Trusting God As We Go

I want to talk about trusting God today. Trusting Jesus. You have heard me preach this topic many times. But there comes a time in all of our lives when we truly question our trust in God. More than likely it has happened to every person in this room.

Maybe it was a child of yours who ended up in jail. You didn't know which way to turn. All of your energy was sapped from your body. All of your thoughts were totally involved in the situation. You begin to wonder why God is putting you through all of this. Why is God allowing you to suffer from this situation? And in it all, your trust in God fades a little bit.

Or maybe in your family you are expecting a child. You begin preparing or helping to prepare a special room for the baby. You have baby showers with your friends and your family and many gifts are given. Your excitement is more than it has been in a long time in your life. But then you get the tragic news that there is a problem. There is a miscarriage. And your heart drops to the floor. You begin asking again, why would God do this to me. Why is he allowing me to suffer so? And again, your trust in God begins to fade.

I could go on and on and give scenario after scenario of times in our life when we question our trust in God. We question if He is really there for us when we need Him the most. Am I wrong? We begin to wonder. What is God doing? Where are we going in this? Can God really take care of us?

Let me tell you that whatever season you have been through in your life, it more than likely will not be the last time that you have struggled to trust God. Thankfully, the work of Jesus is more powerful than our questions and our doubts. Jesus is for us. We can trust that He is with us, bringing us to the Father, no matter what situation we might face. So today, let's talk about living a life of trust. Prayer

We have talked a lot about Peter. A lot of us can identify with Peter. He was a lot like us. In last week's message, Jesus had just delivered a profound statement about loving one another in John 13:34-35. But Peter was more interested in what Jesus said before that.

He pushed right past the command to love and asked Jesus where He was going, which led Jesus to talk about His Father's house. Peter was more focused on what He wanted to know about God than on what Jesus wanted him to do for God. That, too, might sound familiar to us as well.

John 13: 36-37 – ““Lord,” Simon Peter said to him, “where are you going?”

Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.” 37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Here, we also see Peter was like us in another way. He, on impulse, asked, “Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Peter was so confident in his conviction to Jesus, or at least he thought he was. Peter believed that he could hold firm to his faith no matter what, but Peter was wrong. We, too, often think more highly of ourselves and our strengths then we ought to.

When I was a student at Texas Tech University in Lubbock Texas, our dorm had its own gym. I would go regularly several times a week and lift weights. One day, even though I had been working out for most of the year, I made a rookie mistake. I thought that I could max out the weight on the bench press without anyone around to help me as a spotter. I was certain I knew how much I could lift. I loaded up the bar, lifted it off the hooks and down to my chest. And guess what? It stayed right there. Thankfully someone walked by and I hollered for help and they got the weight off of me. If it wasn't for that guy, I would probably still be in that gym trapped under a bench press weight that I was 100% certain I was strong enough to lift.

That's what Peter was like, except he didn't overestimate the strength of his chest and arms. He overestimated the strength of his trust in Jesus. He says, “I will lay down my life for you.”

Who hasn't been there? At some point, I'm sure we've all believed we were strong enough, good enough, brave enough, or wise enough, only to find ourselves trapped under the weight of our sin or fear when we were challenged. Our abilities and efforts aren't enough. We have to learn, as Peter did, that we can't trust in ourselves, but we can trust in Jesus.