An Awesome Trust

“But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

“But as we were allowed of God”. All things are by permission of God. Nothing is done, thought or willed without God’s involvement. How then, can man boast of anything with this knowledge? How then, can man deny God of anything with this knowledge?

God has allowed us, He has permitted us the trust of His gospel. It is His will.

“To be put in trust with the gospel”. This “trust” needs to be thought of in two different ways.

First of all, God has confidence in us with His word. God relies on our abilities to spread His word, seasoned with the salt of our experiences added to it. This enables us to touch lives and quicken spirits with the truth of our Lord.

Secondly, we are God’s trustee of His word. We are “nominal owners” of His gospel for the good of all of God’s beneficiaries, the elect. This is an awesome responsibility of entrustment and surety that God has given us.   

“Not as pleasing men, but God”. Do you realize that in a literal sense, the Garden of Eden would return, we would have a heaven on earth IF we all did as was pleasing to God? Yes, it’s that simple.

“But God, which trieth our hearts”. Why do you think that is? Why do you think God tests and tries the spirit within us? It isn’t because God is ignorant of who we are and what we do. He knows. Trials and tribulations are for the benefit of His elect. Often times we are not aware of the sin within. Often times we suppress and deny it. God is the potter and we are His clay. Trials and tribulations are the molding process.

Some think of life’s problems as the crashing waves and abrasive sand crystals that smooth the shards of glass, broken shells and rough corals of our life. That’s just the fine tuning of our personalities.

Life’s trials and tribulations mold us into who we are, and it hurts. They establish firm our beliefs, principles, and precepts. Trials and tribulations strike at our very foundation of being.

Difficulties in life can be cathartic, dramatic, severe, and most definitely life-altering. But they are always for the “good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

The elect are called by God, according to His purpose and entrusted with His word and His way. This is by the grace of God, and as is with all of His graces, is intended for us to, in turn, give to others and give so freely.

Before time began God had this trust in us. We were predestined to suit His purpose and to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29). This is what it is all about. God didn’t make just one Jesus. He made us all a Jesus type, entrusted with His same purpose, to do the bidding of the Father. We are to spread His word and “not of myself” but of the “Father which sent me” (John 12:49).

It is an awesome trust God has in us!

Bill Hitchcock