pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: trust


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Listen and Be Present

Does our vision ever cloud what God wants us to see and experience?  Does our way of thinking how something should (or shouldn’t) be ever derail the wonderful thing that God is trying to unfold in front of us?  Yes and yes!

In Matthew 16, Jesus tells his disciples about his impending suffering and death.  Peter responds with “Never!”  Peter wants to hang onto the Jesus he has come to know and love over the last three years.  Peter cannot begin to see or understand what God will do through Jesus Christ.  How easy it is to get in the way of God’s plans.  We can be much the same way. We often cannot see the thing that God has in mind, so we try to limit God.

So often in life we want to avoid the uncomfortable when it is precisely where God wants us to be.  When one we know is in the midst of a loss, we want to help them move along and feel better instead of staying in that moment.  In that moment is where we find God’s comfort and hope.  In a difficult situation when one wants to talk about the struggle and the pain and the hurt, we try to move them along to recovery.  Sit, listen, feel where they are at and allow God to enter in and be present with those emotions and thoughts.  In time He will bring healing.  But we must resist our inclination to steer the bus.  Allow God to be in control.

In those times when God is asking us to listen and be present, do just that.  Just listen and be present.  Don’t try to fix things or make one feel better.Just be there and offer yourself to the one in need.  Remember, God is there too.

Scripture reference: Matthew 16: 21-28


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Are You One?

I believe God has a plan for our world.  When one looks at the amazing organization of planet earth, you can see that God is a planner and organizer.  Every single event and choice is not predestined, but God has an intent for how things will unfold.  Sometimes we see our role in His plan, but, more often than not, we don’t see it or at least its after the fact.

The key to being part of God’s plan is to be open to where He places us and to be willing to step into the situations that come before us.  To do this takes courage, boldness, faith, and trust.  God will provide all we need for all situations He places us into.

Like Moses’ sister by the riverside, we need to step into what God places before us.  Our role may be to simply offer kindness or to meet a basic need.  It may be grander or more significant.  That matters not.  God is looking for faithful servants, willing to build His kingdom. Are you one?

Scripture reference: Exodus 1:8-2:10


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He Is Faithul and True

At the end, after we have walked through a difficult time or situation, we often shed tears.  Some are tears of relief, happy that the ordeal has passed.  Some are tears of pain, brought on when we realize what we have been through.  Some are tears of sadness, offering grief for something lost.  And some are tears of joy, grateful for God’s presence, love, and guidance as He walked with us through the event or situation.

Often when we look back we can see God’s hand all over the events that have transpired.  Joseph could look back over his journey from being sold into slavery to his rise to second in command in Egypt and see God at work in his life.  This is what allowed him to offer love, forgiveness, and assistance to the brothers that sold him into slavery.  He could see God’s hand at work and was obedient to where God led him.

Our faith too calls us to be obedient to God.  In times of hardship that may be difficult.  We naturally want to rely on our own abilities and strengths.  Yet it is in these times that God most wants to carry us.  Just like we as parents want to scooop up our child and rescue them when they are struggling or hurting, our heavenly Father desires to do the same.  Through faith and obedience, we can lean into and on our loving Father, for He is also faithful and true.

In Zephaniah 3:17 we read these words of encouragement: “The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Scripture reference: Geneis 45: 9-15


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Faith and Trust

The invitation to Rebekah to go and marry Isaac runs so counter to our culture today.  On a day like every other day, Rebekah goes to the well to draw water.  Only on this day she meets a stranger who asks her to move many miles away to marry a man she has never met.  And she says yes and is married by the end of the chapter.

How clearly Rebekah must have sensed the hand of God at work in the scene playing out.  How in tune with God she must have been!   Her submission to God shows great inner strength.  Her faith in God is of the mountain-moving variety.

On the one hand she is an awesome and inspiring example.  On the other hand, she humbles me when I see how far I fall short of her faith and trust in God.  If someone were to come up to me today and ask me to move away to ‘x’ to help plant a church or to start a mission, I’d falter.  I’d hesitate.  What would you do?

In Psalm 100, we hear what our answer should be: “Know that the Lord, He is God!  It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture.”  We are His.  All we have belongs to Him.  We are in the care of God as we roam His pasture.  May I learn to trust and obey my one and only savior, Jesus Christ!

Scripture reference: Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67


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Hello… remember me?

God is a mighty God who watches over us and cares for us.  He is a powerful, benevolent, and passionate God.  In Psalm 68 we read of God bringing rains of abundance upon His people.  We are blessed today too.

But how often we forget to praise His name for all He is and does for us.  Sometimes we may even start to think that success is because of our efforts and our own hard work.  Possessions start to fill our lives instead of God.

And then reality hits.  Life becomes hard.  A sudden illness, a conflict at work or at home, something to bring us back to the realization that we are not really the one in control.  We come to realize that only God is in control.  It is then that we turn back and say, “Hello God… remember me?”

All we have and all that we are comes from God.  Nothing is outside of God.  May we all learn to thank God each day so that we live always in His holy presence.  May we live this way so that He doesn’t have to say so often, “Hello child… remember me?”


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In His Time

Wait.  Be still now.  Seek Jesus.  Open up.  Listen.  He is faithful.

It is sometimes hard to discern between something we have dreamed up and something God is placing upon our hearts.  We must ask, where is the motivation to do this work coming from?  It may seem to be holy and righteous and goog, but it may not be ordained by God.  So how do we tell?

Prayer is the place to start.  But not just a “Dear God, show me the way.  Amen” type of prayer.  It must be a prayer of stillness, a prayer with all of your ears and heart, a prayer of listening.  A prayer that can be hard because it requires patience and time.

If it is God’s plan He will be faithful.  God will bestow upon you His “power from on high.”  The pieces will fall into place.  As you move into what God is calling you to, the Holy Spirit will fill you with conviction, courage, peace, perseverance, and His love.  He is faithful.  He is just.  He has a plan for you.  Trust in Him.


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God Needs Time

In John 14, Thomas’ concern is so often our concern too – “how can we know the way?”  Jesus’ words of reply show us.  He is the way, the truth, and the life.In my head I know this to be true.  Yet at times I struggle to live this out in my life.  I doubt and question.  I wrestle with God for control of my life.  I want to follow John’s way.  But then I realize that I am insufficient.  God is necessary.

In both weakness and conceit, I need God.  In one to give me strength and in one to humble me.  At all times, God is good.  At all times He gives me just what I need.  It is our task to take in the things God offers at all times.

To be able to do so, we must really know Him.  To know Him requires frequent trips back to the basics – time in the scriptures, bowing in prayer, lifting our voice in praise, serving others.  The list goes on.  All are paths to come to know the way, the truth, and the life.  Faith is a pretty simple thing.  We must give of ourselves – mostly in time – to come to really know the way, the truth, and the life.


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Peaceful Trust

What is the largest crowd you have ever actually been a part of?  Was it at a big arena concert or maybe at a game?  For me it was several years ago in Washington, DC, when I went to be a part of Promise Keeper’s ‘Million Man March’.  I was just one of about a million people gathered there that day.  It was incredible to look out at the sea of humanity and to realize that I was just one part of it.  When I think about that huge group, it pales in comparison to how many people inhabit the earth.  There are now 7,000 people for every one of those million men gathered that day in DC.

Yet God knows, cares for, and loves each of those 7 billion people on the earth.  Do they all love Him back?  No, but that doesn’t matter to God.  He loves them all equally because  they are all His creation.  He loves them all.

It is hard to fathom that despite the fact that we are each just one of seven billion, God loves each and every one of us.  Yes He does!  What a mighty God we serve.

It is because of this great love that we can trust Him with our lives.  His plan for us is so much better than any plan we could muster.  Because God’s steadfast love endures forever, we can trust Him to always have the best in mind for us.  Because His love never fails, we can trust that He will see us through the valleys and will bring us up the other side.  We can trust into God and into Jesus’ words: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)


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Kinda Exciting Out Here

I kinda like being comfortable.  I like it when things are ordered and moving along as planned.  It is nice when things move along smoothly.  Do you like it when things are comfortable and ordered and all seems good?
Yet it is dangerous to live on cruise control.  When we are just cruising down the rut it is sometimes hard to see what is going on outside of our little trench.  And isn’t a little excitement OK sometimes?  Isn’t it invigorating to feel the tension of the unknown or the “what if”?
In John 14 Jesus states that He is the way, the truth, and the life.  To know Jesus is to know God.  It raises the question in my mind: how well do I know Jesus?  Do I really know enough of Him?  Or am I on cruise in my relationship with Jesus?  Or do I read the Word with questions?  How will I know Him better today?  How will this word cause me to grow?  To trust Him more?
No one is ” there” yet.  All of us have room to grow, to know Him better, to trust Him more.  To seek these things brings us to the edge of the unknown.  Step out – it’s kinda exciting out here.


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Strength and Refuge

God is often seen as our strength and our refuge.  We sometimes pray most ardently when life has taken a turn for the worse and when we feel we have nowhere else to turn.  And yes, He  hears our prayers.  Psalm 16:2 reads, “You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing.”  It is important to remember His blessings as we struggle or wrestle with His answer to our prayer.

At times when all is well in our lives, we can drift away from God and come to rely and trust more in ourselves and our own abilities.  We can also look to other things or people as well.  Whether it is self or medical technology or some other earthly power, we are looking to a false idol.  Verse 4 reads, “The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods.”  It is not that God is punishing us for turning to something else for our strength and refuge, it is that we lose that contentment from God being our strength and refuge – during the good and the bad times.  It is just that in the bad times we notice the lacking more.

God is our strength and refuge.  The psalmist assures us that God assigns us our cup and portion and that God keeps us secure.  We are also reminded that in Him we have a ‘delightful inheritance’.  Psalm 20:4 reads, “May God give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.”  May the desire of our hearts be to live fully with God as our strength and refuge!