2014 NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE: TO TRUST GOD IN THESE UNCERTAIN TIMES I. INTRO  Read Ps 31:14-15a.  Here we are once more, having again entered into another year as we rush headlong toward eternity. ~ If there was a time (or year) when we as believers need to trust our Lord for our security and peace, it is now.

II. WHAT IT MEANS TO TRUST IN GOD  There are several things we need to understand if we are to know what it means to trust in the Lord. 1. To be able to trust God is choose to trust in Him.  “14 But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord…”  There is a clear, deliberate conscious effort and choice in these words to trust in God.

~ This tells us that trusting in God is not a matter of emotional response – something we can do only when we feel like it. ~ WE MUST CHOOSE TO TRUST IN GOD. 2. To be able to trust God is to establish clearly to ourselves again who He is.  “14… I say, ‘You are my God.’”

 David here is actually doing 2 things:  First, he is once more reminding himself of whom he is placing his trust in: God!  As Sovereign Lord, He is: ~ All-powerful (Ps 62:11; Ex 15:6; Isa 26:4, NKJV ) ~ All-wise (1Sam 2:3b; Ps 147:5; Rom 11:33) ~ Perfectly loving (Ex 34:6; Jn 3:16) ~ Absolutely holy (Ex 15:11; 1Sam 2:2; 1Pet 1:16)

~ Ps 46:10  Secondly, David was not just claiming God as God, but God as “my God”!  This was a very personal God! ~ This is a God who knows us (Jn 10:3; Isa 49:15-16; Psalm 139). ~ This God is our Father (Jn 1:12; Matt 6:9; Rom 8:15). ~ This God is ever-present (Heb 13:5c; Matt 1:23; Ps 46:1b).

 At the same time, “You are my God” is not only a reminder to David of who his God is but also a declaration of loyalty to this God in the midst of his dire circumstances. ~ C.H. Spurgeon: “He proclaimed aloud his determined allegiance to Jehovah. He was no fair-weather believer, he could hold to his faith in a sharp frost, and wrap it about him as a garment fitted to keep out all the ills of time.”

3. To trust God is to remove our trust in ourselves. ~ Prov 3:5, 7a ~ We trust more in what we see with our physical eyes than with the eyes of faith.  It is this innate tendency to trust much in ourselves regardless of our personal perceptions of ourselves that makes us foolish and stubborn at times, not willing to hear or heed counsel or rebuke.

~ Prov 12:1 ~ Prov 26:12 4. To trust God is to remove our reliance on men or any other possible source of help. ~ Ps 20:7 ~ To boast in something is to trust in that thing. ~ Gal 6:14 ~ 1Cor 1:31

 If we are able to trust Him for the greatest need we will ever have – the need to be saved from our sins and from both the temporal and eternal consequences of sin – can we not trust Him for all things less? (Cf. Rom 8:32) 5. To trust God is to trust in His Word and His promises.  God’s Word is the expression of who He is and the revelation of what He wills.

~ This means that we are to constantly expose ourselves to the Scriptures, be diligent in committing to our hearts His Word, and willingly live out His truths. ~ Ps 119:160 ~ Jn 17:17  If God’s Word is truth, then what He says is trustworthy – worthy to stand on and believe in. ~ 2Cor 1:20

~ Num 23:19 ~ We must, therefore, deliberately choose to believe what He says in His Word regardless of the impossibility or difficulty of our circumstances. 6. To trust God is to be willing to wait patiently for His perfect timing and perfect answer.  There is a connection between deeply knowing who God is and therefore beingwilling to wait upon Him.

~ Jer 14:22 ~ To hope in God is to wait on God and to wait on God is to hope in God. ~ Ps 39:7 ~ Ps 130:5  When we say God is our hope then we must be willing to wait upon His timing, not ours. ~ Ps 104:27

 Sometimes, the Lord answers quickly. ~ Ps 138:3  Sometimes the Lord tarries. ~ Hab 2:2 ~ In the meantime, we are to wait patiently, not in exasperation. (Cf. Ps 37:7) (Cf. Ps 37:7)  When we say God is our hope then we must be willing to receive from His hand what He in His wisdom has willed to give us.

~ 2Cor 12:8-9a ~ We need to trust that God knows what He is doing when we receive from His hand something we do not expect or sometimes don’t even want, trusting… Rom 8:28. ~ Jas 1: To trust God is to fight to maintain our joy in Him. ~ Phil 4:4

~ For us to experience “joy unspeakable” (1Pet 1:8), we need to remind ourselves that the rejoicing must be “in the Lord” and “always”.  For this to happen, we must learn to see God as our “exceeding joy” (Ps 43:4). III. TRUST IN GOD IS COMPLETE SURRENDER  This is really bottom-line in this whole issue of trust.

~ We have trouble letting go of our lives and placing ourselves at the complete disposal of God’s hands.  Frances Ridley Havergal: “I think the great root of my trouble and alienation is that I do not make an unreserved surrender of myself to God; until this is done I shall know no peace. I am sure of it.”  “There must be full surrender before there can be full blessedness. God admits you by the one into the other.”

 This surrender is what was behind David’s declaration in Ps 31:15a. ~ The key phrase here is “in Your hand” – God’s hand. ~ Jos 4:24 ~ Ps 118:15 ~ Prov 21:1 ~ Ezra 7:28 ~ The focus here is God’s hand – not even our trust.

~ Oswald Chambers: “It is not our trust that keeps us, but the God in whom we trust who keeps us.”  David surrendered his life – his “times” – in God’s providential hand, His sovereignty. ~ Therein rests the secret of peace and encouragement in even the most uncertain and trying seasons of our lives.

~ C.H. Spurgeon: “Providence is a soft pillow for anxious heads, an anodyne for care, a grave for despair.”