Trust Test

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the peace of God guarding my heart and mind as I trust Him. Well, this week was my test of trust in this promise from God. When the doctor calls at 6:30 PM and leaves a message to call the next day you get to spend a whole night wondering what could be wrong.

Then with several miss-communications and a possible surgery thrown in for good measure, I was left with the choice to stand by The Word or eat my words. 

I must say that the trust issue was thrown at me several times. Thankfully and shakily, I put the guard of God’s peace over my heart and especially my mind. And I didn’t try to think of all the diseases I could have. It turned out that the doctor had a good diagnosis for me but I think that it was all a design to see if I will really stand by what the Bible says.

King David of the Old Testament wrote a lot about trusting in God’s protective hand in the Psalms. He was pursued by armies of the King who were commanded to kill him. When he said he trusted in God to protect him, he really did have to trust. He had enemies that threatened his life daily so he had to trust daily.

In Psalm 9:10 David wrote; “Those who know Your name trust You, O Lord, because you have never deserted those who seek your help.

It means:

·         Those who clearly understand  from experience

·         And know God by everything we can know about His character and reputation

·         Trust and submit with confident security for our well-being according to His plan

·         In a Holy God who is in charge of overseeing our lives

·         Because we know that He has never ever failed us, never ever let go of us, and never ever left anything undone

·         So we can urgently inquire and search for His protection in all situations

That is a confident trust. That is the trust we should have as we go through our lives encountering all kinds of what we would call “enemies.”

And sometimes we will get the little trust test. We don’t have to be blindfolded and fall backwards into the hands of mere co-workers. We get to fall into the hands of the God of creation who is holding everything together and still cares about each of us individually.

I passed the trust test this time.

If I stay submitted to His care

I can pass the test the next time too.

Like David, I trust the Lord God who has never ever let go of me.

All Of This Brings You Glory

I have been going along in life pretty secure that I’m supposed to glorify God. It is the chief end of man – To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I learned that and agree with that creed.

But I was a little “iffy” on what exactly that meant carried out in my daily life. I can find scriptures that glorify God, I can sing songs that glorify God, and I can pray prayers that Glorify God. I just didn’t know how to carry out my day glorifying God without the things I just listed. How does one make toast and glorify God? How does one go through a work day glorifying God? Do I sleep glorifying God? I don’t mean to sound trite and sarcastic. Really, I don’t.  I don’t want to make light of my chief end. I just wasn’t very clear on how to produce the product even though I knew what the product should be. I knew how to do it but not how to be it.

This all was brought about by a chance observation by My Pastor Wade in one of his sermons and a song we are learning for our choir Christmas presentation. My Pastor Wade said we should be teaching this catechism to our children. One of our Christmas songs (In The Highest by David Moffitt, Sue C. Smith, and Krissy Nordhoff) states:

God of wonder, God of light,

King who welcomes shepherds in,

You have cried the tears we cry, and You have walked where we have been.

Battered by this world of woe, we come weak and we come scarred,

Clinging to this simple hope that You will take us as we are.

And all of this brings You glory.

Cry? Walking? Battered? Weak? Scarred? This brings Glory to God? And how will we teach our children to cope with these things as they glorify God?

 So off to my research library I went.

The great missionary, Andrew Murray, wrote, “How can we glorify God? We cannot add to His glory or bring Him new glory. But we can simply allow His glory to shine through us by yielding ourselves to Him, that His glory may manifest itself in us and through us to the world.”

OK, I daily, hourly, minutely (is that a word?) submit to the heavenly Father’s plan for me. I yield to His will not mine. I get that. That clears up the dailiness of glorifying God. That’s gonna be tough to do but it is required. His glory should shine through us to the watching world.

1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought with a price (*Christ Jesus paid it with His earthly life): therefore (*honor, value, and submit to Him as God, Savior, and Lord) glorify Him in your body, and in your spirit (*with all of your substance), which are God’s. (*a command, not an option)

*The comments are mine.

John MacArthur says, “That’s the meaning of existence. God made us because He wanted to display His glory. We are display windows from which God wants to reveal His glory to the world as they pass by us.”

(I can explain that to kids. We are a window. When people look in our window they should see God in all of His Glory. So we must keep our window clean. I can even visually illustrate this. Whew.)

We are to live with conscious and even unconscious commitment to being His display window. When people watch us living our lives, they recognize that we are pointing to a God we trust absolutely and believe in wholeheartedly.

So we live, walk, cry, laugh, fall down, get up, sing, make toast, work, and play.

And all of this is aimed at glorifying God.

And all of this brings Him Glory.

My Personal Security Guard

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:6-7

I was watching a mega-pastor on TV last week. His sermon was about guarding your heart. He gave all the ways his congregation should guard their hearts. I’m sure his people left thinking, “I’m going to guard my heart this coming week!” I was left thinking, “I haven’t done a very good job of guarding my heart, mind, and life so far. I’m not too sure I can follow all of this pastor’s directives without some help. I need some help with this because I’m pretty sure I can’t do this by myself.” I felt vulnerable and insecure. I felt left out there in this “cruel world” alone.

When I studied Philippians 4:6 and 7 and dug around in the verses I found (thank you, Jesus) that I have help. I don’t have to take the full responsibility of guarding my heart and mind. I don’t have to feel like the world is pounding me and I have to be “Rocky” and fight back all by myself. I have my own personal security guard.

My body guard is the peace of God. While this doesn’t sound like a very strong protector in our language (it made me think of the “peace, love” hippie movement) nothing could be farther from the real interpretation. This guard over the Christian’s thoughts and being is a military sentinel who actively dispenses whatever defensive or offensive fight techniques that are required to protect me.

Suddenly I feel secure. I feel safe. I have peace within whatever outward troubles may besiege my life. This is a divine peace in the middle of the warfare in my life.

I was asked to pray for a family that is really going through a “war” situation. While I felt helpless in their seemingly hopeless situation these verses kept resounding in my heart. In Christ Jesus this family and I can let our request be made known to our wonderful loving Father. And where we feel vulnerable to whatever is thrown at us, we have our personal security guard to take over. God will guard our heart, thoughts, feelings, and yearnings with His peace. It’s a force field around us.

Now that is protection.

I don’t face this awful stuff alone.

I am secure from any hostile attack.

I have peace from God Himself.

I have peace in Christ Jesus.

That is my personal body guard.

Stay

My neighbor is training a puppy for a family with two little girls. The puppy’s new family is so excited to have this addition as long as the dog is trained. Well Fancy (that’s the dog’s name) has got a long way to go before she will be ready to follow the rules of her new household. She has become quite the escape artist. She has found numerous ways to get under or through my neighbor’s fence. And she doesn’t come back every time you call her yet. 

She has learned a few things though. I found her down the street the other day and called and called and every time got near her she would run some more. But when I said, “Fancy, stay.” she sat immediately down and didn’t move. She got that one rule right. Fancy let me pick her up and carry her home. She knows “stay.”

Stay is what Jesus asks us to do and like Fancy we have a little trouble with it sometimes.

John 15:9-10

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

Abide (stay) in my love.

If you keep My commandments,

you will abide (stay) in My love.

Yes, we need to be trained to follow the word of God and stay there. If we truly love our Lord we will keep His commands. And if we stay and follow His commands we will love Him more and see His love for us.

Sometimes we are the escape artists. We stray away from obeying God’s word. We know the right thing to do but we want to have it our own way. We can get into all kinds of trouble (like Fancy.) And it won’t be as much fun as we thought. Yes, Fancy has been stung by a wasp, scratched her tender little tummy, and almost hit by a car on her escape adventures. But Fancy will learn that she will be loved and cared for if she just stays obedient. And if we learn to obey the same will be true for us.

This sounds so cutesy doesn’t it? But it really hurts me to see how far some Christians will go to justify sin. They know they are living in disobedience and they seem not to care. I’ve even heard several people say, “Yes, I know God said not to do this but it makes me happy. Doesn’t God want me to be happy?”  That is not cutesy. And it’s not funny or cute when we choose to go against what God has said in His word. And it’s not going to keep you or me happy to continue living in known sin. OK that’s all I’m going fuss.

Our father God has given these instructions in his word so that we may have joy. And when Fancy has learned how to obey she will have a family that will love her dearly and she will be happy.

John 15: 11

These things have I spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

I want all the joy that Jesus can give to me.

I want the full allotment.

And you and I can have it all from God if we will just

STAY