Don’t Worry, God’s Got You!: A Six-Week Devotional Study on Trusting the Character of God

By Nonie O. Sables

Sadly, today’s world is filled with worry, uncertainty, and stress. As a result, many Christians have lost their reliance on God simply because they do not profoundly know God.

In a six-week devotional study for the serious student of God’s word and seeker of the Lord’s identity and character, Pastor Nonie Sables guides believers through the basics of faith to understand the attributes and nature of our almighty God, and ultimately find comfort in the realization that he’s got us for eternity—no matter what our challenges in life. With a focus on helping believers understand concepts without compromising the truth, Sables shares a spiritual roadmap that concisely explains the sovereignty of God as well as his grace, love, forgiveness, mercy, and righteousness. Included are applicable scriptures, lessons, and thoughtful questions that invite deep thought and reflection.

Don’t Worry, God’s Got You! is a six-week devotional study that shares a roadmap that guides Christians to understand and trust that God’s got them in every situation of their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781973656081

Nonie O. Sables

Nonie Sables is the pastor of Grace International Christian Fellowship (GICF) in Jacksonville, Florida. He earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of the East, Manila Philippines, a master of divinity from Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary, and completed a Christian leadership course in Hawaii in 2003 at Haggai Institute. Pastor Nonie and his wife, Emmy, have two children.

Book preview

Don’t Worry,

God’s Got You!

A Six-Week Devotional Study on

Trusting the Character of God

NONIE O. SABLES

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Copyright © 2020 Nonie O. Sables.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

The story A Friend Closer than a Brother is the author’s work of fiction. The characters, incidents are products of the author’s thoughts and are not to be interpreted as actual. Any similarity to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely accidental.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5607-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5609-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5608-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019902699

WestBow Press rev. date: 4/27/2020

The permanence of God’s character

guarantees the fulfillment of his promises.

A. W. Pink

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

God’s Sovereignty

Week 1: God’s Got You Based on His Sovereignty

Week 1: Introduction

Day 1: Choosing to Trust

Day 2: God’s Fifty-Twenty Rule

Day 3: God’s Consent

Day 4: Doesn’t Seem Fair!

Day 5: God Never Sleeps nor Slumbers

God’s Grace

Week 2: God’s Got You Based on His Grace

Week 2: Introduction

Day 1: Grace Is All You Need

Day 2: Grace, Are You in the Church?

Day 3: The Grace of Spirit’s Power

Day 4: The God Who Fights for Us

Day 5: The God Who Rescues Us

God’s Love

Week 3: God’s Got You Based on His Love

Week 3: Introduction

Day 1: Display of God’s Love

Day 2: God’s Discipline: Love in Disguise

Day 3: Who Can Separate Us?

Day 4: God’s Love Causes Us to Love

Day 5: No Fear in Love

God’s Forgiveness

Week 4: God’s Got You Based on His Forgiveness

Introduction: Jesus’s Forgiving Look!

Day 1: From East to West

Day 2: As White as Snow

Day 3: No More Sentence

Day 4: The Blessed Forgiven

Day 5: We Are like Sheep

God’s Mercy

Week 5: God’s Got You Based on His Mercy

Introduction: God’s Mercy

Day 1: Mercy Receives Mercy

Day 2: Mercy on Those Who Fear God

Day 3: God’s Rich Mercy

Day 4: Draw Near for Mercy

Day 5: Recipients of Mercy

God’s Righteousness

Week 6 God’s Got You Based on His Righteousness

Introduction

Day 1: What Are You Hungering and Thirsting For?

Day 2: On Our Behalf

Day 3: The Foundation of God’s Throne

Day 4: The Glorious Ministry of Righteousness

Day 5: Don’t Worry, It’s Credited

Appendix and Notes

How to Be in Christ

Notes

Preface

Has God become a little farther from you, and does He seem unconcerned? Do you sometimes feel that God is not there when you think He should be there and helping you? Can you still trust God? Do you want to understand God and His character more? Do you have all of these questions? In God’s Got You! A Six-Week Devotional Study on Trusting the Character of God, pastor, author, and Bible teacher Nonie Sables will help you and bring you to a deeper understanding of our God and His character.

This book is a devotional study for the serious student of God’s Word and seeker of who God is and His character. The intention of this devotional study is to help the believers of today understand the attributes and nature of the super God we have. At the end of the journey, the reader will say, God’s got us. This devotional book is not an intense theological study but a practical, devotional type of education. We need to go back to the basics of our faith in God’s character and have it explained simply for the readers to understand the concept without compromising the truth.

The purpose of this book is to cause deep thinking and pondering and to help you see how it’s relevant to you, to individuals you know, and to those of you who are really in a deep search for God. It should help you see how the principles you’ve learned apply to you. To get the most out of the study, try to answer the questions, read the verses provided, and interact by writing your thoughts as the Holy Spirit leads, in addition to what you have discovered from the book. I’m hoping that the format of this devotional book study will encourage you to think, take notes, write, and share. Then, at the end of each day’s lesson, there will be a God’s got you lesson, personal journal space to write your discoveries, and group discussion questions in case you intend to discuss this with a group. I do hope and pray that this study will lead you to great learning and a life-changing journey!

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge our God who called me and gave me the inspiration to express His teachings through writing. It is a ministry for me.

I would like to acknowledge my wife, Emmy, and my children, Kymberlee and Kean, who are supportive and became an inspiration for me to see the different scenarios in our family and ministry life as principles that need to be written down to share what we have learned.

Third, I would like to acknowledge Grace International Christian Fellowship members, who also gave me the inspiration to see our church situation as source principles to be written with the purpose of helping more people within our reach.

I also appreciate everyone who, in one way or another, helped so that this book could be in print and be a source of help, challenge, and inspiration.

Finally, I thank the people from WestBow Press for the opportunity given to me to publish this book, and I appreciate the Author Learning Center for all the things I’ve learned from webinars, articles, podcasts, and all other materials that contributed to my writing this project.

May God use this book to minister and help the readers understand God and His character and lead them to trust Him and say, God’s got us!

Introduction

In the first Superman movie, which came out in the late seventies, Superman was portrayed by the late Christopher Reeves. In one of the scenes where Lois Lane fell, Superman caught her, and their conversation went this way:

Superman: Easy, miss. I’ve got you.

Lois Lane: You—you’ve got me? Who’s got you?¹

This is interesting to me because, as my mind thinks of the world and the society in which we are living today, I can relate that scene to us as Christians and to the God in whom we believe. You see, our world is not in that good of a condition morally, politically, or spiritually. It is degenerating. That fact creates a lot of worries, and it seems to me that people—Christians and non-Christians, are like Lois Lane; they are falling into the ocean of uncertainties and fears that creates worries. Then God—yes, God is real, and more so than Superman—puts us in a human situation that is not necessarily better and is subject to evil things, but it is a better place of assurance and confidence in His hand.

But how can we be in such a place where we Christians can say that God’s got us and have no worries at all? The truth of the matter is that even Christians today are losing their reliance on God. That’s my observation based on my experiences with people in modern churches. But this observation is not just coming from me. In an article written by Avery Foley in November 2014, State of the Church in America,² he noted that there is an alarming trend going on among American churchgoers. He made a comparison by tracing back the beliefs of early Christians in America and the 2014 American Christians. His observed that early American believers had a strong belief in the scriptures as the authority in their lives, but the American churchgoers of today [2014] do not understand what the Bible being God’s word means.³ I agree with Foley.

Our firm belief that God’s got us can be traced back to how firmly we believe and understand that the scripture is the Word of God and is relevant to us today. I have both a personal Christian statement of faith and a denominational statement of faith, being a Baptist, and number one in both declarations of faith is a robust and absolute belief in the scriptures. I will quote from my denomination’s statement of faith on this, and I will explain why it should be number one.

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.⁴

I believe in this statement about the scripture, and since it’s dependable and trustworthy, the Bible should be the basis for all my Christian practice and belief. If this is to be the ultimate basis for my Christian belief and practice, then it follows that I should spend time studying and understanding it before I can practice it. You see, the Bible tells us about God and all of His characteristics and attributes. Also, the Bible tells us of the moral law of God in general and gives specific instructions for Christian living. If one doesn’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God, how can one believe in the God that the Bible is making known to us?

The very reason many modern-day Christian believers are losing their reliance on God is that many of them do not profoundly know God. Why? Because many of them are not inclined to read and understand the scriptures that would reveal the God in whom we believe. Foley was right when he said that many of the present-day believers do not comprehend the Bible as the Word of God.⁵ And that’s the root of the problem. How can we apply something that we don’t fully grasp? The result is that we produce a generation of shallow believers regarding faith and spiritual maturity. We create a crop that is not equipped to pass the truth to their next generation. That’s a very sad reality, and it’s evident nowadays.

Another question is, how can we encourage the people we are evangelizing to put their trust in the God whom these Christians themselves do not fully trust? How can we tell people, Don’t worry! God’s got you, if we are not sure that God’s got us? We are not true believers. There is a need for God’s people to show the unbelieving world that they wholly believe God and that God’s got them in every situation of their lives. Going through this devotional study will be a great help. I hope and pray that God will use this devotional study to help reflect His character. Let us begin our journey!

God’s Sovereignty

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Week 1:

God’s Got You Based on His Sovereignty

This Week’s Study

Day 1: Choosing to Trust

Day 2: God’s Fifty-Twenty Rule

Day 3: God’s Consent

Day 4: Doesn’t Seem Fair!

Day 5: God Never Sleeps nor Slumbers

Week 1: Introduction

If a person hasn’t read the Bible, hasn’t been in church services that often, and hasn’t been involved in a Bible study, cell group discussion, or any discussion about God, religion, and different beliefs, that person will have a hard time understanding the word sovereignty. The same is true with new believers of Jesus Christ who haven’t been in any follow-up lessons. So I will give a simple explanation of what God’s sovereignty is so that, as you go through the daily lessons for this week, you will not be at a loss.

The sovereignty of God refers to His total, complete control of everything because of His mighty power. God is all-powerful. He can orchestrate, see ahead, change hearts and mind-sets, and work through anything without violating the capacity of humans to make a decision. How can God do that? I don’t know. It’s a mystery to me, but I do trust His mighty power. There are certainly things that we, as humans, cannot comprehend about the ways of God. That makes us human and therefore limited, and that’s what makes Him God because He is unfathomable.

If we are going to talk about the sovereignty of God, we don’t have to go far away and do comprehensive research about it. The information is somewhere