Putting Our Trust In God Requires A Lot Of Faith
Putting our trust in God requires a lot of faith. First, we have to believe that there is a God. Some have been taught about God when they were young. As they grow up they know in their hearts that there is a God, creator of all.
Others were drawn to God either by miracles or something that happened in their life, whether it be some type of trauma or an amazing event. There is a feeling inside us that knows there is more to life than living and dying.
When we do realize that there is a God, we begin to learn all we can about Him. One source that has a lot of information about God is the Bible. You can find things in the Bible like an account of when God created the earth and all that is on it. The Bible also talks about what God wants us to do to obey Him so that He can bless us with the things we need. He gave us many promises including eternal life.
All we have to do is follow His teachings, believe in God through faith and not rebel against Him. Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it? By all means it can be a tough life following God. God never promised us that life was going to be walk in the park. The ones that have turned their backs on the world and gave up their bondage to it, will be the ones that go through many tests and trials.
Tests and trials are made up of many different scenarios. Each one that you go through will require strength, faith, hope, love and other virtues to make it through them. These are like tools that we acquire as grow spiritually. These tests and trials are learning periods that we go through to overcome our flesh, evil and the world. They build up our faith and we get to know God, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit as we walk away from our old life and strive for that new creation so that we will be in union with God once again.
For many, they go through these periods and they don’t even recognize what is happening or should I say the main reason behind them. Let me explain, when we are faced with a hardship, what do we usually see? We see the negative side to this hardship and we are suddenly experiencing the stress or anxiety of this hardship. Why do we bring this extra burden upon ourselves? It’s because we lack Faith.
When we first enter into a test or trial, we need to look for a positive outcome and also try to learn what we can from it as we travel through it. All too often we don’t do this, we begin to worry or bring fear upon us. This is not what makes us stronger, this stops us in our tracks from growing spiritually. This is a lack of faith and it tells God that we do not trust Him or that we doubt that He will guide us through it.
Nothing kills faith faster than worries, fears and doubts. This is the sole reason that people never get to experience or truly understand the truth behind many of the scriptures that are written in the Bible. They never progress because they won’t let go of their fear. They always picture a different outcome than the one that God has waiting for them.
How are you going to understand faith if you have no works? How are you going to explain the existence of God if you have no proof? You can’t prove what is written in the Bible unless you experience it and it takes faith to make it come true.
There is no time period set for these tests and trials, some may last 5 minutes, while others can last more than a year. That’s why it is important to be on constant gaurd. Always pay attention to what’s going on and don’t be to hasty to jump right into a situation.
Some of this may be obscure to you, but it won’t be once you understand about faith. Show God that you love Him by trusting in Him. Show Him that you can handle these tests and trials in a humble way. Don’t let your pride get the best of you. Pride is the downfall and destruction of man.
Look forward to tests and trials and welcome them. They can be so dynamic that there are no words to describe them when you walk through them without worries, fears and doubts. You become so accustomed to them and your faith is so strong that these three words no longer exist in your life.
Jesus said, ‘Pick up your cross and follow me.’ Surely, you cannot follow Him if you don’t trust Him. You will only be either going off to the left or to the right. You will constantly be getting lost within yourself. Man can’t lead you back to God, but Jesus can, if you let Him and believe in Him.
Hope Can Be Practiced In Two Different Ways
The Bible is full of times when people or a community of people had hope when they were met with despair, hope for a better day, a day when things were not so bad. They had the same hope when they were waiting for the coming of a Messiah. The Messiah finally came and His name was Jesus Christ. Those that realized He was the true Messiah, turned their hope into joy. A Savior has arrived who is going to save them from their iniquities and bring them a New Covenant with God that promises everlasting eternal life.
Some use hope in the wrong way. They use it to dream about things that will please themselves. This is a false hope, one that is geared towards selfishness. Hope leads to faith and faith leads to works that prove God’s promises. God did give us promises with stipulations attached to them. We need to practice faith in order to get to know God, Jesus Christ and receive The Holy Spirit.
Many people for years have been hoping for the day that Jesus Christ returns. They know that when He does return, a new world will follow that is filled with peace, love and all the good fruits that the Spirit brings (Galatians 5: 22). Heaven and earth will be filled with so much joy, a joy that can’t even be comprehended. No more evil, hate and corruption, only love for one another.
We all go through bad times, it could be from an illness, a bad traffic accident, a job loss, losing your house to a disaster, or whatever it is that brings us hardships. Some people get lost in the darkness of self-pity, while others have hope for a better outcome. These ones are strong and know that God will see them through their difficult times. Why? Because they have Faith. If hope is targeted in the right way, it will build the foundation for faith and faith will bring results. Faith builds strength for those who who work it the right way.
It’s so much easier to complain and wallow in self-pity because there is no work involved in going this route. It’s like time after time you buy a lottery ticket and sit there for days hoping to win the lottery. Like winning the lottery will solve all your problems. There is no gain in this type of hope, it builds nothing. If you did eventually win, you would have nothing that is everlasting, only temporary.
One of the ways that hope will work for a good cause is when people visualize their fellow man turning towards God and accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior. This is a positive attitude that flows out all over the world, filled with love that touches our fellowman and God. Through hope, we can make a major change in the world, provided that we back it with faith and love. This is how we are filled with God’s love, by thinking of God and the welfare of our fellowman and forgetting about ourselves.
Love Your Neighbor
1John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the dark. But anyone who loves his brother is living in the light and need not be afraid of stumbling; unlike the man who hates his brother and is in the darkness, not knowing where he is going, because it is to dark to see. 1John 4:20,21 Anyone who says, ‘ I love God,’ and hates his brother, is a liar, since a man who does not love the brother that he can see cannot love God, whom he has never seen. So this is the commandment He has given us, that anyone who loves God must also love his brother. Wouldn’t it be a beautiful world if everyone loved each other? Well, that’s the kind of world God has planned for those who can love each other. The question is, will you be apart of it?
It takes alot of patience to love your neighbor. ‘ Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ It’s not about just loving people you know, it’s about loving everyone equally. We meet people every day that we have never seen before, it could be at the store, work, driving or on t.v. We don’t have to physically meet them to judge them. We are quick to judge just by the way they drive, perform at work, how they dress, talk, walk, eat, look or any of the things they do. We do have to remember that no two people are alike. God created us all and it’s not the things people say and do that we have to love, but it’s the fact that God loves them as He loves you. So if we expect to receive God’s love, then we need to love God and His creation.
Just because someone doesn’t like you doesn’t mean you have to hate them back. Love will conquer your enemy. We need to show people that no matter what they do to us, we still love them. Trust God, He’ll take care of them in one way or the other. Luke 17:1-3 He said to His disciples,’Obstacles are sure to come, but alas for the one who provides them! It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone put round his neck than that he should lead astray one of these little ones.
Watch yourselves! Not only do you have to watch out for them, but also don’t provide an obstacle for your brother. If we choose to love our enemy and not expect anything in return, then we will be loving God. By praying for the enemy and not stooping to their level, we will be following Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 13: 34, 35 ‘ I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also must love one another. By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are one of my disciples.’ So how can one say that they follow Jesus but at the same time hate their neighbor?
This is where we bring God into contempt and use His name in vain. In order to love God and our neighbor, we need to acquire virtues. John 15:8 ‘ It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples. Good fruit: read Galatians 5:22, Bad fruit: read Galatians 5:19-21. Humility and pride are enemies. They are completely opposite. Pride is all about self and the one thing that destroys pride is humility. Luke 3:9 ‘ Yes, even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.’ We are the trees and the roots are pride. From pride all sin is born.
Humility is when one doesn’t think about pleasing one’s self. It cares more about pleasing God, so that one can truely love God and our neighbors. If you can love God with all your mind, soul, heart and strength, then you will also be able to love your neighbors. Once you acquire this unspeakable love from God, you won’t even see the evil in your neighbor, you will only have compassion for them. You will feel for them just as Jesus did when He was on the cross,’ Father forgive them for they know not what they do.’ Also Luke 17:4 ‘ If your brother does something wrong, reprove him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says,” I am sorry”, you must forgive him’.
Remember not to judge others or you will be judged for your sins(evil and wickedness). You cannot judge one sin to be greater than another. The reason I am saying this is because we have a mind that will deceive us. It will tell us,’ Hey, that’s not all that bad’. We cannot think like this. In God’s eyes, love is love and hate is hate. Any wrong doing to your neighbor is hate, plain and simple. We have such a big vocabulary of words that mean the same thing. We did this to make harsh sounding words sound softer, like being “unkind”. That doesn’t sound as bad as “hate”, does it?
Instead of saying to someone, ” Why do you talk bad about that person?” Why don’t you just say, ” Why do you hate that person?” And usually their response will be, ” I don’t hate them.” So, the next time someone does or says something to you that’s hateful (and all bad things done to us can become hateful) pray for them, turn the situation around to a positive. Don’t let it bother you, because if you do, your pride is working and it will harm your soul. Read Revelations 21:8. It is God you must worship, not yourself. When you injure a neighbor with hate, you injure God and when you injure God, you injure your soul. When you injure God, you hate God, and those that hate God love death.
Proverbs11:2 Pride comes first, disgrace comes after; with the humble is wisdom found.
Proverbs 13:10 Whosoever speak ill of anything, bind himself for the time to come: but he that fear the commandment, shall dwell in peace.
Proverbs 14:3 In the mouth of the fool is the rod of pride: but the lips of the wise preserve them.
Proverbs 29:23 A man’s pride brings him humiliation, he who humbles himself will bring honor.
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