Mature Class Study, teacher Edith Tolbert.
God wants us to trust him with all our heart and to not lean on our understanding.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
The song Trust And Obey (Don Moen) says, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Do people see us angry, upset, backbiting, and criticizing because we didn’t get our way? You’re trusting in yourself. God wants you to trust him so he orders our life and we glorify him. We all have hard trials because God ordained them. Trust is to believe in someone’s character, strength, and ability. God wants us to trust him with all our heart.
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Faith and trust are actions. Do you trust someone if they put you down? We prove our faith by trusting in what we haven’t seen. We need to ask God for grace to help keep our mouth shut if we’re grouchy and irritated. That’s a desert place. It’s important to display Christ to those around us by our attitude and actions. Do we show we’re trusting God? We can trust God all the time because he knows best for us. If we trust in man, we’ll be in a desert place. We have peace by trusting God.
Jeremiah 17:5-6…Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert…not see when good cometh…inhabit the parched places in the wilderness…
There’s a story of a little boy who wanted to wash his cat so he went to buy some Tide. He told the store cashier he was using it to wash his cat and she said it wasn’t good to wash cats with Tide. The next time the boy saw the cashier, she asked how it went washing the cat. The boy said the cat died so she asked if the Tide killed the cat. He said, “No, I think it was the spin cycle.” Sometimes we get in hard trials that are like the spin cycle. The spin cycle can kill us spiritually. God wants us to trust him completely. We have to keep our opinions, ideas, and feelings on the altar to choose God’s way over our feelings.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Trust is a choice and we have to choose what God wants. We have to crucify ourselves if our humanity comes in conflict with God’s will. Displaying anger, not getting along with others, or saying things you shouldn’t shows you don’t have grace.
Psalm 57:1-3 Be merciful unto me, O God…for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God…that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.
We have to come boldly to God for grace. Jesus asked God three times to take away what he was going to suffer. God infused Jesus with grace when he committed completely to God’s will. God wants to see the same grace in us, not carnality.
Mark 14:33-36 (Amplified Bible) He took Peter and James and John…and He began to be deeply distressed and troubled [extremely anguished at the prospect of what was to come]. And He said…“My soul is deeply grieved and overwhelmed with sorrow, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.”…He fell to the ground [distressed by the weight of His spiritual burden] and began to pray that if it were possible [in the Father’s will], the hour [of suffering and death for the sins of mankind] might pass…saying, “Abba, Father! All things are possible…take this cup [of judgment] away…not what I will, but what You will.”
Jesus had strong crying until he entirely submitted to God’s will. Stay on your knees until you submit completely to God’s will.
Hebrews 5:7-9 Who in…his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard…Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
We won’t learn obedience, be perfected or be settled except by suffering. Suffering was ordained so we learn to submit to God.
I Peter 5:10 But the God of all grace…after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.
The devil wants us to worry and to keep our mind unsettled, but God gives us the ability to control what we think.
Psalm 37:1-2 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
It’s our responsibility to cast down imaginations and things exalted above God’s will. The enemy wants us to dwell on things that didn’t go like we wanted and to worry about things. When we control what we think about, we have peace.
II Corinthians 10:4-5 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Paul said all he suffered didn’t move him and counted things as dung so he could win Christ. He didn’t count his life dear.
Acts 20:22-24…I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth…bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear…that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry…received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
History says 67 guards were saved because of Paul’s attitude in the prison. He was chained, had no bathroom privileges, suffered being hungry, and lost everything. Paul encouraged himself in the Lord and testified of the gospel of grace.
Philippians 3:7-8 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea…I count all things but loss for the …knowledge of Christ…I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
When we suffer, what’s inside comes out. It shows us where we need to grow. When things didn’t go the way Paul liked, he still kept the joy of the Lord. God wants us to be content in all our situations. If we’re in a spin cycle, how does the world see us?
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
Trusting God and doing good go together. Some think they delight in God so he’ll give them whatever their heart desires.
Psalm 37:3-4 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
To delight in the Lord means we’re not seeking our own pleasure, doing our own ways, or speaking our own words. If we delight in and trust God, it means we have temperance for self control to stop fretting and being angry. When we control what we think about we keep the peace and joy of salvation. Worrying doesn’t help tomorrow’s problems.
Isaiah 58:13-14 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will…feed thee with the heritage of Jacob…
Sometimes we have to fast to seek God in hard trials. Jehoshaphat had the people pray and they waited for God’s answer.
II Chronicles 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
II Chronicles 20:12-13 O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee. And all Judah stood before the Lord…
We need to pray and wait for God to answer. God answered and the people accepted the directions God gave the priest.
II Chronicles 20:15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
II Chronicles 20:17 Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
God fought the battle when the people totally trusted what he said. They didn’t lean on their own understanding.
II Chronicles 20:22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten..