Trusting God

Today I had the chance to talk to the youth group at my church and it was such an honor. The message that God put on my heart to share with them for awhile now was about TRUST. Here are the highlights of that message:


WHO should we trust?
- We can trust others in our life that we are close to, but our greatest trust should be in God (Proverbs 3:5-6)


WHAT is trust?
- Trust is accepting God's will for our life, NO MATTER WHAT! (Luke 22:42 and Daniel 3:17-18)

- Trust is not based on how we feel (our feelings are unreliable and too changeable)

- Trust is not based on the "results" of what we pray for (God is not our ATM machine or a genie in a bottle to grant our every wish)

- Trust is not about pretending like we are fine when we are not (we need to be genuine with others and with God)


WHEN should we trust?
- Even when life doesn't make sense (Isaiah 55:8-9)

- Even when life hurts (Hebrews 11:35-39)


WHY should we trust?
- Because God loves His children (Romans 8:8-39)


HOW should we trust?
- Trust is action based and involves taking a step of faith (Saying that we trust but not acting on it is not trust at all). (Philippians 4:4-6)


RESULTS of not trusting God
- We might have false beliefs about God when He doesn't answer our prayers the way we want Him to (e.g. We falsely believe that He doesn't love us, He didn't answer our prayer because we didn't have enough faith or even that He doesn't exist)

- We become isolated from God (e.g. we get angry with Him and blame Him for our pain)

- We hold onto these false beliefs and the lies of Satan about who God is (John 8:44)


RESULTS of trusting God
- We have God's supernatural peace and security (Philippians 4:7)


Update on Tina:
- On October 9, 2012 (my 40th birthday) Tina and I went to her doctor and found out that her cancer was returning despite her treatments. Her doctors told us that she probably had 3-4 months to live
- We cried, prayed, cried out to God, fasted, kept praying and God gave us His peace
- On November 27th Tina started Hospice care here at the house
- On November 29th we were informed that Tina would probably die within the next week
- Today, December 2nd, my faith and trust in God was put to the test as I left Tina at the house to go to my church to talk to the youth group about Trusting God. The nurses could give me no guarantee that Tina would be alive when I got home.
- Although we continue to pray for a miracle, we cry out "Father not my will but Yours be done" and we pray that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would get all the glory in this situation whether Tina lives or dies.
- In the end....in spite of all the pain...we continue to trust God and accept His will for our life... NO MATTER WHAT!

- aaron

Arise!

Some of the two most powerful words that have ever been spoken are..."Talitha cumi". Unless you are fluent in Aramaic you may not know what these two words mean. In Mark 5:41 Jesus spoke these two words to a little girl that had died but He declared emphatically that she was only sleeping. These two words mean "Little girl, Arise!". Well...although I can't prove it I would like to think that Jesus whispered these same words to Tina as she just awoke from surgery. "Tina, Arise"! She is now awake and doing great! Praise God :)

More updates to come tomorrow...

If there is anyone reading this who may be "sleeping" spiritually I believe that Jesus would speak those same two words to you. "Arise ___________"!

If you do not know the amazing love of Christ give your heart to Him today and awake to your new life in Him! :)

If you haven't seen the video Tina did recently you can check it out @
http://vimeo.com/35237369

Check out our blog @ christslegacy.blogspot.com

- A messenger of God