Joel M Bradshaw

68You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.–Psalm 119

I journey with people who have been hurt by others. They face broken and messy situations. And to their credit, they actually WANT to trust God in the midst of all they go through. This individual loves the Gospel message. Ephesians 2…

 8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…

They love the story of God’s gracious gift of salvation. Amazingly, they grasp the grace part, it’s the through faith part that is difficult. For faith is trust. And that’s the issue. They want to be saved, but they don’t trust God. They want to trust God, but they are struggling.

Our journey to build trust begins with the past. We ponder various attributes of God as described in the Bible. Loving, faithful, caring, providing, strong, holy, etc. Have they seen God’s love in their past? Do they recognize times of God’s care or his faithful providing? If they can say yes, then they have built the foundation for the trust that is being built. And this is no small matter, for many times their biggest issues have occurred in their past. Their trust struggle began with their past.

To transition from the past to the present seems less difficult. It asks of their situation if God is still faithful and worthy of your trust. They have already recognized God’s work in their past and now does that continue into their present? My favorite song that expresses this is Goodness of God by Bethel Music. Here is the chorus:

… And all my life You have been faithful
And all my life You have been so, so good
With every breath that I am able
Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God…

Such wonderful self-talk! It describes today’s journey perfectly. God’s faithfulness in the past is recognized and now the present will maintain that narrative.

Today’s verse in Psalm 119 provides foundations for essential self-talk phrases.

1. God is God, he’s got this.
2. God is good, he cares for me.
3. I trust God to lead me and teach me.

If you can recognize that God is both good and does good, then your past is put in its place. God’s plan may have at times hurt, but it is good. Therefore, the God who does good has placed you on the best path. He is still good and able to teach and guide throughout life. The God who has been good is the same God who still is good. The God who has done good things is still the God who does good things. Your present is now changed by this self-talk.

The future actually never arrives, but is the continuation of the present. So if you recognize God as faithful in your past, and recognize that faithfulness in your present, you can maintain that story with each new present day you face.

God is good and does good. We turn to him for guidance and direction. This is the basis of trusting God with your story. This is the story to consistently tell yourself. Remember what you tell yourself affects your thoughts, which affect your feelings, which affect your motivations, words, attitudes, and actions. Trust in God can be built. We start with a foundation of the past and spend the rest of our days adding levels and floors.–JMB