Trust and the Glory of God (episode 26)

0:00 Do you love a prodigal? Do you feel like you are lost in a scary and endless wilderness? Welcome to the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. I am Judy Douglass and I spent more than 15 years in that wilderness. I believe together we will discover help and hope for your journey. Welcome back. I hope that you got some good rest after the four episodes we did on rest. And if you missed any of those, I would encourage you to go back and listen to them. Today we are beginning a series on trust. Trust is one of the most important things for each of us in our prodigal journey. But it's a little hard to get a hold of and really know how. We want to trust God in the middle of it. But sometimes circumstances make it hard for us. And when we've been praying and praying, sometimes when we don't get the answers we want that also makes it hard for us to trust. So today we're going to talk just an intro to trust and about one reason we can trust is because of the glory of God. Really this is very practical. So has your prodigal ever said to you, you can trust me? How many times

1:37 and how long has it taken you to realize no, you can't trust them? Like the time our prodigal needed to buy something for an upcoming soccer tournament. I let him have my credit card. I know, I know. He returned it to me after soccer practice. When the bill came, his soccer purchase was there and a tank full of gas and a Taco Bell purchase and probably a pack of cigarettes, though he was still a minor at the time. Can we trust our prodigals? Not so much, especially if they're into addiction. But our God says, you can trust me. We have a God we can trust. Being able to trust our prodigals may be in the distant future, but what we really need now is to be able to trust God. So we're going to explore how that can become real for us. It's hard to trust, isn't it? When the fear is real, the pain is intense, the waiting seems endless, and prayers seem unanswered. Brennan Manning in his book Ruthless Trust has had a profound impact on my life and has been especially helpful to me on this topic of trusting God. Time and again, Manning has sent me to God's Word. So that's where

3:14 we will go, right to God's Word. We will consider not only why we can trust God, but how we can trust Him. And we will also look at how that trust, ours, will affect the lives of our loved ones. Manning in this book defines trust as faith in action. So trust is something we do. Let's explore what this action of trust is. We will begin by intentionally focusing on the following words from God, words that will establish our hearts on Him and prepare us to be able to trust Him at all times, no matter what. We've looked at some of these in previous episodes, but I want us to ponder them, especially in light of God's trustworthiness.

4:13 King David affirmed in Psalm 56, when I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. And most of us with prodigals are afraid, at least occasionally, sometimes often. One of my favorites from David is in Psalm 27. He says, I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. That's all about trusting God in the long wait. In Deuteronomy, we are assured the Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Is that beautiful? God's there always. He doesn't abandon us or leave us to do this all by ourselves. He is with us.

5:26 And in Isaiah chapter 26, we see this promise. He, you Lord, will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you. Isn't that what we want? Perfect peace? No fear? To see the goodness of God? To never feel abandoned? You know, the more we know someone, the better we can judge if they are trustworthy. So let's get to know God a little more and I believe that will help us to know that we can trust Him. The first reality of God that will help us trust Him is His glory. I recently experienced a few weeks with the glory of God, the grandeur of the Colorado mountains, the peaceful beauty of blue-bonnet-clad Texas Hill country, the faces of my grandchildren, and even my own reflection in the mirror.

6:33 What? What? Yes, my own face because we, you and I, are a reflection of the glory of God. We are made in His image and one of our main purposes is to reflect the glory of God to the world around us. All of these and the amazing glory of creation all around us are just shadowy hints at the glory of God. He's so much more than these things I just mentioned. So what is glory? It's a little intangible, isn't it? The Hebrew word for the glory of God is kabod. I think. I'm not a Hebrew scholar. Maybe it's kabod, but I think it's kabod.

7:23 It is a comprehensive word with many shades of meaning, but the most basic definition is weight. It can connote heaviness, wealth, rank, status, power. To the children of Israel, it meant the greatness, the eminence, the power, authority, and majesty of God. Even those weighty words were insufficient to capture the glory of God. A greater description could be glory is a light so brilliant that Yahweh Himself is rendered invisible by the brilliance.

8:06 We can't even look at His glory, but it's there and to understand what a magnificent, powerful, all-encompassing God He is, and that is His glory. And though in the Old Testament it was hard to see His glory, there were some revelations of it. Moses wanted to see the face of God or the glory of God, but God said, no, you couldn't handle it. Moses could only see God's back, for no one, God says, may see me and live. And yet, we get to see God because Jesus has revealed the Father. He is the light of the world who shares in the luminous brilliance of His Father. He tells us that when we see Him, Jesus, we are seeing God the Father. When the Apostle John was transported in his revelation vision, we read this. He said, I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. And among the lampstands was someone like a son of man dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and

9:42 his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. John did just what we should do when we get even small glimpses of God and His glory, when we experience hints of His glory. He fell on his face, and so should we. How do we even begin to grow further into understanding and grabbing hold of the glory of God? Too often I settle for such a small comprehension of God and His glory. I think most of us accept a puny picture of God anyway. We don't have the capacity to see all of who He is and His full glory. He does reveal Himself to us in many ways. The magnificence of creation, the beauty of those He made in His image, like you and like me, show His glory and loveliness most profoundly.

11:06 Every time we see God's faithfulness to be true to His own character, we catch a glimpse of that glory. Each time we discover that He is with us and loves us and accepts us and keeps His promises, we once again grasp that He is trustworthy. Whenever we receive answers to prayer and surprise gifts from Him, we understand that He is a faithful God and we recognize that we can trust Him. As we walk on the wilderness path of loving a prodigal, our only hope of surviving and thriving is to know that we can trust God. Our only hope of wooing our loved ones back to God and to us is to let the light and glory of God shine on us and through us. Think about this. When have you had an especially vivid glimpse of the glory of God, where He's done something startling and beautiful, where you've been where you're in beautiful creation, or when a person just reflects God so well to you? How do you think growing in your view of God's glory would help you love and pray

12:37 for your prodigal? God bless you. Thank you for joining me today on the When You Love a Prodigal podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Your review helps the show reach more people with the hope and encouragement of Jesus. Don't forget, take a look at the show notes and for more helpful information, resources, and books, check out judydouglass.com. That's Douglass with two S's. You can find me on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram at JudyDouglass417. Until next week.