Lesson 17 - Trusting the Lord

Lesson 17 - Trusting the Lord

What meant the most to you from this chapter or helped you think more accurately about God’s character and the truth of His Word?

What offered you the greatest challenge or blessing, and why?

Knowing God

Write out Romans 8:28.  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

An opportunity to trust the Lord seems to arise almost daily for many of God’s children, doesn’t it?

What truths about God are proclaimed in this verse?

While we are in this world, hoping and waiting for what we cannot see, we must be praying.

Hope = Desire

Desire offered up to God = Prayer

We need to change our perspective of God to where we see God as the God of the Bible -- supreme, sovereign, and sensitive. 

We should always interpret experience by truth and we do this by filtering every pain through the lens of deity.  It is only when God is in sharp focus, then will our life be undistorted. 

God uses these biblically sound thoughts to help us respond to the events in our lives calmly, rationally, and with hope because we know Him.  It is when we acknowledge God’s supreme role in our lives and set our minds on Him, He enables us to be filled with hope.

For whom does God promise to work all things for good?

How should the truth about God and His promise in Romans 8:28 change your perspective and attitude toward your difficulties, losses, hurts, and tragedies?

Knowing God the Father

Enthusiasm for life is established and rooted in the knowledge of the God who gives us the promise of Romans 8:28.

Let’s consider some background facts:

·        In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul thoroughly and powerfully presents the doctrine of justification by faith.

·        In chapter 8, Paul affirms the blessed position of those of us who name Jesus as our Savior.

·        By virtue of His death for our sins, we are accepted by God as His children.

·        Paul offers believers hope and comfort in their trials as he explains that the very trials that threaten us are actually “overruled” by God.

·        Romans 8:28 gives us knowledge of God that bears the fruit of hope in our lives.

It is our love to God that makes every external circumstance sweet, and therefore profitable. Those that love God make the best of all he does, and take all in good part.

They are the called according to his purpose.  The call is effectual, not according to our purpose, but according to God's own gracious purpose.

Either directly or indirectly, every external circumstance has a tendency to the spiritual good of those that love God, breaking them off from sin, bringing them nearer to God, weaning them from the world, and fitting them for heaven.

Whenever tough times come our way, we can find ourselves falling into that same trap of thinking that God made a mistake…that He wasn’t there when we needed Him.  Thoughts like these rob us of our hope.

The Bible describes a God who is perfect in His wisdom, His ways, and His timing.

He is a God who is with us always, and a God who loves us.

During our tough times, we must turn to these biblical truths about God and let them comfort and assure us of His presence.  God is with us always!  He doesn’t make mistakes!  He is always in control.

Read Matthew 6:9-13.  To whom are you to pray?  To God only, and not to saints and angels, for they are ignorant of us, are not to have the high honors we give in prayer, nor can give favors we expect.

How does this prayer show love toward God, respect for God, and dependence on God?  We must pray, not only alone and for ourselves, but with and for others; for we are members one of another, and are called into fellowship with each other.

How does this prayer help you understand the Father’s ability to take care of “all things” in your life and comfort you?  He is not only, as a Father, able to help us, able to do great things for us, more than we can ask or think; he has wherewith to supply our needs, for every good gift is from above.

Knowing God Is at Work

What do the following verses say about God’s work in your life?

            Psalm 57:2 - I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me.

            Psalm 138:8a - The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me:

Philippians 1:6 - Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

            Philippians 2:13 - For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

James 1:2-4 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; (3) Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (4) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Step 1:  List the negatives in your life.

Step 2: Acknowledge God in the “negatives”.

Step 3: Thank God for each “negative”.

Knowing God Works All Things Together

Look again at Romans 8:28.  What does God want you to “know” -- not hope or wish?

Because God is God - He is able to weave together every single aspect and event in your life and produce something good of it.

What does “all things” include?  What are you struggling with most today?

Because God is God - He also causes everything in your life “to cooperate to the furtherance and final completion of His high design”.

If God promises to work all things together for good, how should that change your view on any bad things?

Because God is God - He is able to overrule all of the evil in your life and cause it to work together for good.

Loving God…Even More

Read this section in your book again.  As you consider the contents of this chapter and God’s amazing love for you, what can you do this week, in obedience to Christ…

            …to count on God’s goodness?

            …to remember God’s power at work in your life?

            …to love God with all your mind?

We know that in everything God works for good.