Trust

Still a Revolutionary Idea!

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On this National Day of Prayer I thought it appropriate to return to where the founders began on July 4, 1776.

“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Declaration of Independence

  • As we pray we must humbly remember that everything we have comes from God
  • As we pray we must believe that God will hear and answer prayer just as he did for the signers of The Declaration of Independence.
  • As we pray we should ask not only for God’s help for us but also for what He would want  us to do to help for others.
  • As we pray we must always remember that we are His creation and that without Him nothing else matters. No prosperity will ever be enough, no success can be final and no joy will last unless we put our trust in Him.

In God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 56:11

On this 7th of May in 2020 in the middle of the Corona Virus Pandemic, it continues to be true that trusting God is still a revolutionary idea!

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Confessing Your Fears

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I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears.  Psalm 34:4

A pastor of mine once had a job working on steel towers hundreds of feet tall. He talked with me one day about the process of training that men went through to be able to join the crew. One phrase that he often said was, “Any man who says he isn’t afraid is a liar!” I believe that King David would have agreed with my pastor. He didn’t try convincing God that he was courageous. David’s response to the fear that he felt was to cry out to the Lord. He knew that God already knew that he was terrified. He wasn’t trying to fool God or anyone else. David knew of only one place to go and that was to his knees! Like a child shouting for his father’s help David unhesitatingly cried to God. Just as you will never convince a child not to cry out when hurt, so we need to know that God is not putting us to the test to see how much pain we can withstand.

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The entire mission of Jesus Christ while on earth was summed up in a single word, “Immanuel” He is God with us. He willing came to Bethlehem to be with us. He willingly was rejected by his own people, even at times by his own family so we would never have to be alone. Jesus knows the fact that we have lived all of our lives in fear of death. Jesus came to bring us life, not to tell us to keep a stiff upper lip. Admitting ours fears to God is nothing to be ashamed of; in fact it is our first step towards courage!

 

Counting the Joy

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Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James 1:2 ESV

We had gotten used to Disney being closed and resigned to the fact that even beaches were shut down. That was soon followed by restaurants, my barber shop and finally even our church. But the reality of this verse didn’t kick in for me till yesterday when I discovered that there were no cases of any kind of water at Publix and the clerk didn’t know when it would come in.

Like the surprise of a sunrise streaking across the horizon I suddenly realized that nothing was in my control. It has become popular to say that we are all in this together. But our togetherness is kind of like being in the same waiting room each awaiting our individual surgery. One by one God is operating on our hearts through new and different trials. The good news is that He is not only a Good Shepherd -He is also a great surgeon! We can count the procedure we are facing as joy because we know that in the recovery room He will tell us that the operation was a success!