your life and mine belong to our loving, sovereign, all-knowing
God, and nothing can touch us except what He allows. Sometimes
that includes hardship and suffering, which leaves us wondering,
How can this possibly be good? And yet many people who have gone
through tremendous trials later look back and say, "I hated the
difficulty while I was going through it and wondered if God had
deserted me. But now, on this side of it, I can see what He is up
to." While not everyone gets such spiritual insight, it happens
frequently enough that we can take comfort, realizing God has His
purposes and with perfect timing will bring blessing from our
trials. (Romans 8:28)
So when you face struggles, remind yourself that our loving Father
has your best interest in mind. He wants you to trust Him as your
personal Savior and surrender your life to Him. There is no reason
to doubt Him, because He is perfect in His love, infinite in His
wisdom, and sovereign in His control of the entire universe. Why
should believers ever fret, when even in the deepest, darkest
valleys of life, there can be abiding joy and confidence? No
matter what befalls you, the all-loving, all-wise, all-powerful
heavenly Father has you in the cradle of His hand.
Dr. Charles Stanley is Pastor of InTouchMinistries
http://www.intouchministries.org/
Relationship Advice By Nancy Pina
Dear Nancy,
How would you know you have found the perfect one?
Thank you,
Ngwenya
Dear Ngwenya,
You know you have found the person God has brought to you when you
are in a place of complete faith in His plan for your life.
You will be of like mind in faith, morals and values. Your life
goals will be the same. You will have worked through any past pain
and had truly forgiven what has happened to you.
Until you have made peace with the past, you will continue to
attract individuals that recreate those feelings that you have
suppressed or chose not to face.
Once you have brought any fears you have into the light, God will
give you the courage and wisdom to heal and move forward towards a
healthy and loving relationship.
Please write to me at
asknancy@yourtruematch.com to see your advice here.
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Remember that with God on your side, who
dare be against you?
I pray that He shine
His light upon you and bless you with
peace, joy and happiness.
May God bless your life and may you
experience abundant love!
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