Trusting God in natural disasters

What about the natural disasters that occur frequently in various parts of the world?  Many sensitive Christians struggle over the multitude of large-scale natural disasters around the world - an earthquake in one place, famine in another, typhoons and floods somewhere else.  Thousands of people are killed immediately, others slowly starve to death.  Entire regions are devastated, crops are ruined, homes destroyed.  "Why does God allow all this?" we may ask.  "Why does god permit all those innocent children to starve?"

It is not wrong to wrestle with these issues, as long as we do it in a reverent submissive attitude toward God.  Indeed, to fail to wrestle with the issue of large-scale tragedy may indicate a lack of compassion toward others on our part.  However, we must be careful not to, in our minds, take God off His throne of absolute sovereignty or put Him in the dock and bring Him to the bar of our judgment.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges - pages 102-103

Growth in adversity

If you stop and think about it, you will realise that most godly character traits can only be developed through adversity.  The kind of love that gives freely of itself at great cost to itself can only be learned when we are confronted with situations that call forth a sacrificial love.  The fruit of the Spirit that is called joy cannot be learned in the midst of circumstances that produce mere "natural" happiness.

God is His infinite wisdom know exactly what adversity we need to grow more and more into the likeness of  His Son.  He not only knows what we need but when we need it and how best to bring it to pass in our lives.  He is the perfect teacher or coach.  His discipline is always exactly suited for our needs.  He never over trains us by allowing too much adversity in our lives.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges page 128

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,

who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Trusting God by Jerry Bridges

No plan of God's can be thwarted; when He acts no-one can reverse it; no-one can hold back His hand or bring Him to account for His actions.  God does as he pleases, only as He pleases, and works out every event to bring about the accomplishment of His will.  Such a bare unqualified statement of the sovereignty of God would terrify us if that were all we knew about God.  But God is not only sovereign.  He is perfect in love and infinite in wisdom.

From Trusting God by Jerry Bridges page 45

Have I mentioned how much I love the book Trusting God by Jerry Bridges?  Oh yes, I have.  I read it again during the summer and have decided that I will try to read it annually. 

Jerry Bridges is a humble man who loves God deeply and has the firmest possible grasp of the sovereignty of God.  He explains in this book how God is in control of all things and that we can confidently trust Him in all things.  All things.

My sense is that God gives many, if not all (but I wouldn't want to be so bold as to make that call) Christians particularly clear insight into one aspect of the Big Picture to share with one another.  For me it's God's sovereignty.  I just trust that God is in control.  I always have.  And it is no problem for me. 

But if that is the case, why would I read this book?  Wouldn't I read a book in an area that I don't get?  I love this book because it gives me courage.  Because when I say to someone, "This is in God's hands," or even more directly, "God is in control," I can hear them saying, "There she goes again with her Christian clichés."  Even Christians tell me I am being clichéd.  And they roll their eyes.  And yet I'm not being clichéd.  I truly, truly believe it.  So I love this book because Jerry Bridges speaks of God's sovereignty with such courage, belief and confidence that it fills my heart with joy.

He takes the reader through a process of understanding how and why God is in control and then explains how we can put our trust in Him, even when those circumstances are difficult.  And throughout the book he demonstrates, page after page, that God's sovereignty operates firmly on the foundation of God's perfect love and perfect wisdom.  God isn't being controlling in the worst sense of the word.  He is ordering all things in perfect love and wisdom.

Bridges tackles all of the tricky questions around this issue - suffering on a personal and larger scale, considering ourselves pawns in God's big game of chess, where prayer fits into this and so on - in a helpful, pastoral way.  And he writes in an easy style, making this book a joy to read.  He quotes lots of Scripture - full quotes, not references to texts - and I have enjoyed coming upon the passages he uses in my daily Bible reading and understanding more fully how God is at work as a result, seeing His love and mercy unfold in the story.

Reading this book has magnified my view of God and my trust in Him.  It comforts and calms me.  As I said, I will be reading it again.  And I commend it to you too.  Add it to your list and be encouraged.

Jerry Bridges

God in His love always wills what is best for us.

In His wisdom He always knows what is best,

and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.

 

(A unsourced quote in chapter one of Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.)

 

I have just spent the last month immersed in these three books by Jerry Bridges. 

 

The titles point clearly to the content (as all good titles should.)

Respectable Sins - about the sins that we may not even be aware of, because they blend in with what is well tolerated in society...pride, discontentment, grumbling, selfishness (it's all about me) and anxiety to name a few. 

The Pursuit of Holiness - one of those books often to be found on many Christian bucket lists of must read books, and rightly so.  A great companion to Respectable Sins as it maps a pathway for pursuing holiness and godliness, that veers away from sins both gross and respectable.

Trusting God - how to maintain that holiness, godliness and belief that God is sovereign and that Christ's death on the cross is enough when things are not going smoothly. 

 

Jerry Bridges writes clearly and pastorally.  In reading them I felt nurtured and challenged, taught and counselled, affirmed and encouraged.  Encouraged in the best sense of the word.  Jerry Bridges is a humble man and in all three books he genuinely and sincerely gives God all glory and honour.  If you want to see humility in action through one who holds wholly to the view that God is completely sovereign (that is, in control of all things), loving and wise, pick one of these books and delight in his gentle but strong words.  He's not afraid to say the hard things.  But he is by no means harsh.   

 

Good reading. 

 

I'd like to read some more of his books, including The Joy of Fearing God and The Discipline of Grace, but three is enough for now.  I'll save the others for another time.

Why, God?

So we should never ask why in the sense of demanding that God explain or justify His actions or what He permits in our lives...When I say we should never ask why, I am not talking about the reactive and spontaneous cry of anguish when calamity first befalls us or one we love.  Rather, I am speaking of the persistent and demanding why that has an accusatory tone toward God in it.  The former is natural human reaction; the latter is a sinful human reaction.  Three of the psalms begin with why:

"Why, O LORD do you stand far off?" 
"Why have you forsaken me?"
"Why have you rejected us forever?"
(Psalms 10, 22, 74)

But each of these psalms ends on a note of trust in God.  The Psalm writers did not allow their whys to drag on.  They did not allow them to take root and grow into accusations against God.  Their whys were really cries of anguish, a natural reaction to pain.

From chapter eight in Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.

Trusting God

In the arena of adversity, the Scriptures teach us three essential truths about God - truths we must believe if we are to trust Him in adversity.  They are:

God is completely sovereign.

God is infinite in wisdom.

God is perfect in love.

From chapter one in Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.  And then a few pages later in chapter two...

If we are to trust God, we must learn to see that He is continuously at work in every aspect and every moment of our lives.

Thinking about holiness

I haven't really thought about the power of the word "think" in Philippians 4:8 before.

The Bible indicates that our thought lives ultimately determine our character.  Solomon said, "For as he thinks within himself, so he is" (Proverbs 23:7).  And old well-known verse puts it this way:

Sow a thought, reap an act;
Sow an act, reap a habit;
Sow a habit, reap a character.

It is because of the importance of our thought lives that Paul said, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

As Christians we are no longer to be conformed to the pattern of this world but we are to be renewed in our minds (Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:23; 1 Peter 1:14). Holiness begins in our minds and works out to our actions.  This being true, what we allow to enter our minds is critically important.

From chapter twelve of  The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.

Holiness

A farmer plows his field, sows the seed and fertilises and cultivates - all the while knowing that in the final analysis he is utterly dependent on forces outside of himself.  He knows he cannot cause the seek to germinate, nor can he produce the rain and sunshine for growing and harvesting the crop.  For a successful harvest, he is dependent on these things from God.

Yet the farmer knows that unless he diligently pursues his responsibilities to plow, plant, fertilise and cultivate, he cannot expect a harvest at the end of the season.  In a sense he in in a partnership with God, and he will reap its benefits only when he has fulfilled his own responsibilities.

Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer.  The farmer cannot do what God must do, and God will not do what the farmer should do.

We say just as accurately that the pursuit of holiness is a joint venture between God and the Christian.  No one can attain any degree of holiness without God working in his life, but just as surely no one will attain it without effort on his own part.  God has made it possible for us to walk in holiness.  But He has given to us the responsibility of doing the walking; he does not do that for us.

From the preface of The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges.

And then in chapter three...

God does not require a perfect, sinless life to have fellowship with Him, but He does require that we be serious about holiness, that we grieve over sin in our lives instead of justifying it, and that we earnestly pursue holiness as a way of life.

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

There is a lot to love about this book.

Firstly, the chapters are very short.  I love books with short chapters.  When I check to see how many pages there are until the end of a chapter and find there are still fifty to go I get overwhelmed.  Short chapters are excellent.  (Maybe that is why I like the Bible so much.)

Secondly, Bridges outlines a whole host of sins that we may not even recognise in ourselves.  Am I tempted to think that I have given every part of my life over to God?  Needing to think again.  Here is the list of the sins Bridges covers - ungodliness, anxiety and frustration, discontentment, unthankfulness, pride, selfishness, self-control (lack there of), impatience and irritability, anger, judgmentalism, envy, jealousy, sins of speech and worldliness.  Thinking I don't have a problem with any/some/most of these?  Bridges drills down below the surface and turns up all sorts of every day examples that I hadn't even thought of...and that is why they are "respectable sins" - the sins we tolerate to the point that we cease to recognise them as sinful.

Sounding like a fun book?  Keep reading.

Thirdly, Jerry Bridges has a very strong grasp of God's sovereignty.  A loving sovereign God.   This book provides sound and solid teaching on God's sovereignty alongside the teaching on sin.  Worth reading to be moved once again by God's sovereignty.

Which leads to the fourth - this book is pastoral.  Ligon Duncan, in his commendation for Respectable Sins said, "Jerry Bridges has blessed us with this timely book designed to help us grow in grace and glorify and enjoy God as we ought.  I can't think of any partner with whose help I'd rather tackle my own heart sins than Jerry." And he is right.  I felt like someone was holding my hand and leading me ever so gently through the pages of this book.  I couldn't put it down.  I couldn't wait to read the next chapter.  I felt sad when it came to an end.  A book that was exposing sin after sin.  That is gifted writing.  And that is the wonder of being one of God's children.  Sinful but saved.

I felt encouraged (in the best sense of the word) to take a long, hard look at myself, and confident to do so because the God I long to love and serve with all my heart, soul, mind and strength has loving sovereignty over my life.  He has numbered my days and even the hairs on my head.  He loves me so much that He sent His only Son to die for me to take the punishment for all that sin.  Why wouldn't I want to tackle this sinfulness given the hope found in the cross of Jesus, given to us by a sovereign and loving God.

Loved this book.

Sin

Sin is a spiritual and moral malignancy.  Left unchecked, it can spread through our entire inner being and contaminate every area of our lives.  Even worse, it often will "metastasize" from us into the lives of other believers around us.  None of us lives on a spiritual or social island.  Our attitudes, words and actions, and oftentimes even our private unspoken thoughts, tend to have an effect on those around us.

Paul must have had this concept in mind when he wrote, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear" (Ephesians 4:29).  Our speech, whether it is about others or to others, tends to tear down or build up.  It either corrupts the minds of our hearers, or it gives grace to them.  Such is the power of our words.  If I gossip, I both tear down another person and corrupt the mind of my listener.  If I complain about the difficult circumstances of my life, I impugn the sovereignty and goodness of God and tempt my listener to do the same.  In this way, my sin "metastasizes" into the heart of another person.

From Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges, page 23.