Trusting God

I recently finished reading Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges. Here are some quotes that stood out to me.

"Yet it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him. When we disobey God we defy His authority and despise His holiness. But when we fail to trust God we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness."
(page 6, Kindle Edition)

"God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people."
(page 12, Kindle Edition)

"He permits, for reasons known only to Himself, people to act contrary to and in defiance of His revealed will. But He never permits them to act contrary to His sovereign will."
(page 25, Kindle Edition)

"Neither the willful malicious acts nor the unintended mistakes of people can thwart God’s purpose for us."
(page 27, Kindle Edition)

"Our unexpected, forced change of plans is a part of His plan. God is never surprised; never caught off guard; never frustrated by unexpected developments."
(page 36, Kindle Edition)

"What I had to do was to decide if I would trust Him, even when my heart ached."
(page 41, Kindle Edition)

"Our first priority in times of adversity is to honor and glorify God by trusting Him."
(page 41, Kindle Edition)

"Above all, we need to be very sensitive about instructing someone else in the sovereignty of God and encouraging that person to trust God when he or she is in the midst of adversity or pain. It is much easier to trust in the sovereignty of God when it is the other person who is hurting. We need to be like Jesus, of whom it was said, 'A bruised reed he will not break' (Matthew 12: 20). Let us not be guilty of breaking a bruised reed (a heavy heart) by insensitive treatment of the heavy doctrine of the sovereignty of God."
(page 42, Kindle Edition)

"Second, we should not allow the doctrine of God’s sovereignty to cause us to respond passively to the actions of other people that affect us. We should take all reasonable steps within the will of God to protect and advance our situation. I say within the will of God because there may be other reasons, for the sake of God’s kingdom, why we should not take those steps. But the doctrine of God’s sovereignty, considered by itself, should never be used to promote passivity."
(page 62, Kindle Edition)

"As God can protect his people under the greatest despotism, so the utmost civil liberty is no safety to them without the immediate protection of his Almighty arm. I fear that Christians in this country have too great a confidence in political institutions … [rather] than of the government of God."
(page 66, Kindle Edition)

"God does not willingly bring affliction or grief to us. He does not delight in causing us to experience pain or heartache. He always has a purpose for the grief He brings or allows to come into our lives. Most often we do not know what that purpose is, but it is enough to know that His infinite wisdom and perfect love have determined that the particular sorrow is best for us. God never wastes pain. He always uses it to accomplish His purpose. And His purpose is for His glory and our good. Therefore, we can trust Him when our hearts are aching or our bodies are racked with pain."
(page 94, Kindle Edition)

"Trusting God in the midst of our pain and heartache means that we accept it from Him."
(page 95, Kindle Edition)

"An attitude of acceptance says that we trust God, that He loves us and knows what is best for us."
(page 95, Kindle Edition)

"Our duty is found in the revealed will of God in the Scriptures. Our trust must be in the sovereign will of God, as He works in the ordinary circumstances of our daily lives for our good and His glory."
(page 107, Kindle Edition)

"We must learn to trust God when He doesn’t tell us why, when we don’t understand what He is doing."
(page 118, Kindle Edition)

"Any time that we are tempted to doubt God’s love for us, we should go back to the Cross. We should reason somewhat in this fashion: If God loved me enough to give His Son to die for me when I was His enemy, surely He loves me enough to care for me now that I am His child. Having loved me to the ultimate extent at the Cross, He cannot possibly fail to love me in my times of adversity. Having given such a priceless gift as His Son, surely He will also give all else that is consistent with His glory and my good."
(page 133, Kindle Edition)

"God’s guidance is almost always step-by-step; He does not show us our life’s plan all at once. Sometimes our anxiousness to know the will of God comes from a desire to “peer over God’s shoulder” to see what His plan is. What we need to do is learn to trust Him to guide us."
(page 166, Kindle Edition)

"God does not ask us to rejoice because we have lost our job or a loved one has been stricken with cancer or a child has been born with an incurable birth defect. But He does tell us to rejoice because we believe He is in control of those circumstances and is at work through them for our ultimate good."
(page 171, Kindle Edition)

"Everyone faces times of adversity, and everyone needs a compassionate and caring friend to come alongside to comfort and encourage during those times. As we experience God’s comfort and encouragement in our adversities, we are equipped to be His instrument of comfort and encouragement to others. We pass on to others what we have received from God ourselves. To the extent we are able to lay hold of the great truths of the sovereignty, wisdom, and love of God and find comfort and encouragement from them in our adversities, we will be able to minister to others in their times of distress."
(page 185, Kindle Edition)


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