So how about you? What are you facing right now that you must trust God for? Health challenges? A family member or one of your children? Financial challenges? I can guarantee that ALL of us will face something this year we need to trust God for. Keep your eyes on Jesus. On the one who is sovereign, wise and loving. Ask him to help you, guide you, and strengthen you. And trust in him.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,and do not lean on your own understanding. PR 3.5

This simple verse describes our whole Christian life and our biggest challenge – are we going to trust in the Lord with all our heart or lean on our own understanding? Will we trust God’s word or trust our own evaluation of our circumstances?

Trusting God is the key to peace and rest in this life. For example:

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” IS 12.2

When we trust in God we are not afraid. When we trust in God we find strength. We have a song to sing. When we trust in God, he rescues us not only spiritually but from troubles in this life.

So how do we trust in God? By meditating on the truth of God’s word, which tells us that our God is sovereign, wise, and loving.

Years ago, I read “Trusting God” by Jerry Bridges, which talks about these 3 attributes of God, and it changed my life. If we regularly meditate on these truths, rather than leaning on our own understanding we will experience God’s peace and joy. There are other attributes of God that we should trust, like God’s faithfulness, righteousness or his infinite goodness, but today I want to focus on God’s sovereignty, wisdom and love.

GOD IS SOVEREIGN

This means that God is in complete control of all things and rules over all things.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will (EPH 1.11)

God is sovereign over nature, kings, history, angels, and demons. And God has ordained everything that happens, past present and future. God is not responsible for sin and takes no pleasure in human suffering. But somehow even the sins of man and our sufferings are in his sovereign plan.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. RO 8.28

This takes faith – TRUST – to believe that God causes all things, even bad things, to work together for our good and that someday he will wipe away every tear from our eyes and we will see the weight of glory our suffering produced.

Not only is God sovereign, but he is infinitely wise and loving. Can you imagine a universe completely controlled by a God who is all-powerful, but not loving? Or all-powerful but not wise? But praise God, he is not only sovereign, but infinitely wise and loving.

GOD IS WISE

“With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding” (Job 12:13).

In his wisdom, God knows the absolute best thing to do in any situation. His plans and actions are perfect. No one could make a better universe than God.

Look at the human body – we are fearfully and wonderfully made. By the infinite wisdom of God we can see and hear and taste and smell and touch. And what in the world is human memory? How is it that I can remember melodies from commercials when I was 10 years old – “It’s so easy when you use Lestoil!” Human memory reflects the wisdom of God.

Look at all the laws of nature, the seasons, and weather, and the amazing variety of creatures God has made. He could have created one kind of butterfly or three kinds of birds. It is estimated that there are 20,000 species of butterflies in the world – 20,000! There are approximately 6000 species of amphibians, close to 10,000 species of birds, 30,000 kinds of fish, 5000 kinds of mammals and 8000 kinds of reptiles. And scientists estimate there are 950,000 species of insects!

When we TRUST that God is infinitely wise, it yields peace in our lives.

GOD IS LOVING

Paul prayed that the Ephesians would:

…have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Eph 3.18-19

God’s love for us surpasses all human knowledge. God’s love is so vast he must reveal to us the breadth, length, height and depth of Christ’s love, so we can comprehend it. Because of his infinite love, God uses his sovereign power and infinite wisdom to bless us. Everything he does for us he does in love. We can’t usually see that love when we’re going through hard times, but that’s why we need to trust God.

We may not always FEEL Christ’s love when things come crashing down around us. But our feelings are not necessarily the truth. The truth is God’s word that says his love for us in Christ can never be broken and nothing can separate us from that love.

So how about you? What are you facing right now that you must trust God for? Health challenges? A family member or one of your children? Financial challenges? I can guarantee that ALL of us will face something this year we need to trust God for. Keep your eyes on Jesus. On the one who is sovereign, wise and loving. Ask him to help you, guide you, and strengthen you. And trust in him.

Mark Altrogge has been the senior pastor of Saving Grace Church of Indiana, PA for over 25 years, and is the author of many well-known worship songs such as “I Stand In Awe”, and “In The Presence”. This article first appeared on his blog and is used with permission.