God Can Be Trusted

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

September 5, 2025

God Can Be Trusted

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm,

for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Hebrews 10:23

I recall reading, many years ago, Principals of Spiritual Growth, by Miles Stanford. In the book, he wrote, to be disappointed with yourself, is to have believed in yourself. I believe this is a thought worth pondering, but don’t tarry here too long. The essence of Stanford’s thought is simply an issue of whether we are trusting God to keep His promises or are we trusting in ourselves for our spiritual growth. I learned a long time ago that my flesh cannot be rehabilitated. I can’t make myself become a better person through spiritual disciplines, no matter how hard I try. The Apostle Paul understood this and used rather graphic descriptions for our entering into new life in Christ. Look at how he discusses death to self in Romans 6, or perhaps even more graphically in Galatians 2:20, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Emphasis mine)

To be disappointed in circumstances and how we relate to those circumstances is a part of life. As an example, consider the two disciples walking to Emmaus on Resurrection Sunday. (Luke 24) They were disappointed and confused. Then something happened, or rather, someone happened. “They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32) When we are disappointed in our circumstances, or in ourselves, let’s have a go-to place that can ground us once again in the eternal truth that God can be trusted to keep his promise. We may not have something as dramatic as the two disciple’s Emmaus Road experience, but when we feel ourselves slipping into the mire of disappointment, we need our own pathway out of the mire.

My Takeaway: I have two pathways to help me in times of disappointment. The first is Psalm 23 and reminding myself, “thou art with me.” The second is in the Eucharist where upon receiving the elements of Holy Communion, I am reminded that I am experiencing anew the presence of Christ within me. In both places, I am reminded, God can be trusted to keep his promise. 

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.