TRUST GOD is the main theme of Isaiah 1-39. Isaiah had only one predominant message for his people in Jerusalem and in Judah (southern Israel) (Isa 1:1). This singular message was repeatedly given over four decades during the threat of the Assyrian invasion (735 BC to 701 BC). By God's grace, West Loop has preached through this first part of Isaiah--chs. 1-39--over the past year (from early 2015) in 40 sermons.
What is the alternative to trusting in God?
It is to trust in man, who has but a breath in their nostrils (Isa 2:22). It is truly not wise to not trust God. It would ultimately be fatal and tragic. Isaiah says bluntly that that if one does not stand firm in trusting God, he or she will not stand at all (Isa 7:9b).
Why should we confidently trust God?
- Perhaps Corrie ten Boom says it well: "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."
- Tim Tebow's says that this is his favorite quote: "I don't know what my future holds, but I do know who holds my future."
What is faith and how does one trust God? In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis says,
"Faith ... is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change... This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue unless you teach your moods 'where they get off,' you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather... Consequently one must train the habit of Faith."
"The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed."
"Faith ... is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change... This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue unless you teach your moods 'where they get off,' you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather... Consequently one must train the habit of Faith."
"The first step is to recognize the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed."
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