Grace and peace be unto you in the name of our Father and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well in the past few issues we have dealt with believing and walking in our salvation and then we came to the place of trying to rest in knowing that God still loves us in spite of who we are and what we do. Now we want to look at the last phase that I spoke of in the beginning and that being trust.

All of this that we have been dealing with is really about relationship – growing in our relationship with God. We have to admit that no relationship can work unless there is trust.

We have got to get hold of the fact that God is our source. As I recently heard a preacher say that Jesus is my shepherd and that is enough. You see our jobs are not our source, our spouse is not our source, our parents, children, fraternity, lodge, bank account, friends – none of these things are the source of our life. I can tell you with all assurance that these things will come to an end. But God is forever; He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Psalm 121 says that we are to “look to the hills from whence cometh our help, our help comes from the Lord.” The Jews worshiped in the hills of Jerusalem and they were saying that that is not where their help came from in those hills but the One that they worshiped in those hills is where their help came from.

Our trust is built on knowing that in spite of who I am and what I have done because of Jesus and what he has done and because I have accepted what he has done and I have invited him into my heart to be Lord of my life I am saved.

I Corinthians 6:11 tells us that we are “washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Washed meaning we are washed in the shed blood of Christ, sanctified means because of what Christ has done we are set apart for the Master’s use, and we are justified, made just as if I never sinned. Isn’t that good news?

So we can rest in the fact that we are saved. What does that mean – we are saved? That means that I now have use of the free will that God gave me. I can choose to do right. I can choose to yield to the Father and be as it tells me in Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ (dead to my flesh) but nevertheless I live, for it is not I that liveth but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Italics is mine.)

I rest in the love that has been shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit. I trust in knowing, but God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So why do I trust this? Because I did nothing to get it so I can do nothing to keep it. It is a free gift from God.

I begin to trust in the fact that God is not a man that he should lie and whatsoever he says that He will do, He will do.

It is not easy for some of us to trust in this unseen God, because many of those whom we can see we cannot trust. But remember Proverbs 3:5 & 6 says, “trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thy own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all thy ways and He will direct your path.”

As I bring this to a close remember that I said this was not a definite process or way that everyone goes. Maybe you have or are going through some or all of these stages just remember that we each go through in different ways. But the bottom line is salvation is a process. We are not changed at the moment of salvation. Our spirit man is awakened but the flesh man is still fighting the new creature.

There is only one that was perfect and that was Christ. So know that we will make mistakes and fall short of the glory of God. But there is good news. I John 1:9 says, “confess your sins, pick yourself up and keep on going in the name of the Lord.” God will never fail you.

God bless and please remember, God loves you and so do I.