HOW TO TRUST IN GOD WHEN YOUR LIFE’S FALLING APART - Who would have thought just a few months ago that a deadly pandemic would sweep the globe, ruining or closing thousands of businesses. No one really knows when this pandemic will end… if it does end! And this pandemic’s effect does not discriminate. Our trust in God includes every facet of our lives, and that includes our finances. He knows exactly what the situation is, and if it looks dire right now remember, He holds the future. To have strong faith, we can read accounts in the Bible where God did the impossible - trust God with everything, even when “everything” seems to be falling apart. The ripple effect this pandemic has created has hit every nation in the world; some harder than others, and Covid-19 hasn’t even peaked yet! The sobering thing is, this situation is still fluid so long-term planning just about becomes impossible. When we end up with too much month left and too little money, we can quickly get into serious financial hardships. God does not want us to trust in ourselves. But trusting in God does not only include our salvation… it includes are destination… our entrance into the kingdom. Our trust in God includes every facet of our lives, and that includes our finances. He knows exactly what the situation is, and if it looks dire right now, remember, He holds the future. He won’t forsake you when you really need Him the most.

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How To Trust In God When Your Life’s Falling Apart

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Who would have thought just a few months ago that a deadly pandemic would sweep the globe, ruining or closing thousands of businesses. No one really knows when this pandemic will end… if it does end! And this pandemic’s effect does not discriminate. Our trust in God includes every facet of our lives, and that includes our finances. He knows exactly what the situation is, and if it looks dire right now remember, He holds the future. To have strong faith, we can read accounts in the Bible where God did the impossible - trust God with everything, even when “everything” seems to be falling apart.

by JACK WELLMAN

How can we hold on in a world that’s falling apart, even when financial or physical hardships hit us hard?

Pandemics and Economics

Who would have thought just a few months ago that a deadly pandemic would sweep the globe, ruining or closing thousands of businesses, forcing millions to the unemployment lines, and have families scrambling to make it through the month.

Boy, hasn’t the world changed in the last few months… and things may never be the same.

Some of the largest entities (sports, entertainment, etc.) and companies have been hit the hardest, and the things we took for granted just a few months ago, are now not as easy to access or we have no access at all.

The ripple effect this pandemic has created has hit every nation in the world; some harder than others, and Covid-19 hasn’t even peaked yet!

The sobering thing is, this situation is still fluid so long-term planning just about becomes impossible.

No one really knows where this pandemic will end… if it does end!

So what are believers supposed to do when things really get difficult and it hits close to home?

When we end up with too much month left and too little money, we can quickly get into serious financial hardships.

And this pandemic’s effect does not discriminate.

Some of the biggest companies have suffered just as bad as some of the lowest paid employees have.

A Lack of Trust

I know you’ve heard this verse which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your path” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

But do we do that? God does not want us to trust in ourselves.

The Pharisees trusted in their own righteousness, which was actually self-righteousness, so they did not trust in God for their salvation but in their own works (Luke 18:9).

That’s dangerous ground to stand on.

We cannot stand on our own merit. It must be on the merit of the perfect Lamb of God.

That’s the only way we can be seen as righteous before God (2 Corinthians 5:21).

But trusting in God does not only include our salvation… it includes are destination… our entrance into the kingdom.

Our trust in God includes every facet of our lives, and that includes our finances.

He knows exactly what the situation is, and if it looks dire right now, remember, He holds the future.

He won’t forsake you when you really need Him the most.

We must take God at His Word and He tells us to “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5).

The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 118:6, writing, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me” (Hebrews 13:6).

Claim this promise my friend.

God cannot lie, so this is true for you and it’s true for me, even in an economic depression.

Fear versus Trust

Maybe you can look at fear this way; fear is a lack of trust.

If we trust something or someone, we’re reassured that things will go well, but if we fear something or someone, its means we’re not trusting it and not trusting God too.

I’m not sure you can be really fearful about something and say you trust God.

That is, I don’t see how we can fear our financial state and still say we trust God.

I’m not accusing anyone, but rather, I admit to this sin.

I know God’s got this, but yet I sometimes lay awake at night, thinking, “How am I going to get through this?”

But then I realized, I shouldn’t be saying, “I don’t know what I’m going to do now?”

But rather, “God, I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I trust you and praise you in the storm.”

With this, God is very much pleased.

I just wished I was better at it, so I admit it’s hard to trust God at times.

Building Trust

How can we build up our trust in God?

We can remember the former things He’s done in the past.

Many people have prayer journals they can look back to and see how God has been so faithful in answering prayers in the past.

This means, He’ll be faithful in the future.

If our faith is in our pocket book, and we depend on our bank balance to give us peace of mind, then we’ve never read, or forgotten about the truth that “Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green leaf” (Proverbs 11:28).

To build your trust in God, read His Word, which is truth.

Solomon said, “Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good, and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord” (Proverbs 16:20).

I don’t trust myself with the future for one second, because “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26a)

And I don’t want to prove to be a fool. I bet you don’t either.

Conclusion

To have strong faith, we can read accounts in the Bible where God did the impossible.

I know we must all “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught” (Titus 1:9a).

I will claim God’s promises to be faithful to His children, and “again, I will put my trust in him” day after day (Hebrews 2:13a).

In my heart I know that I can trust God with everything, even when “everything” seems to be falling apart, so “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

What about you? Do you trust in God?

If you’ve never trusted in God, you will be judged after death (Hebrews 9:27) or at the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:12-15).

So, make today your day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2), and put your trust in Christ, because “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame” (Romans 10:11).

Jack Wellman is a father and grandfather and a Christian author, freelance writer, and pastor of Central Christian Church in Lincoln, KS & also a Prison Minister. He did his graduate work at Moody Theological Seminary. His books are inexpensive paperbacks that are theological in nature: “Teaching Children The Gospel/How to Raise Godly Children,“ “Do Babies Go To Heaven?/Why Does God Allow Suffering?,“ "The Great Omission; Reaching the Lost for Christ," and “Blind Chance or Intelligent Design?, Empirical Methodologies & the Bible."

https://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/how-to-trust-in-god-while-your-lifes-falling-apart/

FROM PAIN TO PRAISE - Asaph was confused by people who seemed to live happily despite their ungodly choices - he cried out in the night and was deeply troubled when he thought of former times. But when Asaph was troubled, feeling rejected and forgotten by God, he always stopped himself and changed his perspective. He began pondering God’s faithfulness, His ever-present comfort, and His past miracles for His people. From pain to praise, he lets God’s faithful character restore his broken spirit. Asaph couldn't change his circumstances, so he changed his perspective - we can do the same - Why do loved ones make choices that hurt us and hurt themselves? Why did things go from bad to worse? Why couldn’t they see that denying biblical principles is a mistake? Why couldn’t we have sweet fellowship with them as we once had? Then I remembered a God-lover who asked similar questions. Asaph was confused by people who seemed to live happily despite their ungodly choices. he cried out in the night and was deeply troubled when he thought of former times. But when Asaph was troubled, feeling rejected and forgotten by God, he always stopped himself and changed his perspective. He began pondering God’s faithfulness, His ever-present comfort, and His past miracles for His people. From pain to praise, he lets God’s faithful character restore his broken spirit. Asaph couldn't change his circumstances, so he changed his perspective. We can do the same

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From Pain to Praise

When we are discouraged or confused, we can take our cues from the psalmist Asaph who knew how to move from pain to praise.

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Asaph was confused by people who seemed to live happily despite their ungodly choices. He cried out in the night and was deeply troubled when he thought of former times. But when Asaph was troubled, feeling rejected and forgotten by God, he always stopped himself and changed his perspective. 

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He began pondering God’s faithfulness,
His ever-present comfort, and His past miracles for His people. From pain to praise, he let God’s faithful character restore his broken spirit. Asaph couldn't change his circumstances, so he changed his perspective. We can do the same!

Gail Burton Purath

I woke up at 4 a.m. and sad thoughts filled my mind.

“Why, Lord?” I asked for the thousandth time. I wasn’t angry, just confused.

Why did these loved ones make choices that hurt us and hurt themselves?

Why did things go from bad to worse?

Why couldn’t they see that denying biblical principles is a mistake?

Why couldn’t we have sweet fellowship with them as we once had?

Then I remembered a God-lover who asked similar questions 1000 years ago. 

In Psalm 73, Asaph was confused by people who seemed to live happily despite their ungodly choices.

In Psalm 77, he cried out in the night and was deeply troubled when he thought of former times.

But when Asaph was troubled, feeling rejected and forgotten by God, he always stopped himself and changed his perspective.

He began pondering God’s faithfulness, His ever-present comfort, and His past miracles for His people. ⁽¹⁾ 

From pain to praise, he lets God’s faithful character restore his broken spirit. 

Asaph couldn't change his circumstances, so he changed his perspective. We can do the same!

(1) 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 expresses God's ability to comfort us in our sorrows. 

Hi!  I'm Gail Burton Purath. I started Bible Love Notes to give people a minute of Scriptural encouragement in their busy day.

I don't have all the answers, but

since I asked Christ to be my Lord and Savior in 1974, I've been learning from the One Who has all the answers!
I'm still a sinner, a learner, a student who falls down and disappoints God at times. But it's my desire to grow closer to the Lord, day by day, minute by minute.

I need to be challenged, encouraged, corrected and comforted, and I think you do as well...so let's learn together about the love of God--a love that is so vast that we will always be discovering new and wonderful things about it.

https://biblelovenotes.blogspot.com/2019/06/from-pain-to-praise.html

GOD'S GRASSROOTS PROVISION - Our Creator is faithful to His plans and His people. One evidence of His abundant provision for all His creatures is literally under our feet. The leaves of green plants, including grasses, testify that our Creator is clever, capable, careful, and caring. This “hidden in plain view” providence showcases the food chain that begins with photosynthesis, the sunlight-powered carbohydrate-manufacturing of nutritious food for herbivores, who themselves become food for carnivores and/or insectivores. Grass is designed to grow after its top portions are eaten by grazers. The God who provides for “the grass of the field” surely provides for us. In times of calamity and crisis, it’s easy to question whether life makes sense — or, more accurately, how God is making ultimate sense of everything. Unsurprisingly, fallen humans propose answers that miss the mark, failing to understand how a good-yet-groaning world can accomplish the perfect purposes of the Creator. The pages of Scripture provide the big-picture answer that this life is the best of all prequels for the best of all possible eternities. Scripture also gives the best of all counsel for life here and now. Our Creator is faithful to His plans and His people. One evidence of His abundant provision for all His creatures is literally under our feet. The leaves of green plants, including grasses, testify that our Creator is clever, capable, careful, and caring.

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God's Grassroots Provision

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Our Creator is faithful to His plans and His people. One evidence of His abundant provision for all His creatures is literally under our feet. The leaves of green plants, including grasses, testify that our Creator is clever, capable, careful, and caring. This “hidden in plain view” providence showcases the food chain that begins with photosynthesis, the sunlight-powered carbohydrate-manufacturing of nutritious food for herbivores, who themselves become food for carnivores and/or insectivores. Grass is designed to grow after its top portions are eaten by grazers. The God who provides for “the grass of the field” surely provides for us.

BY JAMES J. S. JOHNSON, J.D., TH.D. 

In times of calamity and crisis, it’s easy to question whether life makes sense — or, more accurately, how God is making ultimate sense of everything.

Unsurprisingly, fallen humans propose answers that miss the mark, failing to understand how a good-yet-groaning world can accomplish the perfect purposes of the Creator.

The pages of Scripture provide the big-picture answer that this life is the best of all prequels for the best of all possible eternities.

Scripture also gives the best of all counsel for life here and now.

Our Creator is faithful to His plans and His people. One evidence of His abundant provision for all His creatures is literally under our feet.

The leaves of green plants, including grasses, testify that our Creator is clever, capable, careful, and caring.

This “hidden in plain view” providence showcases the food chain that begins with photosynthesis, the sunlight-powered carbohydrate-manufacturing of nutritious food for herbivores, who themselves become food for carnivores and/or insectivores.

Grass is designed to grow after its top portions are eaten by grazers.

The main growing parts [of grasses] are not at the stem tips, but at the base of the leaves.

This means that as the leaves are eaten by herbivores, they simply regrow and replace their lost parts.…[with] many [grasses having] a specialized form of photosynthesis which is particularly efficient under high light intensity and high temperature conditions.

It is also a system which allows more carbon dioxide to be fixed per unit of water than conventional photosynthesis.

Examples of such food chains include large grass-grazing herbivores like bovines, sheep, and pronghorns that are eaten by humans, cougars, or bears.

Smaller herbivores such as rabbits are eaten by wolves or foxes.

Many herbivores go unnoticed because they are even smaller, like grasshoppers (which include locusts), leafhoppers, and crickets.

These tiny herbivores are eaten by insectivores—mammals (aardvark, pangolin), reptiles (gecko, chuckwalla), birds (flycatchers, bee-eaters), and even some humans, like John the Baptist.

Edible herbivorous insects like grasshoppers (the most popular insect food for humans), termites (the next-most popular), crickets, and ants are recognized as an underdeveloped potential food supply for needy nations that abound with these types of insects. 

Spraying field crops with pesticides produces toxicity problems if crop-attracted insects are captured and eaten by humans.

But grasshoppers/locusts, termites, and crickets — as well as edible beetles, moths, ants, wasps, leafhoppers, planthoppers, cicadas, and pentatomid bugs — are available to help alleviate famines if these arthropods can be secured apart from pesticides.

When a field crop is covered with a plague of locusts, some despair.

Optimists, however, recognize that locusts are providentially edible and seek practical solutions for taking useful advantage of potential food sources.

The God who provides for “the grass of the field” surely provides for us.

* Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of Apologetics and Chief Academic Officer at the Institute for Creation Research.

The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wants people to know that God’s Word can be trusted in everything it speaks about—from how and why we were made, to how the universe was formed, to how we can know God and receive all He has planned for us.

After 50 years of ministry, ICR remains a leader in scientific research within the context of biblical creation. Founded by Dr. Henry Morris in 1970, ICR exists to conduct scientific research within the realms of origins and Earth history, and then to educate the public both formally and informally through professional training programs, through conferences and seminars around the country, and through books, magazines, and media presentations.

https://www.icr.org/article/god-grassroots-provision/

A PROMISE IS A PROMISE - No matter what you’re going through right now, be encouraged because God is with you - He Has promised never to fail you - He Has promised to never abandon you! No matter how dark our days, no matter how bleak our prospects seem to be, that promise is there, “I am with you always.” All you have to do is TRUST Him and wait for Him. His timing may be different from yours, but if you hold on, God will definitely come through for you - and that’s a promise you can rely upon - When the time comes for our death, who is there to help? Yes, there is. And we only need to look at the pages of the Bible when God spoke to Joshua after Moses had died. God made a promise to Joshua. “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This was a powerful promise which is still relevant today. God’s word is for now, and God says that to you and me “I am always with you.” That’s a promise unlike any other... one that empowers, energises, and strengthens us. And for God, a promise is a promise that will never be broken. mWhy will God keep his promise and never leave us or forsake us? Because of himself. Because of his faithfulness. And because of his pleasure. He will not forsake his people “for his great name’s sake.” At the risk of his own name and fame, he will not forsake his people.

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A Promise is a Promise

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No matter what you’re going through right now, be encouraged because God is with you - He Has promised never to fail you - He Has promised to never abandon you! No matter how dark our days, no matter how bleak our prospects seem to be, that promise is there, “I am with you always.” All you have to do is TRUST Him and wait for Him. His timing may be different from yours, but if you hold on, God will definitely come through for you - and that’s a promise you can rely upon

Morning Devotions By Chris Witts

  

A couple were devoted to each other and had been married for over 50 years. But he became ill and eventually died, leaving her a widow.

At the graveside service, she needed to sit in a chair due to her age as others stood.

And at the end of the service, she looked down into the grave and spoke to her dead husband, “You know I loved you all these years. We’ve been together through thick and thin, and I promised to be with you. But now I’ve gone as far as I can go. I can’t go any further. I’ve gone as far as I can go”.

I think it’s a very moving tribute, but also very true.

When the time comes for our death, who is there to help?

Is there any answer?

Yes, there is.

And we only need to look at the pages of the Bible when God spoke to a man named Joshua after Moses had died.

And God made a promise to Joshua. “No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you”.

This was a powerful promise which is still relevant today.

God’s word is for now, and God says that to you and me “I am always with you”.

That’s a promise unlike any other... one that empowers, energises, and strengthens us.

And for God, a promise is a promise that will never be broken.

I’m reminded of a remarkable book written by Dr.Wayne Dyer “A Promise Is a Promise,” a true story of a mother Kaye O’Bara in Miami who cared for her comatose daughter Edwarda for many years. 

Edwarda was 16 when one night she fell into a diabetic coma, not able to move.

But as she slipped into unconsciousness, she appealed to her mother “Promise you won’t leave me, will you, Mommy?” 

“Of course not, I would never leave you, Darling,” her mother said. 

“I promise. And a promise is a promise!”  

And she stayed by her bedside every day, feeding her every 2 hours and checking her blood and giving her insulin every 4 hours, until Kaye died 38 years later, in March 2008.

Why did she do it?

Because she told her daughter “I will never leave you. A promise is a promise”.

She kept that promise for 38 years, 7 days a week. What wonderful strength and tenacity.

God’s Promise – He Will Never Leave Us

But what drives God to make such a promise that He will never abandon us?

What’s behind this promise ensuring that God will not change his mind?

After all, he’s God – he can do whatever he wants.

The answer is found in 1 Samuel 12.22.

It doesn’t simply make the same promise as Hebrews 13.5, but goes one step further and tells us why. “For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”

Why will God keep his promise and never leave us or forsake us?

Because of himself.

Because of his faithfulness.

And because of his pleasure.

Deuteronomy 7.6 tells us that God chose his people to be his “treasured possession” – in other words, he has pleasure in his people.

He treasures us and saves us!

But not because of anything that depends on us.

Not because we’re good or keep all the rules or have earned anything.

He will not forsake his people “for his great name’s sake.”

At the risk of his own name and fame, he will not forsake his people.

Why? “Because it pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”

He will never leave us because he has pleasure in keeping his promise, and God does whatever he pleases.

When we hear Kate O’Bara say to her daughter, “I will never leave you”, there in her bedroom in Miami, can we not at the same time hear the words of Jesus saying, “Behold, I am with you always”? 

For that is the great promise He has given to us.

No matter how dark our days, no matter how bleak our prospects seem to be, that promise is there, “I am with you always.”

Like Edwarda, as we slip into the darkness of life, we cry out to the Lord, “Please don’t leave me.”

And His answer is there for all time, for all eternity, really — ”I am with you always.”

No matter what you’re going through right now, be encouraged because God is with you!

He Has promised never to fail you; He Has promised to never abandon you!

All you have to do is TRUST Him and wait for Him.

His timing may be different from yours, but if you hold on, God will definitely come through for you.

And that’s a promise you can rely upon!

Morning Devotions is a five-minute daily reflection for anyone curious about faith, or looking for encouragement in their walk with God. In his warm and friendly style, presenter Chris Witts — a well-loved Salvation Army minister — shares bite-sized messages applying faith to everyday life.

In today's world real hope is hard to find. That's why Hope 103.2 exists: to bring the message of hope to our community through a family-friendly, safe listening environment.

We won't be quick to criticise or condemn. And we won't play on people's fears. Hope 103.2 will be ready to celebrate what's good in society and culture.

https://hope1032.com.au/stories/faith/2019/promise-promise-2/