Min. Trilby McClammy
Feb 20, 2026
Trust: God's Unseen Power to Change the World: Lessons 4-5
LESSON: TRUST – God’s Unseen Power to Change The World
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: (Isaiah 26:4)
LESSON #4 – GOD IS FAITHFUL
DEFINITION OF FAITHFUL:
Worthy of trust (trustworthy)
Can be relied upon
Remaining loyal (loyal is used of someone who firmly refuses to desert or betray someone or something)
Steadfast in affection or allegiance
Firm in adherence to the truth
Constant in the performance of duties or services
Constant; not fickle
True; worthy of belief
NOTES:
God can be trusted because He is faithful. He is dependable and can be relied upon.
We know what He will do every time.
If we trust in His words, His words will come to pass in our lives, because He is faithful.
SCRIPTURE STUDY:
Numbers 23:19 - God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Jeremiah 1:12 (AMPC) - Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
Deuteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
1 Corinthians 1:9 - God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (AMPC) - For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 - But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
Hebrews 10:23 - Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
1 John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
REFLECTIONS: Journal your answers.
Review Jeremiah 1:12 - meditate on this scripture as it relates to trust in God. Write down your thoughts.
Review 1 Corinthians 10:13 – meditate on this scripture as it relates to trust in God. Write down your thoughts.
Read Exodus 14:8-31– what does this story teach you about the faithfulness of God and why we can trust in Him?
Read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 - what does this story teach you about the faithfulness of God and why we can trust in Him?
Read 2 Kings 6:24-27, 7:1-16 - what does this story teach you about the faithfulness of God and why we can trust in Him?
LESSON: TRUST – God’s Unseen Power to Change The World
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: (Isaiah 26:4)
LESSON #5 – TRUST IS AN ACT (Our faithfulness taps into the faithfulness of God)
SCRIPTURE STUDY:
Numbers 23:19 - God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Jeremiah 1:12 (AMPC) - Then said the Lord to me, You have seen well, for I am alert and active, watching over My word to perform it.
The importance of these two scriptures is for them to understand that God is faithful to His Word.
God watches over His Word to perform it – are we watchful over His Word to both trust and act on it? The action of trust is obedience.
Matthew 7:24-28
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
We are not focusing on the obedience or disobedience, but the “trust”.
If you trust God you will obey, if you don’t, you won’t. (Remember what God said to Adam and Eve “of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” They didn’t trust, but listened to another voice (Genesis 3:1-11).
Trusting in God or the lack thereof is the foundation of what your life is built on. Notice, they call the one who trust “wise”; and the one who didn’t “foolish.”
Joshua 1:8 (NIV)
Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Meditating on the Word of God is how we fill our hearts with trust in God’s Word.
Trusting in His word will result in the action of obedience or yielding to His words. (Remember Psalm 119:11 - Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.)
Your faithfulness to meditate on God’s word will allow you to be faithful to acting on God’s Word.
Trust has to be developed. It’s not about where you are now, but where you are going to be if you stay faithful to His Word.
Matthew 25:14-31
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
We are comparing talents to the word of God.
What have you done with the word of God? What have you done with the revelation God has given you in church or that you received when you meditated on the word of God?
Are you causing the trust to increase in your heart or are you doing nothing; therefore, causing less revelation to come to you? (What do they have? They have the understanding that they need to be faithful to what God has given them.
Matthew 24:45-47 - 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
Mark 4:20-24 (NIV)
20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?
22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.
23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more.
25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
Notice in verse 20, the people who increase in the Word; hear, accept and receive it. That’s the beginning of trust being developed in your heart.
Notice the verse 21 talks about the purpose of the Word – to light up your life. You don’t just take the Word and do nothing with it or put it aside. You make it the center of your life (Psalm 119:130 - entrance of your Word gives light; Psalm 119:105 – the Word is a lamp to my feet)
The Word of God will disclose and reveal everything in your life for success and victory.
How you hear or the attention that you give to the Word will determine the increase of the word in your life. If you give it priority, it will cause 100-fold. If you give it no priority, then any revelation from the Word will be taken from you.
Proverbs 4:20-22 - My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
REFLECTION: Journal your answers.
Review Matthew 7:24-28 - meditate on this scripture asking yourself these questions: What is your house built on (meaning in different areas of your life, what is the foundation built on)? Evaluate your life, the different things in your life; is it built on trusting God or is it just built?
Read Joshua 5:13-15, 6:1-20 – how did the Israelites’ faithfulness tap into God’s faithfulness?
Read Daniel 6:1-28 - how did Daniel’s faithfulness tap into God’s faithfulness?
Read Daniel 3:1-30 - how did the three Hebrew boy’s faithfulness tap into God’s faithfulness?
Read Judges 13:5, 16:6-21 – Samson knew that the enemy was after him, why do you think it was hard for him to be faithful to God?
Meditate on the different areas of your life where you know the enemy is after you: is it hard for you to be faithful to that word day and night?
LESSON: TRUST – God’s Unseen Power to Change The World
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: (Isaiah 26:4)
LESSON #5 (Part 2) – TRUST IS AN ACT (Our faithfulness taps into the faithfulness of God)
This lesson comes from an article entitled “The World Needs More Faithful Men written by Pastor Scott Hubbard, Editor, desiringGod.org, July 16, 2020.
Read the article and answer the Reflection questions we have written regarding the article:
THE WORLD NEEDS MORE FAITHFUL MEN
Hidden among the nine shining fruit of the Spirit is a virtue some men might find bland. Compared to other marks of Christlikeness, its grandeur may seem small; its glory, dim. The labor required to cultivate this grace can feel unequal to the rewards it offers. Many of us are tempted to forsake the pursuit of it in search of nobler successes or achievements.
And yet, if we lack this fruit of the Spirit, we lose every good thing given to us. Our youthful resolves give way to adult indifference, our marriages and ministries slowly wilt, and our best ambitions eventually fade with a sigh. This quality is certainly not the only mark of a godly man, but without it a man will not stay godly for long. In fact, he will not stay anything for long: not devoted to his family, not diligent in his work, not zealous in his Master’s business.
What is it? Not love, joy, or peace; not patience, kindness, or goodness; not gentleness or self-control — but faithfulness (Galatians 5:22–23).
Words with Weight
Like many of the Spirit’s fruits, faithfulness is not all that difficult to understand. Faithful men are reliable, dependable, trustworthy. They give their word to what matters, and then they live as if that word has weight.
We find faithfulness first in God himself. When we say “God is faithful” (1 Corinthians 1:9), we mean, in large part, that he always does what he says he will do: “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). No word that goes out from God’s mouth comes back to him empty or untrue (Isaiah 55:10–11). With a faithful God, what you hear is what you get.
A faithful man, in his own imperfect way, reflects this same trustworthiness. He does not “make plans according to the flesh, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time” (2 Corinthians 1:17). Rather, so far as it depends on him, he “swears to his own hurt and does not change” (Psalm 15:4).
“A faithful man is as valuable and yet as inconspicuous as a beating heart.”
When this man says he’ll do something — whether as significant as loving a woman for life or as trivial as taking out the trash — others don’t need to wonder whether he actually will. He does not need constant oversight, regular reminders, or daily prodding to fulfill his responsibilities. Nor does he need to add extra assurances on top of his bare word in order to win trust; a simple “Yes” or “No” suffices (Matthew 5:37).
So, faithfulness is not all that difficult to understand. Just to live.
In Search of Faithful Men
Ours is not the first age to struggle with faithfulness. Some three millennia ago, a wise man said, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?” (Proverbs 20:6). Desiring a reputation for faithfulness without actually being faithful; expecting others’ trust without living in a trustworthy manner — these temptations are ancient as well as modern.
We need not wonder why. For one, true faithfulness grows slowly. This grace reveals itself not in a day or a week or a month, but over years — even over a whole lifetime. Almost any man can sprint for a hundred yards; only faithful men can run the slower, lifelong race of faith without giving up or getting distracted.
Faithfulness is also hard work. Many days come when faithful men would prefer a different course than the one in front of them — when they would rather take a break from killing their sin, pursuing their wives, disciplining their children, laboring at their job. But while other men say, “Not feeling like it,” and retreat to the couch, these men get on their knees, plead with God, and do the next thing.
Finally, faithfulness is often thankless. By its very nature, it goes largely unnoticed: rarely showy, ever steady, a faithful man is as valuable and yet as inconspicuous as a beating heart. That he can be taken for granted is, in a sense, his glory.
Yet despite the difficulties that attend true faithfulness, the world desperately needs such faithful men. Men whose word means something more than maybe. Men whose resolve does not crumble before monotony or hardship. Men who keep covenant in marriage for a lifetime. Men who do not flit from job to job, but who gladly plod on the same paths until their Lord directs them elsewhere. Men who burn to hear spoken over them those words that will echo through eternity: “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, 23).
Land of Little
Where does such faithfulness come from? How do men like us, faithless by nature, strive to “be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2)? We can begin by remembering the place where faithfulness grows and the person whom faithfulness glorifies.
Consider first the place where faithfulness grows. No matter how faithful we are at this moment, more faithfulness will grow in the same place where the Spirit so often cultivates his fruit: in responsibilities and tasks that feel small, unimportant, ordinary. In other words, in little things. “The faithfulness that so often goes unnoticed on earth will by no means be forgotten in heaven.”
Jesus gives us the principle, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much” (Luke 16:10). Many men dream of much: of family legacies and lasting ministries, of great awakenings and large followings. Whether God glorifies his name through us in these ways is ultimately a matter of his providence and good pleasure. But one thing is certain on our end: fickleness in little will never produce faithfulness in much.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “It is the mark of a grown-up man, as compared with a callow youth, that he finds his center of gravity wherever he happens to be at the moment, and however much he longs for the object of his desire, it cannot prevent him from staying at his post and doing his duty” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Brief Life, 74).
Bonhoeffer’s “post” at the time of writing was a prison cell. Our post at the moment, though less confining, may still feel constricted: an entry-level job when we’d like to own a business, a house with roommates when we want to be married, a youth-pastor position when we’d prefer to be preaching. But here — in this post, in this place of “very little” — we learn to be faithful.
Lord of Little
We would be wrong, however, to treat the little in front of us merely as a waiting room for the much of our dreams. No act of faithfulness, no matter how unseen and seemingly insignificant, is simply a stepping stone. Each act is a new opportunity to glorify and commune with our Lord.
Jesus, our faithful Savior, has his eye on the small places, on the forgotten moments, on the little things. And in the face of every unwelcome duty, he would have us remember that “whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord” (Ephesians 6:8). When our eyes are lifted toward our Master, whatever good we do — whether much or little, great or small — will come back to us. The faithfulness that so often goes unnoticed on earth will by no means be forgotten in heaven.
In every faithful word to your family, in every hour of Bible-study or sermon preparation, in every small but painful conversation that lies in the path of love, can you feel your Savior’s pleasure? Can you hear the first whispers of “Well done, good and faithful” (Matthew 25:21, 23)? Can you grasp the promise that every faithful work will be found in heaven’s ledgers? And can you see, as you set one unremarkable stone on top of another, what you are building by the grace of God?
Our faithfulness here, even in little, is no little matter. In the unremarkable moments of life, God is shaping his fickle sons into the image of his Faithful One (Revelation 19:11). Every day, he forgives our lingering faithlessness, and every day conforms us to Christ’s faithfulness.
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REFLECTIONS:
1) What is the one thing that stood out to you in regards to “the need for you personally being faithful”?
2) Reread section 1 about the fruit of the Spirit – faithfulness. Why would a man be tempted to forsake the pursuit of this fruit?
3) Reread section 2: Words with Weight. How does our faithfulness shape the way we live?
4) Reread section 3: In Search of Faithful Men. Are there things in your life that you are loyal to that might take away from your faithfulness to God as opposed to strengthening it? What are those things?
5) Reread section 4: Land of Little. Examine your place of “little”; not where you are going to be or where you want to be, but where you are right now (including church, workplace, home, etc.): Are you faithful in your “post”, the place of “very little?” Why is it difficult to be faithful in your “little”?
6) Reread section 5: Lord of Little. Think on this – “my reward in heaven is dependent upon the greatness of my faithfulness, not the greatness of my work.” Write your thoughts.