Spiritual Growth

Can God be trusted?

We need to learn how to go to our Heavenly Father for all of our needs: physical, emotional, spiritual, social, family. However, we have a difficult time with this, because we do not know our Heavenly Father. We do not know if we can trust him.

Eve’s challenge

In the Garden, the serpent challenged Eve’s trust in God’s word, suggesting God lied to her when He said: “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17).

Look at how the serpent challenged her thinking:

… and the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die? For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5).

What is the serpent really challenging Eve about? The trustworthiness of God! The serpent is undermining her confidence in what God said: Can He really be trusted?

“God, are you good?”

We wonder if God is really good. Does He care for me like a good father would care for his children? Does He really loves me, or will He turn away in disgust if He sees me as I really am? Will He bless others and leave me empty? Will He offer His presence to others and leave me alone? Will He let evil win against me? (The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God.)

I had this problem too. I could not believe that God was really good. I was afraid to trust him and believe what He said. I had a head knowledge of God but no real heart faith in him until one day a friend asked me the question, “Judy, can God lie?”

Making the decision that God cannot lie became the key in learning to put my trust in God and his word to me.

The promise of Jesus

Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.

What man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?

If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew 7:7-11).

Is God unpredictable?

Is God unpredictable, changeable, or impulsive like dysfunctional parents? No! God works according to his spiritual principles and established truths, and makes them clear to us in the Bible.

Yet God does not automatically give us all that we want, because his goal is for us to grow up and become spiritually mature. And He wants to transform us into the image of his Son.

So sometimes He doesn’t answer prayers the way we think He should. When Ralph Nault asked God why He waited so long to answer his prayer for his marriage to be healed, the Lord answered, “I waited until your prayer got bigger.”

Have you made a decision that God cannot lie? That He cares for you, like a good father would care for you?

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