pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: trust


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Blessings, Providence, and Giving

God brought the Hebrew people out of long years of slavery and oppression and into a land flowing with milk and honey.  It was a drastic change for the people.  They would clearly remember how God had directly intervened to free them, to protect them, and to deliver this new land into their hands.  So when they are asked to bring a portion of their first fruits to God each season, as a way to say thank you, they gratefully follow the instructions.

As we fast forward to today, we in modern cultures have lost the sense of gratitude for God’s direct provision.  All that most of us have is not based on the crops and animals that grow.  We do not see the dry seeds that spring to life or witness the miracle of birth out in the fields.  It can be harder to see God’s hand directly involved in many of the jobs and professions today.  Adding to this distancing are society’s messages about hard work and individuality, the paths to success.

In reality though, God is still an active part of everything.  If we really dig down deep, it was God who formed each of us in the womb and it has been His hand of guidance and providence that has led us, brought opportunities our way, opened doors for us, gifted us with the talents and skills to succeed, and so on.  If we daily acknowledge these things before God, we are much more willing to gratefully follow His instructions on giving.

When we give the first fruits of our labor, we are saying we trust God.  To give that part right at the beginning says we trust His blessings and providence to see us through to the end of the month.  It is a grateful and trusting act of obedience and faith.  It is admitting that all we have is truly His anyway.  May our offerings to God reflect our heartfelt appreciation for all of His blessings and providence in our lives.

Scripture reference: Deuteronomy 26: 1-11


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Temptations

Jesus was led out into the wilderness after being baptized and receiving God’s personal claim and blessing.  He must have felt pretty good heading out into the desert.  After forty days without food, Satan comes to test Jesus.  Did Satan wait so long hoping that Jesus would forget His baptism experience or so that He was physically weak from the lack of food?  It was probably both.

Doesn’t Satan do the same thing with us?  The tempter knows his game well.  It is just when we are upset with our spouse or best friend that he reminds us of that little idiosyncracy that really bothers us.  It is just when stress at work is at its highest when Satan sends the boss or someone else to add “just one more thing” to the list.  It is just when we are worried most about finances that the unexpected bill arrives.

Jesus was tempted by Satan with three things: food to satisfy His hunger, power to rule over others, and to place self above God or to test God.  All of us have physical needs that must be met.  After forty days without food Satan’s offer would have been hard to resist.  Power is a universal temptation.  All of us like to have power, to be in control.  For each of us the level we desire varies.  The last temptation is the most personal to Satan and perhaps to us as well.  It is why Satan fell from heaven.  Satan wanted to be equal to God.  For me it is not so much about being equal to God but I sometimes question if He loves me as much as He says.  Satan here is tempting Jesus to question that love as well and to test God’s love.  To test God, to question the relationship is to show doubt, to say maybe I do not fully believe you God.  It is the first crack in the armor.

I wrestle often with power, with the need to be in control.  This is a frequent battle.  At times, I also question God.  It is my way of testing that love.  For me, these two struggles are closely related.  When I catch myself doing these things, I repent and am reminded again of God’s great love, mercy, and grace.  This day may I walk closely with You, my God and King.

Scripture reference: Luke 4: 1-13


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In Our Trials

After a couple of underachieving semesters at college, I found myself dismissed from school.  Poor decisions on my part left me with a choice to make.  I could sit in my pity pot and cast blame all around me or I could move forward.  My choice was to attend community college and reapply to the university.  It was both a humbling and necessary experience in my life.

In Isaiah 43 God tells us, “Do not fear, I have redeemed you… you are mine.”  The chapter goes on to tell us that as the waters rise to overtake us and as the fires try to consume us, do not fear because God is with us.  In our struggles and in our times when we have to experience something unpleasant, we must remember that God call us by name, that He has already redeemed us, and that He is always with us.

Perhaps your trial is yet to come or perhaps there are another trial or two yet to come in your life.  Maybe your trial was not with college but was found in words such as “I want a divorce” or “We did eveything we could, but…” or in something equally traumatic.  There are and will be points in our lives when we all will have a choice to make.  Will we allow the event or the circumstances to define us or will we call on our heavenly Father and place our trust in Him?

In our trials, we must remember to claim our identity as a beloved child of God.  As the water rises or as the fire laps at us, we must remember that God does not want us to fear but to trust in Him instead.  The trials are real and they will come, but if we choose God, the fires will only refine us; they do not define us.  In our trials, may we cast all of our fears on Him and lean into God’s loving and protecting arms.

Scripture reference: Isaiah 43: 1-7


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When We Pray

Paul calls on us as believers to rejoice always, to allow our love or gentleness to show to everyone, and to not worry about anything.  Always, everyone, anything are pretty complete and all-encompassing.  When I look at my life, I realize I fail in all three.  I can and do rejoice in the Lord often, but not always.  I try to let me love and gentleness show to all people, but not to everyone all the time.  I tend not to worry very often, but I do at times.

For some, one or more of these areas are struggles as well.  For example, a lot of people worry.  We worry about health, terrorism, finances, family, decisions, jobs, and so on.  Worry can be a consuming emotion.  Paul’s answer to those who worry or don’t rejoice always or fail to show God’s love all the time?  Prayer.

Paul suggests that we “take it all to the Lord in prayer.”  Again, one of those absolutes: all.  Not just some of the things we struggle with, but all that is on our hearts and minds, both the good and the bad.  Time in prayer shifts the focus from us to God.  Time in prayer builds our trust and reliance on God and His activity instead of on our own efforts.  Prayer also reminds us of God’s absolute love for us and His constant presence in our lives.  Lastly prayer acknowledges that we must trust God with our lives.

When we pray and focus on all we have to rejoice over in our lives, somehow our worries seem less.  When we come to realize how much God loves and cares for us, His love seems to flow to of us and into others.  May we learn to take it all to God in prayer.  May we learn to trust in His steadfast love for us.  Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you.

Scripture reference: Philippians 4: 4-7


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Thank You God

Thank you God!  Today is a day when we give thanks to God for His many blessings.  We are grateful to be with friends and family and to gather together in fellowship over the meal.  We are thankful for all of our material and physical blessings as well – for job and home and other possessions.  We are richly blessed and it is good to give thanks to our provider.

We are most deeply blessed, though, by our relationship with the living God.  In God we find our Savior and our hope.  Like Job, all we have can fall away, yet we can still count ourselves blessed because we know God and God knows us.  Although hard times will come, we can trust in God in the midst of and through these difficulties.  God is faithful and true.

I am most thankful for His love and mercy.  In my humanity I stumble and I sin.  In these times my love for God fails.  But His love never fails.  In these times, when I repent and seek God again, His mercies flow down upon me like a powerful rain, washing me clean, making me new, drawing me back into that relationship again.  Thank you God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 25: 1-10


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As Your Child

So often we want to be who we are not.  At times we long to be more that we are or we long for more than we have.  At other times we seek to be less – to not be in the spotlight, to not be in that situation, or to have a little time and space to just breathe and to rest.  Being content with who we are and where we are can be a struggle.

We can also struggle in our role in our relationship with God.  All too often, if not most of the time, I want to be the one in control.  In the deep corners of my heart and mind I really do know that God is the one who is in control.  Yet I have a hard time yielding up all of my life.  In general I am obedient but am not fully obedient.  In almost all ways I trust God but I don’t quite offer all up to Him.

Through Jesus, God demonstrated what it looks like to live as a human fully obedient to and wholly trusting in God.  But this is such a tough example o live up to.  Jesus loved everyone.  To all who came to Him, to allHe encountered, and even to those who challenged or condemned Him – Jesus loved them.  Jesus met everyone right where they were at and did not judge.  He simply ministered to them right where they needed it.  For me it is so hard to enter into a relationship and to serve another without somehow judging them or their situation.

Lord, bring me humility.  Lord, bring me a purer love for my brothers an sisters.  This day may as live and love as Your child, as Your witness of Christ in the world, bringing You all the honor and glory.

Scripture reference: Revelation 1: 4b-8


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Her Offering

It is a challenge to be content, to trust, to be obedient.  The world tells us we need a bigger house, a better body, a higher title.  It tells us we need recognition and to rise above everyone else.  These are the attitude Jesus points out in the teachers of the law.  They do much for show.  Then He goes on to observe the offering box in the temple.  Many with much come along and drop in their offering.  He makes no judgment but only offers that it is easy for the wealthy to give out of their excess.

Then along comes the widow who puts in two small copper coins.  “Such a tiny offering” the teachers of the law, the wealthy, and the disciples observe.  We would have too.  But then Jesus notes this is all she had to live on.  All.  Oh.  What trust in God to do such a thing!  True, but it is more.  It is the joy of giving.  It is sacrificing so another can have some.  It is being obedient.  Just imagine for a moment gathering all you have – all your money – and giving it to the church.  All the money you had.

What would it have taken for this widow to do such a thing?  What would it take for me?  To be honest my faith is a long way from this widow’s.  We may pray to the Spirit to guide us, but we have our limitations.  There are things we hold back.  This poor widow is a tough example to follow.  But one worth striving to be more like.  Make me a  willing giver of all I have to offer Lord.  Help me to abandon self for You.

Scripture reference: Mark 12: 38-44


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Part of God’s Story

Jeremiah 29:11 promises us that God has plans for each of us, plans for good.  God also allowed free will into the world so we each have the choice to live into God’s plans or to follow our own plans.  For any of us, we seek to live our lives as a child of God but we also venture down our own roads from time to time.  As we mature and grow in our faith, we learn to stay attuned to God’s plans and purposes for our lives more and more of the time.

The Bible, or God’s story, is filled with ordinary people doing small things to remain faithful who are used in extraordinary ways.  Today’s story features two widows and a farmer.  Through their simple acts of self-giving love they become part of the lineage of Jesus.  Another story features a shepherd boy, the youngest in the family, who slays the giant and eventually becomes king.  One of my favorites is about the fishermen, tax collector, .. who become the disciples and come to change the world forever.  Each of these ordinary people became part of God’s story and are a part of our story as well.

God also calls each of us to be a part of His ongoing story.  Each and every day God brings before us opportunities to serve others with self-giving love and to share our story with others.  Sometimes the small things we do or the little pieces of our story that we share make a big difference in another’s life.  Many times we do not know about this affect or impact.  At other times the whisper of the Holy Spirit is harder to hear or we find it easier to ignore.  We must be attuned to the whispers and nudges and must seek to live into the will of God.  We must be open to those whispers and nudges even when our first reaction is to ignore them or to think, ‘Really?’  The Lord requires of us the same things  he did of Naomi, Ruth, Boaz, David, te disciples… – trust and obedience.  We must remember that God has us each in the palm of His hand.  Lord, make us willing and obedient to the call to be your loving servant today.

Scripture reference: Ruth 3: 1-5 and 4:13-17


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An Act of Praise

“I will praise the Lord all my life.” (Psalm 146, verse 2a)

We find this line at the beginning of Psalm 146, one of the “Hallelujah” psalms.  Each of the last five psalms in the book focus on the idea of praising the Lord.  It is a great way to end the book of Psalms.  In verse 2a the psalmist pledges to praise God all of the time.  This too should be our pledge.

How would our daily life and perspective on life change if we really did live in a state of constant praise to our God?  How would our life look if all we did was bring praise and glory to God?  I imagine our witness would be quite different!  If we lived and breathed a constant praise to God, imagine how our light would shine!

We are created to live this way, implanted with the spark of the divine since our conception.  God’s desire is for us to reflect His light and love all of the time, not just in church for an hour or just when we are with our church friends.

To live as a constant praise to God requires some choices.  First, we must fully trust in Him as our all in all – our provider, comforter, healer, creator, …  Second, we must actively thank God for all of the blessings in our daily lives.  In doing so we reinforce that God is really our all.  From this deep well of trust and thanksgiving, may we pour out our lives today and every day as an act of praise to our God and King!

Scripture reference: Psalm 146


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Hold Onto God

A famine at home forced the family of four to move to a foreign land.  They left behind their kin, the culture they knew, their faith base, and all else that mattered to find food.  The family made the move to survive, to be in a better situation.

In smaller ways we do this all the time.  We make a little change here or there seeking to be happier, healthier, or somehow better off.  Sometimes we too make larger changes.  Maybe you have moved to a new city or state or even country to have a better ‘opportunity’.  If you have done this, you can relate to this family – strangers in a foreign land.

Just as they were getting settled, the father dies. The mother at least has her two sons.  They each eventually marry a foreign woman.  The sons are happy and the possibility of grandchildren may some day bless her life.  Slowly the foreign land becomes les foreign as they learn the ways and begin to put down roots.  Ten years later, no grandkids.  Both boys die.  She is left with just two daughters-in-law.  And more pain and loss.

Perhaps a change you have made did not work out either.  Maybe the job wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  Maybe something outside of your control changed your situation too.  Maybe like you, this woman found herself in a tight spot.  Virtually alone in a foreign land, she turned to her foundation, to God.  In Him she laid her trust.  In Him she laid her future.  Although tragic to this point, it is just the beginning of her story.  In the end it is a story of God’s blessings.  Hold onto God.  He wants to bless you too.

Scripture reference: Ruth 1: 1-5