V-alidating our Trust in God – Part 6

This newest series of messages on Internet Pastor is called “V-alidating our Trust in God”.

We have been talking about v-alidating our trust in God. We have looked at a pattern that we often seem to follow that helps us learn to trust God. Let’s look at Abraham’s life and see how it falls into the pattern we have established.

1 V-ision. When Abraham was 75 years old God gave him the vision of becoming the father of a great nation.

2 V-enture Abraham had to leave his comfort zone, (country and family) and go out into a new area.

3 V-ariables The biggest variable is time. Abraham still didn’t have a child after 11 years and then he got tired of waiting and caused a bigger problem by trying to work it out himself. (Ishmael)

4 V-alleys We all face problems while we are waiting. Abraham got to be age 99 and his wife Sarah was past the age of child bearing. That’s a big problem.

5 V-aporizes Finally Isaac is born and then Abraham is asked by God to give him up. The dream turns to dust. These are the times when we nothing makes sense. You ask “Why me?” You start to doubt that God really loves or cares. Is He some cruel practical joker who gives me a vision and then vaporizes it?

We are going to talk about this today. And we are also going to talk about the v-ictory.

When things v-aporize. There are certain words that accompany this phase. Words like cancer, divorce, unemployment, bankruptcy, …

It seems as though everything is out of control and there is nothing that you can do. So what do you do?

We can get some ideas from the life of Abraham as detailed in Romans 4.

1. Hang on to the knowledge that God is in control

Romans 4:17 (NIV)
17 As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed–the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

This verse reminds us that God can do things that we can’t. For example: God can give life to the dead and He can create something out of nothing.

Luke 18:27 “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

2. Operate your life based on the Word of God

Romans 4:18 (NIV)
18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

When your are in a situation where it seems as though everything is v-aporizing, you need to rely on God’s word. Study it, read it, meditate on it. The situation is out of your control but it is not out of God’s.

3. Pretending doesn’t work

Romans 4:19 (NIV)
19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead–since he was about a hundred years old–and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.

We have to face the facts in a bad situation, but we always need to face the facts with faith.

Faith is not denying reality. It’s not pretending you don’t have a problem. Faith is facing reality without being discouraged by it because you know that God can change things.

2 Corinthians 4:18 (NIV)
18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

You can either put your focus on the problem or on Jesus. Focusing on Jesus will bring you peace. Focusing on the problem will cause you distress.

4. Expect God to give you v-ictory

Romans 4:20-21 (NIV)
20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

When God brings you to the V-ictory phase there are three kinds of victory.

a. A circumstantial v-ictory. God miraculously changes the circumstances. Just like He did at the Red Sea. He often will do this type of miraculous deliverance in our lives. He changes the circumstances. But it isn’t the only type of victory.

b. A personal v-ictory. Rather than change the circumstances, God changes you from the inside out. You get a new vision, a new perspective, a new attitude, a new perspective.

c. An ultimate v-ictory. The ultimate v-ictory is heaven. There is a word for victory in the Bible. Salvation.

John 3:16-17 (NIV)
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

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