Trust

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Stormy Weather

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“In the end I chose to let Him love me and then chose to trust that love.”  – Peter *

Sometimes life is stormy. And when the storm comes, we usually struggle for awhile, then we pray, asking God to stop the wind and relieve our pain.

Instead, maybe the scenario should be more like this:

Think of yourself in a big wooden boat with Jesus – just the two of you. He looks at the sky and tells you a storm is coming, it’s time to go down into the hold. You remember that He did that when He was with the disciples, so you follow Him gladly.

Once there, a ferocious storm breaks out. You are afraid and are being thrown from one side of the boat to the other. Panicking, you ask Him to calm the storm like He did before. He doesn’t seem to respond. But He reaches out, pulls you gently toward Him and holds you so you are no longer being tossed about.

Then He speaks quietly, “The storm will pass, but I am not going to stop it from running its course. Instead, we’re going to stay here together. With Me you will be safe. And when it’s all over, you will trust Me more. The kind of trust I want you to have can grow only in the storm.”

Can we trust Him to take us through the storm? To hold us close when it’s darkest? To love us enough to do the right thing for us at the right time? We can. We learn that in the storm.

“We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name.” – Psalm 33:20-21

 *From The Fisherman by Larry Huntsperger

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A Very Short Prayer

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“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” – James 5:16b

Lazarus was sick. His sisters were worried, maybe even frantic. They sent word to the One they knew could help – a simple message, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

Why is this such a great prayer?

First, it relied on Jesus’ relationship with their brother. They didn’t doubt Jesus’ deep love for Lazarus.

Second, they didn’t tell Him how to answer. They seemed to know He would do the right thing. They grew anxious waiting, but when Jesus did respond, His action in raising Lazarus from the dead was beyond their wildest imaginations.

Do you have a friend or family member you want to pray for today? I do.

What if we simply picture that person in our minds and say something like this: “Lord, this one whom You love is sick” (or depressed, angry, lonely, in need, hurting).

Then let’s pause for a few minutes in God’s presence reflecting on the pain of the person we are praying for and consciously trusting God’s extravagant love for him/her.

Allow God to assure you that He will answer in a way that will meet this person’s deepest, perhaps unexpressed, needs.

A prayer like this is effective for these reasons:

  • Empathy:  We enter into the suffering of the people we pray for by holding them in our minds as we call to Jesus on their behalf.
  • Belief: We exercise open-ended faith by entrusting them to Jesus’ care without telling Him how we think He should answer.
  • Expectancy: We enjoy time in God’s presence and then walk in anticipation as we wait for Him to respond.

“Make me so obedient to Your Spirit that my life may become a living prayer, and a witness to Your unfailing presence.” – Martin Israel  

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Distracted

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“Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as one of these.” – Matthew 6:28b-29

Lord, what is it that distracts me when I sit in silence before You? Today it is what I am going to wear and, for later, what am I going to serve for our guests. Can you believe it? I am in Your presence at Your gracious invitation. I want to be with You and, yet, I am thinking of food and clothing, things that don’t matter at all.

So now, in Your presence, I take off my sandals for I am on holy ground. I remove that which attaches me to earth – thoughts about the daily stresses and concerns. Instead, I stand with bare feet and open heart waiting for You to fill my deepest needs.

  • Make me like a lily of the field who displays beauty that only You can give.
  • Make me like a bird of the air who gratefully receives the food You provide.
  • Make me, as Your daughter, totally dependent on You for every detail of my life.

Then I can look to You alone and not be distracted by the superficial, the earthly, the transient. I yield to Your transformation in my life. Amen.

“Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.” – Charles Spurgeon

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Peace Carriers

“Blessed are the peacemakers.” I used to think this was about dignitaries who negotiated ends to wars, counselors who sought conflict resolution between fighting parties, or mothers who settled arguments between their children.

But I am beginning to see peacemaking in an entirely different way. Maybe it means, in part, carrying such a deep quietness within ourselves, that an atmosphere of peace is with us wherever we go.

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“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” – Isaiah 26:3

How can we carry peace in our demeanor, our conversations, and our relationships? Only one way: By being totally, completely connected to God. By living in a trust relationship with Him, letting Him carry our burdens and direct our steps. By talking to Him, listening for direction, then calmly doing the next right thing.

If we become peace carriers, we will find these things to be true over time:

  • We project a quiet confidence.
  • The room becomes calmer when we enter it.
  • People feel emotionally safe with us.
  • Our peace draws others to Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Peace carriers stand out in the stressful world around us. Many people we know live in a constant state of anxiety. Maybe we can show them, even if just a little bit, the unexplainable, but amazing, peace that comes from knowing and following God.

“Live and abide in My words so others will feel safe in My presence.” – Macrina Wiederkehr

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What Kind of God is He?

"Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning." - Psalm 30:5b

“Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” – Psalm 30:5b

You know that God is able to solve the problem you face, don’t you? Then why doesn’t He? What kind of God could answer your prayers if He wanted to, but just doesn’t do it?

Often our first thought is that He must not want to help. The problem with that answer is that it is not consistent with what we read about God in the Bible. We are told that He created us for His pleasure, He loves us, and He wants only the best for us. When Jesus was on earth, He faithfully showed His compassion and mercy.

The best answer? He has a God-sized purpose for us – one that cannot become reality if He answers our prayers the way we pray them. Instead, He envisions a weaving together of our lives and others, of today’s circumstances and future good, of His mercy and our dependence.

The best path? Keep praying and believe that His plans are always for our good.

The best part? As we pray, He assures and reassures us that He’s with us in the middle of the sickness, the pain, the storm of life – right beside us, arms around us, whispering words of love into our ear. I have found that whatever I am going through, there is nothing more satisfying than sensing at my deepest core that He is there. As I think about that, I realize that He is answering my prayers in the best way possible. So thankful . . .

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas

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Pray or Bail?

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“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways”, declares the Lord. – Isaiah 55:8

When the storm came and Jesus was asleep, the disciples woke Him up, almost accusing Him of slacking (Mark 4:35-41). After all, He was snoozing while they were frantically trying to save their boat and their lives. As they roused Him, what do you think they expected Him to do? I imagine they handed Him a bucket and yelled, “Help us bail!”

He had a better idea. He simply ordered the storm to cease. It seems that Jesus was operating under a different paradigm than His disciples were. He still is.

We tend to tackle our problems in ways that seems so logical, so appropriate given our circumstances. If we just work more frantically, try harder, or grit our teeth, we can manage somehow.

But Jesus has a better way. His ways of approaching the troubles of our lives are beyond our ability to imagine. That’s why there are times when we should stop bailing long enough to go find Jesus and ask Him to work on our behalf or to show us His better way of handling the mess we are in.

If we believe God will respond to our needs only in ways we can imagine, we will doubt. If we simply let God be God, we will have faith. Doubt is condemned. Faith is rewarded. We get to choose. Do we turn to Him? Do we trust Him?

“God is hanging on to you. He’s not waiting for you to save yourself and mature into someone who no longer needs Him. He will not let you go, come what may.” – Tullian Tchividjian

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Cracked

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“For God . . . made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” – 2 Corinthians 4:6

I’m cracked. Really cracked. I have lived enough years now to look back on my life and recognize the bumps along the way that have caused cracks.

Some came as a result of bad decisions I made, others because of decisions other people made that hurt me in some way. Some are there because of my own sinfulness and failures. Many cracks came just because I live in a broken, sinful world and bad stuff happens to us all.

No matter how those cracks got there, I live with them. They are part of me now. That seemed like a sad thought until I realized the cracks are the places in my life where God was able to reach me, to teach me, to remold me, and to fill me with His light.

With that understanding, being cracked is not so bad. The light has to get in before it can shine out! Cracks allow both.

“Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That’s how the light gets in.” 

I have a feeling that you are cracked, too. Let’s thank God for the experiences in our lives that allow His light to come in. Our cracks make us unique light-givers in God’s gallery of broken, but usable, vessels!

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” – 2 Corinthians 4:7

  • Quote from Leonard Cohen
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Trust Happens

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“Gratitude is the heart’s memory.” – Anonymous proverb

One day I was fussing around trying to get everything done, worrying about this and that – just restless, I guess. I felt the Holy Spirit’s nudge: “Don’t you have something you want to thank Me for?” Of course I did. I stopped my whirlwind and gave Him thanks for several things that came immediately to mind. As soon as I did, I felt my spirit move from restless to restful. It was amazing.

So what really happened? God’s reminder to thank Him was not for His benefit, it was for mine. A gratefulness pause made me realize all that God does for me every day and how much He must love me to remind me of that even when I was “toiling and spinning” like the biblical lilies of the field. Recognizing His character, His faithfulness, and His consistent drawing of me to Himself helped me to trust Him even in the middle of what felt like chaos.

Trusting is not an act of the will. Rather, it is an emotion that grows out of a confident relationship with God as we discover that He loves, protects, teaches, and rescues us – and has been doing it for years. Even brief moments of remembering His never-failing consistency nurtures the emotion of trust in my spirit. Over time, I am finding that trust is more often my first response to struggle instead of my second, third, or fourth.

Maybe we need to stop telling ourselves to trust God and, instead, start realizing who He is and what He does for us. As we make gratefulness a habit, trust happens. Understanding that has made a big difference for me. It can for you, too. Don’t you have something to thank Him for right now?

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him.” – Jeremiah 17:7

 

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God’s Surprises

I retired once after a long and interesting business career. A few years after that retirement, I was invited to go back to work to help shape an online education program for training students in Bible, ministry, and Christian leadership.

“God give me hills to climb and strength for climbing.” – Arthur Guiterman

After a few energetic years in that role, I sensed that God was ready for me to hand over the leadership to someone else. I stepped away, but with mixed emotions. I had given three years of focused commitment to a particular ministry and it was no longer mine to lead. Now what?

Then I read about Jesus and His disciples. Many had left their livelihoods, homes, and families to follow Him. They put all their trust in Him and His plan for the world in which they lived. They gave him three years of focused commitment. Then He was killed and everything changed. Now what?

I can imagine reading their minds that Friday night: “After all this, I guess my life will just go back to ‘normal’. That’s going to be hard after the events of the past few years.” They would have had that right. How do you go back to “normal” after three amazing years with Jesus? What a surprise awaited them on Sunday morning – they had not counted on resurrection. They had no idea what their new “normal” would now mean!

My own post-career ‘I guess my life will just go back to normal’ thoughts were there, too, but God’s loud and clear message to me was this: “Don’t ever presume you know what your life will be like. There is always a new normal on the horizon. I have plans that include surprises – like resurrection!”

Isn’t that exciting? As we go through today, let’s live in anticipation of God’s surprises. He is not finished with us yet!

“. . . I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5

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Stressed or Blessed?

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“A perfect faith would lift us absolutely above fear.” – George MacDonald

The question haunted me: How could I say I was living a life of faith when I was anxious so much of the time?  I began to ask God to deliver me from worry and grow my faith in His character and His Word. As He answers my request, here is what I am learning:

• Listen first.
Before I pray, I listen to God in order to try to understand His will in the matter I am concerned about. Then I pray a prayer that, to the best of my ability, is in keeping with His will. Partnering with God this way engenders faith.

• Pray boldly.
I try to ask honestly and boldly for what I need from God and what I have discerned He wants to give me. No more wimpy prayers.

• Testify confidently.
When God answers my prayers, I share the good news with others. My faith nurtures theirs and their faith nurtures mine.

• Respond thankfully.
Whether my faith is big or small, I commit to giving God the all the credit and praise for what He does.

• Persevere patiently. 
My faith is growing, but I have far to go.  So, I remain committed to following God’s faith-building plan and am thrilled with every evidence of progress.

And, here’s the good news: I am finding that worry and faith cannot exist in my mind at the same time. If I worry, faith disappears. If I exercise faith, worry flees. I get to choose which of the two I want to live with. By God’s grace, I am learning to choose faith and my life is changing gradually from anxious to peaceful. Yours can, too. Ask Him to help you grow your faith in Him. That is a prayer He is eager to answer!

“So not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7)