Why We Can Trust God

Video transcript below. Transcript was transcribed using AI software so please excuse any grammar or typographical errors.

Hello there. I am very excited, as you guys know, I always say that, but I’m very excited about what God has been teaching me lately, because I have lots of people who ask me, whether it’s through the website or through the Daily devotional, the podcasts, how can I trust God? In other words, they’re coming to me and saying, how can I trust God when my father betrayed me?  How can I trust God when my best friend stabbed me in the back? How can I trust God when my spouse betrayed me and didn’t keep their promises? The fact is, we all struggle with that, and then you’re asking me to trust a God who I can’t see, right?  And so I really wanted to have solid answers for that, not just for the people, but for myself. Look, we all struggle with that.

We all struggle with this idea. How are we supposed to trust God? We can’t see well,  the people who are supposed to have that, you know, that mother who was supposed to have cared for us when we were young instead of abandoning us. How are we supposed to trust God? We can’t see when the spouse that we married, the person we pledged our life to betrayed us. And I think that’s a fair question, but I want to, in this video, kind of cover some of the things that God has shown me through the study of his word. And, I think it will help you. It’s definitely helped me. And I don’t want to ever underestimate God’s word. But the fact is, since God has been teaching me this, now, when I start to spiral out of my joy, when I start to be depressed, when I start to act like I can handle everything myself, I want to go back to this idea about God’s faithfulness that he has shown me.  And I pray that it will help you as well.

First we’re going to examine the, from the scriptures, the basis for God’s faithfulness. And I’ll just tell you in a nutshell, His faithfulness is based on His character. His faithfulness is not based on what we do or how we perform. It is based on who He is. And something I want you to remember is this phrase, if God is not faithful then he is not God. And we’re going to look at some scriptures that talk about that.

The second thing we’re going to look at is exhibit A.  And by the way, this video will also be in our February, 2025 devotionals. There’ll be a three day series about this. So if you want more information besides this video and the transcript, we’ll have kind of gone in depth in the February 2025, 3 day series. So, but we are going to have exhibit A and we’re going to talk about that.

And then third, we’re going to talk about, okay,  how do we put this into use? How do we practically use this? And I think that’s the hardest part, but we’re going to do the best we can to tackle that in this short video.

So first of all, it’s innate in human nature that we all need someone we can utterly depend upon. And the problem is that almost every human that we know has failed us in one way or another. And we tend to impose that failure onto God. And the fact is, the Bible says God is faithful. First Corinthians 1:9, and it says over and over again in the Bible, but we’re going to read a few scriptures. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And that’s First Corinthians 1:9 God’s word demonstrates the faithfulness of God, or tells us about the faithfulness of God. And,the question is, do we believe His word? And that’s really what it comes down to, right? 

And so let’s talk about what does it mean to be faithful? I don’t think this idea merits a ton of discussion, but we think of someone who’s dependable, someone who’s reliable, someone who’s trustworthy, someone who’s true to their word at all costs. God’s word describes him as a quote, faithful creator. In First Peter 4:19, in Deuteronomy 7:9 he is described as the quote, faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations to those who love him and keep his commandments. And to quote the psalmist in Psalms 36 said, God’s faithfulness reaches to the clouds. So God tells us he’s faithful, he’s dependable, he keeps his promise, even if everyone else in the world lets us down, God is faithful. So what makes God more faithful than our father who failed us, or our best friend who stabbed us in the back? Or the boss who made his promises and didn’t keep them?

What makes God’s faithfulness more reliable? I think the right question is, where does God’s faithfulness come from? Well, if there’s something I want you to remember, it says, God’s faithfulness comes from his nature. If you have watched our concept study video about who God is, then you’ll have an advantage in listening to this video. But we know that God’s nature is, that he’s love, he’s loving, just, and he’s righteous. And we also know that he has other characteristics. Like he’s omnipotent. He’s omniscient, right? He never changes. And so we need to understand that his faithfulness is not based on circumstances, it’s based on his character, and his character doesn’t change. So let’s just use some examples.

When we think about why are there people who are unfaithful? Well, sometimes people are unfaithful to their commitments because they’re liars, right? Or because they made a promise. And at the time, they made the promise, they weren’t serious about it. But the Bible says God can’t lie. In fact, and in Titus 1:2, it says, it’s impossible for God to lie, and he is incapable of deceiving us. Think about it. If that’s true, if God cannot lie, then we know that if God promises us something, we can take it to the bank, it’s going to happen. 

So that eliminates one category of why people are unfaithful. We cannot attribute that to God. He cannot lie. Sometimes people aren’t faithful because they make commitments too quickly, and then they change their mind. But the Bible tells us God is not that way. He is immutable. To be immutable means you are not subject to change. The Bible says in Hebrews 13, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Malachi 3:6 says, I am the Lord. I do not change. So, because God is immutable, he doesn’t make promises on a whim. Matter of fact, he already knows the future. When he makes a promise, he knows all the failures that will happen. He knows all the things, the circumstances that will arise. He does not make promises without his own wisdom that is engaged in his omniscience, right? So when he promises something, again, it’s a promise that he’s thought through whatever that looks like for God.

I can’t get my mind around, you know, his omniscience, obviously. But that’s why King David could say in Psalms 119, forever, oh Lord, your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. That’s Psalms 119: 89-90. So when God promises us something, he doesn’t change his mind.  

Sometimes people are unfaithful because they don’t have the ability to keep their commitment. They just make well-meaning promises, you know?  But again, when we look at God’s nature, he’s omnipotent, which is one of his characteristics. He’s omnipotent, meaning there’s no limit to his power.

Whatever God promises you, his power is able to back up.

So, because of who God is, I’m going to go back to this principle, because of who God is, he is faithful. The problem is that we think God is like people who are unfaithful to us. And even though we read about his character and read about his nature, we don’t trust his faithfulness simply because we’re afraid to trust anybody. We’ve been betrayed too many times by humans.

In fact, we hold other humans to the same standard of, as we, in other words, we hold humans to the standard of, Hey, you’ve betrayed me, but we actually can’t keep the same standard we’re holding the people to, if that makes sense. So, we tend to not trust people because they have failed us when we can’t even adhere to that same standard. That’s why knowing God is so important, because we can trust him. He is faithful, not because of what we do, not because of our performance, the performance we’re looking for from other people, but because of who he is.

And so, what is the proof of God’s faithfulness?  Kim, can you give me an example? Can you give me an example that I can take to the bank?  Well, you know, we’ve read about his nature, obviously, but first of all, I think the proof is a lot of things, but I want to talk about one thing in particular, okay? I mean, we could talk about the fact that, this creation, it continues to run.  And if you believe the Bible, God is a sustainer  of creation, going back to that idea that he is keeping his promises because of who he is, not because of our performance.

The Bible says that it rains on the just and the unjust, right? He does not just pick and choose, oh, this person’s doing really well, so I’m going to send rain over here and I’m not going to  send rain over there, or I’m going to not provide oxygen for you know, for the mafia, but I’m going to give oxygen to the person in the church. No, God, God is so good. His goodness is far beyond our  human comprehension. And He provides and takes care of the people as a whole. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t give blessings to those who keep his word. But that’s not the subject of this video, okay?

The subject of this video is to point us back to the reason we can trust God’s promises. It’s because of who he is, not because of what we do. And this goes back to his nature. And again, I’ll say this, if God is not faithful, then he is not God. Because of how he represents himself, what his nature is according to God’s word, according to his word, and what his characteristics are, according to his word, makes him a faithful God. And so it’s very important to understand that it’s because of who God is, that he is faithful and that we can trust him. 

So let’s talk about proof. I mean, we could talk about, again, creation. We could talk about the fact that I’m able to speak to you right now, that I have a heartbeat, that I’m breathing, that you’re breathing, that you’re able to hear.  We could talk about him, Jesus Christ, fulfilling every prophecy in the Old Testament. We could talk about all the opportunities we have today, which are proof of God’s faithfulness in the physical realm, right? But let’s talk about something that we can lay eyes on.

I’m calling it Exhibit A, and this is the nation of Israel. You know, over 4,000 years ago, God made a promise to a man named Abraham that his descendants would grow and be a mighty people. He promised Abraham he would give him the land of Palestine as their eternal possession. He promised Abraham that his people would be preserved by God forever and that they would never disappear. And even though, again, this goes back to the fact this wasn’t based, and that this promise was not based on the performance of the Jewish people. I mean, throughout the centuries, they have done their very best to thwart God’s promise. And they’re still here. I mean, think about it. They built the golden calf on Mount Sinai. They rejected the priesthood because they wanted a monarchy. And over and over again, they rejected God in favor of worshiping idols. And then the enemies would come in and conquer them, right? I mean, if you look at the history and the Old Testament, you have time after time after time where the Jewish nation was unfaithful to God. And, you know, every time they rejected God and worshiped idols, you know, their nation would, they would lose God’s supernatural protection. Their nation was taken captive, and they even rejected their own Messiah and crucified him. But God’s promise to Abraham,  it has survived. It survived the burning down of the city of Jerusalem. It survived the destruction of the temple. It survived the Jewish people being scattered throughout the globe. It survived Hitler and his final solution. It most recently survived the attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023. It survived the seven day war. It has survived in a way that is so supernatural and really unbelievable. It has to be God in his faithfulness. 

And today, God is not only preserving the Jewish people, but he continues to secure the land that he promised to Abraham in the entire history of the world. There’s never been a people who lost their homeland and got it back. There’s never been, in the history of the world, a situation where a living spoken language like Hebrew died out completely as a spoken language and then was revived. If you look at the size of this tiny speck of land called Israel, you might wonder how in the world this tiny nation representing less than 1% of the world’s population has survived against the odds. Well, my friend, that is the faithfulness of God.  You know, over the last 4,000 years, God has crushed superpowers and demonstrated he will do whatever it takes to keep the promise he made to Abraham and his people. And you can look at history, you know,  from the destruction of Pharaoh and his kingdom. I mean, every time he has brought them back against odds that were just unbelievable. And that is the faithfulness of God.

You know, I was in Jerusalem a couple years ago, and, oh, it was so amazing to stand on the Mount of Olives. It was incredible to pray at the wailing wall, to walk what they believe is where the Via Dolorosa is, where the steps of Jesus to the cross were. And, you know, one of the things that just gripped my heart was that I was watching God, a faithful God, keep his promise to Abraham for over 4,000 years. And again, keep in mind, God isn’t keeping his promise because the Jewish people have been such great folks, you know, he’s not rewarding them. No, he’s keeping his promise because of who he is, and his nature is such that he does keep his promises.  He is holy, He’s loving, He’s immutable, He’s powerful.  

And here’s the amazing thing about this Exhibit A.  If God did not break his word to Abraham over 4,000 years ago, then God is not going to break his promises to you or me. The Bible says in Romans 8:28, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose. So what are some of these promises that God makes to you? And, I mean, thinking about this is just to me being and maybe using my common sense, I don’t know. But if God has kept his promise to the Jewish people who have completely misbehaved over the last 4,000 years, surely he can keep his promise to me. Who might, if I’m lucky, I might live to be 80 or 90, right? And I mess up just as much as Israel does, obviously, I choose my idols, right? And so, what are some of these promises? This was kind of the next phase in this study that I wanted to kind of explore. What are some of God’s promises to me and to you in his word? And we’re just going to run through some scriptures.

So first of all, you know, in thinking about this and thinking about the biblical view of faithfulness, of God’s faithfulness, it is such a relief from the pressure we put on ourselves to earn God’s favor. We can’t, we don’t, and that frees us to serve God because we love him. And that’s called surrender, right?  And so when we engage in a life of surrender, it frees us to be open to this idea of how faithful God is. And it kind of is. It’s kind of the cart and horse, understanding God’s faithfulness frees us, but living in surrender is being free and also engages us in understanding God’s faithfulness. I hope that makes sense. It makes sense to me. So first, let’s just explore some of God’s promises, okay?

First of all, the most important promise we have is that we can have everlasting life today. Simple verse John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God is faithful so that those who trust him for salvation, to those who are not depending on their spiritual performance to get them to heaven, they can, present tense, have the gift of everlasting life. You know, you either have everlasting life today or you don’t, okay? You can’t lose it. Otherwise, it was never everlasting life to begin with, right? This is a promise of God. This is a promise that does not depend on our merit. Matter of fact, the Bible’s very clear that it does not depend on our merit.

For example, the verse, that for by grace are you saved, through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast. I mean, that’s just one of several verses that talk about how our works cannot give us salvation. God keeps his promise to give us everlasting life the moment we trust Christ as our Lord and Savior.  If you have not trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you want more information, please go to the section of our website called The Gift of Salvation, or listen to my testimony. Those tools will guide you on how to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and have this claim, this promise from God that he will give you everlasting life. And when we share our story of salvation, we are sharing a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

Second, the apostle Paul reminds us that the faithfulness, it is the faithfulness of God, that 100% secures our salvation and frees us so that we are rich in everything else. And now, keep in mind, we just did a podcast series and a devotional series on spiritual prosperity. And so when I’m talking about riches, I’m not saying that God won’t give you resources, but I am saying that you need to understand that prosperity is not the things that we can’t take with us. It is the fruit of the spirit. It is the salvation of souls. It is the things that are going to last forever.  Paul the apostle says he first wrote to the Corinthian church in First Corinthians 1:4-9. He said, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God, which was given to you by Jesus Christ, that you were enriched in everything by him, in all utterance, in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift eagerly awaiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. 

My goodness, we are guaranteed salvation. And what’s interesting to me is that this passage was written, this letter was written to the church in Corinth. Now, if you know anything about the church in Corinth, they were terrible. I mean, they were doing all these, I mean, they were condoning extreme sexual immorality, and they were approving it. The church was like, oh, that’s okay. You know, you can sleep with your father’s mother. I mean, stuff that we just go, what? You know, and it’s almost like God is saying in this scripture, look, Kimberly, if anyone would forfeit salvation, it would’ve been these people. But you have a promise from me that your salvation is not based on your performance. I am faithful to them. I am faithful to you. And so you are free to live for my glory.

So third, we are reminded that God is faithful. He will not allow trouble and temptation that is greater than we can bear through His strength and wisdom. Again, back to First Corinthians. And this time, in 10:13, the Bible says, no temptation has overtaken you except such as is  common to man .But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make you a way of escape, so that you may be able to bear it. Now, if you have listened or read our series on affliction, then you know that we have all kinds of benefits from affliction. But the most important thing, this is God’s promise, and that promise is that we can do all things through Christ, through Him. These promises are experienced not in our own strength. This promise is not ever experienced in our own strength.

But when we have the attitude of Christ, that we are poor in spirit, that we are able to continue through the trial because of who he is, not because of who we are. Again, this is a promise of God’s faithfulness. This is not a promise that I’m going to be some kind of strong woman, powering through these trials. No, this is God saying, I’m faithful. I have given you the strength to endure this temptation, to endure this trial. And that is an amazing promise. And again, these promises become more real to us as we experience God’s faithfulness. We experience God’s faithfulness by living in the attitudes of Christ. Right? If you have not  listened to our podcast on the attitudes of Christ, oh my goodness, it’s been, again, one of the greatest tools of bringing me anyway into a time when I am experiencing so much of God’s presence.

So fourth, God is not just faithful to strengthen us for trials, but also he works all things for good. You know, we read Romans 8:28 earlier, and he’s not only strengthening us, but he says, I’m not just going to strengthen you to power through this. I’m going to work something that you never even thought about through this trial. Wow. This is such a, you know, notice now, now keep in mind, God didn’t say all things are good, but that he would work all things for good.

And this is where when we love him, we’re born again. We love him. Meaning we’ve surrendered to him. Our eyes are open to how he’s doing this. And it actually becomes less of a surprise to us that he’s doing this because we’re like, oh yeah. Well, gosh, God, God did that. That doesn’t surprise me. He said he would do that, and I can trust him because he’s the most faithful person I know, right?

So, just a couple more things. God is faithful to forgive us again and again and again.  First John 1:8-9 says, you know, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What does that mean? Well, we learned about body, soul, and spirit, right? Our sin, our body is no better than the day we are born again. But when we are sorry for our sin, and we confess those things, God forgives us. He forgives us more than we forgive each other, more than we’re capable of. And that’s a promise. And we can take that to the bank.  And we could go on and on.

But you know, just to summarize a few more things, God is faithful to come comfort us, Second Corinthians 1:4, to guide us, Psalms 32, to give us wisdom, James 1:5, to hear us when we pray, James 5:13-18, to supply our material needs. And he gives to us generously. He promises us. He’s going to give to us generously. And, in Romans 8, the Bible says, what shall we say then to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, shall he not with him also freely give us all things. Wow. 

I think the question is now really, if God has promised to do all these things for us, what do we need to do to walk in these promises? Well, I think, you know, it’s a process. I’m just going to tell you that this is not like you wake up one day and say, wow, I believe in all the promises of God. I’m going to walk in all these promises. No, because we’re in a warfare. We’re in a spiritual warfare, and we know that we have three enemies. We have of course Satan, we have our flesh, and we have this world’s culture, and they’re constantly waring against us. The Bible says that Satan prowls, he prowls around and he seeks to devour us, right? And so, it’s a real enemy. We have a real enemy. And so, but we have a choice. We have a choice. We can ride that rollercoaster of depression, anxiety, worry, fear, or we can be on God’s train.

You know, I remember Corrie ten Boom saying something, and I’ll have to paraphrase because I don’t remember the exact quote, that when you go through a dark tunnel, you trust the conductor to get you out on the other side. And that’s what it boils down to. And again, there are no shortcuts, okay? You’ve been scarred over years, probably decades of not believing in, and that you can trust anybody. That is a process, a thinking process you’ve developed. You’ve got to undo that. You’ve got to develop the attitudes of Christ, and you have to daily, sometimes hourly, discipline yourself to practice trusting in God’s faithfulness. And so what does that look like?

Well, just like anything, if I decide how I’m going to be a bodybuilder, guess what I’m going to  have to do? I’m going to have to go to the gym, and I’m going to have to eat right? And I’ll have to do that day after day after day after day. Well, this is what God is saying. Look, if you want to learn to be trusting in my faithfulness, then you’re going to have to discipline yourself to study the  word. Study my word.  Fellowship with me, fellowship with believers, carry out the great commission, pray. You’re going to have to discipline yourself to spend time and develop this different way of thinking. And the Bible says, we’re supposed to renew our minds. The Bible says, we’re supposed to have the mind of Christ. We can only do that if we know who he is. And the only way we know who he is, is number one, by being born again. And number two, by studying him, because we have to undo all of the bad knowledge that we have, all the bad habits that we have, all the faithlessness that’s been bred into our brain over the many years you’ve been alive, right? All the disappointment, all the fear, all the things that have caused you to not trust God. You can unlearn those things, and you can learn how to know that God is faithful. You know, one of the best ways to break the cycle of doubting the faithfulness of God is to experience it for yourself. And you only experience that when you give God a shot, okay?

And I’m going to tell you the battle is never over. You know? But when we start having experiences where we see God was faithful, then we share that, right? And other people come alongside, and then you have more stories. And it’s so encouraging because we all struggle with fear, anxiety, dissatisfaction, and depression. And each time that’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity as we start into that downward spiral, whether that’s losing our joy, doubting, losing our peace, losing our confidence, before we end up in that funk, well, first of all, that’s proof that we have taken responsibility for our own life upon ourselves instead of trusting it to God, right? Anxiety is a sure sign that we need to put the problem back in the hands of the only one who can handle it. And again, this is developing good habits.

That’s why the attitudes of Christ series that we did is so important, so critical for me. It’s a great start to understanding that we can commit ourselves to him as a faithful creator. Because we have to give it. We have to learn. We have to teach ourselves. And you know what?  I’ll admit this. Sometimes I just have to pray. Lord, help me to desire to trust you. Help me to know I can trust you. And you know what? He answers that prayer. He is faithful to answer that prayer.  A lot of times, I’ll have anxiety or fear about a situation. Maybe I have a case that’s going south, and I’ll feel the anxiety rising. And I was like, God, you know what? My law practice belongs to you. I belong to you. This problem is yours. This is your responsibility. I’m giving it back to you because I know you can handle it. And I can’t. And you know, it’s really, wow, it’s always amazing how when we are 100% dedicated to giving everything that we have to the Lord, then we know that everything that arises, all the circumstances, all the trouble that arise, that’s also his responsibility. And that’s freeing. Then we get our joy back, we get our peace back. We get our confidence back. Because we are confident in Him, right?

You know, I want to end this series or this, I’m sorry, this video by just saying this, one of the most important prayers that I pray, that gives me confidence in God being faithful to keep his promises, is this prayer. And I’m not telling you, you need to pray this prayer. But this is a thought that you might make into your own. God, I give you 100% of what I love.

I give you 100% of everything I have because it’s yours to begin with. I give you my law practice, I give you my family, I give you my health. I give you all the money in my bank, right? And I give you my house. I give you everything. And I want you to keep it. And I want you to help me to depend on you, to do what you want, to do your will for your glory with all these things. And oh, God, by the way, when the trouble comes up, that’s yours too. So I want to be able to trust you. Help me trust you. And you know, I think God respects that prayer. I think He, you know, He says if you ask anything in my name,and not that we can use it on ourselves, but for his glory, that he respects that prayer. And I’ve seen him do that. I’ve seen him. 

He knows that we desire to serve him even when we fail. He knows that, you know,  if you have a 5-year-old child and, and that child fails over and over again at something, you aren’t going to  kick them and say, you’re not my child anymore. No, you’re going to be faithful to them because they are your child. Well, when Jesus died for us, paid the ultimate price for us, and he knows we’re going to fail. But he never fails. God never fails. And my friend, if God is not faithful, then he is no longer God. He is no longer the God worth worshiping. But he is God. He is the king of the universe. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And his nature is faithful. And He will keep all these promises to you. 

And so my prayer is that you will  join together on this journey with so many Christians who are coming alive in their faith, in God. And that you will learn and change your mind, your way of thinking about who God is, so that we can do battle together. Oh, someday we’re going to  see each other on the other side, right? And we’re going to rejoice because we were faithful. And because God was faithful, most of all. So thank you for listening to this video. I hope and pray that it was an encouragement and blessing to you. Stay faithful. Because God is faithful.