Week 3: Control and God's Good Will
It was easier to trust God last year- before the pandemic, economic recession, and realization of our deep racial injustice. Giving up control and resting in God’s good will is hard right now. Our faith muscles are being stretched in ways they’ve never been stretched before. But what we fail to understand is that we had just as much lack of control last year as we do this year and God is still good, even when can’t see the full story.
Romans 8:24b-25 reminds us: Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
What things in life are you trying to control? Ask God to help you give up those things so you can rest in His sovereignty.
Read: Guidance, Planning, and Decision Making
by Tim & Kathy Keller
Christian’s want God’s guidance, that is, we want help with what decisions to make. But these verses remind us that he is already guiding us.
Scripture to
Meditate
Scripture to
Meditate
“But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.em. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Online Resources: Jonah
Running from God
by Ray Ortlund
The Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea. Jonah 1:4
The lot fell on Jonah. Jonah 1:7
The Lord appointed a great fish. Jonah 1:17
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time. Jonah 3:1
The Lord God appointed a plant. Jonah 4:6
God appointed a worm. Jonah 4:7
God appointed a scorching east wind. Jonah 4:8
The Lord has more ways of confronting us than we have ways of evading him.
Jonah
by Justin Taylor
Jonah is not a book about a great fish! It is really a book about God, and how one man came, through painful experience, to discover the true character of the God whom he had already served in the earlier years of his life. He was to find the doctrine about God come alive in his experience. It is this combination of doctrine and experience that makes Jonah such a fascinating, instructive, and practical book. The teaching of Jonah searches our hearts and consciences in a special way because it is the story of a man who was on the run from God. It traces not only the path of his journey, but unravels the inner workings of his heart—his fears, motivations, and passing moods. Christians today still experience these ‘Jonah-syndromes’. – Sinclair Ferguson
Words of
Wisdom
“Craving clarity, we attempt to eliminate the risk of trusting God... When all else is unclear, the heart of trust says, as Jesus did on the cross, “Into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). Against insurmountable obstacles and without a clue as to the outcome, the trusting heart says, “Abba, I surrender my will and my life to you without reservation and with boundless confidence, for you are my loving Father.””
Read: Sabbath Longings
by Steve Macchia
2020 has been quite the year…to put it mildly. From impeachment to coronavirus to unemployment to racial injustice. We all need some good old fashioned rest.