God In Whom We Trust

Theme: God in whom we trust

Text: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Heb. 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44

One of our greatest concerns in life is to know whom to trust. This is simply because our whole life, especially our personal relationships, depends on it. Politicians and advertising agencies know that their success depends on it and they use every means and lots of money to get people to trust them or their products. Even con men know that to be able to deceive others they first have to win their trust. Is it any wonder that a lot of money is always spent during elections? When we vote to elect a president or members of parliament would we vote for a person we do not trust? I don’t believe we would. Trust is so important that one of the greatest disappointments in life is to discover that we have misplaced our trust and trusted the wrong person. It really hurts but it will hurt a lot more when this misplaced trust has eternal consequences. Since nothing is certain except death we need to ask ourselves what will happen to us when we die. Who can we trust in life and in death? This is a very important question and we need to be sure of the answer. When the Apostle Paul was near the end of his life, locked up in prison for preaching the gospel, he knew exactly where he was going and wrote to Timothy saying "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." Paul was sure of heaven because he knew whom he had trusted. His faith and confidence was in Christ and in Him alone. He was not trusting in his good works or in his self-righteousness. He trusted only in the person and work of Christ. Can we also say that it is God in whom we trust?

There is only one person we can really trust and that person is Jesus Christ. There are, however, some people who put their trust in those who perform miracles rather than in Christ. They forget that performing miracles does not mean that such people belong to and know Christ. In Jesus’ own words some of such people would be rejected on the day of judgement because they did not know Him. We can only trust Jesus Christ when we know Him since it is impossible for us to trust someone we do not know. We cannot trust God if we do not know Him as our Creator. We cannot trust Him if we do not know about His wonderful plan and purpose for creating us. We cannot trust Him when we do not know that He is love and all-powerful and that He desired to have beings of like-mind and like-heart with whom He could share His life. We cannot trust Him if we did not know that He created man in His own image and gave him a share in His authority and dominion. It is very important for us to know Jesus Christ not only as our Creator but also as our Saviour. When man sinned in the Garden of Eden and lost the glory and image of God and the dominion over creation, God did not give up on him. Instead He put into action a great plan to save mankind and restore His original purpose for man. In this plan Jesus had to shed His blood to pay the penalty for sin. If we cannot trust our Creator and our Saviour whom then can we trust?

We can only trust someone we know and we can only know someone by having a relationship with that person. If we had a relationship with Christ, if we really knew Him, we would trust Him and have no reason to put our trust in idols, in man or anything else. Unfortunately because we do not know Christ, because we do not believe in His power, love and care, we cannot trust Him. A survey has found out that many people were using the Internet to connect to online psychics and spirit guides. There are many thousands of Internet sites about witchcraft, reincarnation, sorcery, clairvoyance and necromancy. Some people who visit some of these sites are believers who claim their trust is in God. Do we not make the same claims here in Ghana and still visit fetish priests and make lotto our favourite pastime? The evidence is seen in the many different lotteries operating here and how playing lotto has become a way of life for many people. Is this not telling God that we do not trust Him? How can we put our trust in lotto and believe it will solve our problems? It only makes the problems worse and lotto has in fact destroyed many families. Only God can be trusted to meet our needs in this life and in the life to come. The Bible not only speaks of the certainty of death, it also tells us that death is the divine judgment on all humanity because of sin and that after death comes judgment. The fact that judgment follows death means that the time to prepare for judgement is before death. This judgment is God’s judgment of sin. God cannot overlook or excuse sin because He is holy. The only way an individual can escape the punishment for sin is to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Only those who do are saved. All others must face death and judgment without Christ and without hope. Can we truthfully say that our trust is in God? Or is our trust in our natural ability or in man or in any other thing? Many of us claim we trust God but in reality trust something else. Many people who claim they trust in God also consult the occult. In whom is your trust? Do you believe that “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and that He knows those that trust in him?” Nahum 1:7.