Tag Archives: trust

Trust

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(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday)

A lesson I’ve been learning again is how to trust.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Paul’s request for us to not worry in Philippians 4:6-7. He gives a great alternative – pray. When we worry, we bring the problems into our own court and say to God, “I can handle this one.” When we pray, we’re giving that worry (or those worries) to Him and saying, “You are the only one who can handle this. So I’m giving it to you!”

When I was a kid learning to swim, I realized that if I fought the water, it would not hold me up. I’d panic and end up sucking in lots of water through my nose and thrash wildly and start to cry. But when I relaxed and let the water lift me up, I could start to glide through the water.

But trusting in God to lift us up in the swimming pool of life is not a call for us to be lazy. Jesus told a parable about talents. The master rewarded the servant who made the most use of the resources he was given. The one who sat back and did nothing was punished. Notice that he worried. He was concerned about losing the resources he was given, so he buried it. He was so focused on himself and his perceived limitations that he didn’t step back to think about what could be done.

Back to Philippians. After telling us to pray, Paul tells us how to pray. Two things: tell God what we need and then thank Him for all He has already done. What a great way to have a positive outlook! If we reflect on what God has done, we’ll remember that He can rescue us. Again.

The reason trusting is on Paul’s mind is that he has just launched a new consulting firm, Greener Grass Media. He can help you with social media, marketing and website visual design, just like he’s helped Jon with some design projects. 

letting him into the boat

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The disciples spent a lot of time on the water.  Several of them fished professionally. There were sudden storms and bad fishing days but that was part of the job. It was annoying, but it was life.

Until Jesus.

With Jesus around, with their decision to follow him, to be part of his entourage, they needed to figure out what life meant. On this particular night, Jesus wasn’t with them as they rowed the boat into the wind.

They had spent the past several days wandering the countryside preaching and healing. Without Jesus. He had sent pairs of disciples on short-term missions trip. They had an amazing time.

Then Jesus took them across the lake from everyone to be alone with him, to tell stories, to catch up. And then thousands of people met them and Jesus actually let the crowd stay and, at the end of the day, fixed supper for everyone and sent the disciples back across the lake and dismissed the crowd.

So on this night, as the disciples were rowing into the wind, without Jesus, they had a lot to talk about. Including, eventually, the weather.

“Are we getting anywhere? We’re only halfway there. Can’t you row any faster? Can’t we go back? Why is Thomas hanging over the side?”

And they saw Jesus walking on the water and were terrified. Who wouldn’t be? After all, maybe it wasn’t Jesus. Maybe it was one of those spirits he kept casting out.

And Jesus said, “It’s me. Relax.”

And they were willing to let him into the boat.

That’s how John says it. They were willing.

That is a big challenge for followers. When we are doing what Jesus sent us to do, are we willing to let him interrupt? Or is it more fun being afraid?

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For the next few days, I’m asking for feedback about 300wordaday.com. I would be grateful for your thoughts.

sometimes faith means walking away

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Jesus told a man that his son would be healed.

The man took Jesus at his word and headed home.

Perhaps the man was good at taking direction because he worked for the king. That was certainly true for another healing situation. A centurion (military commander of 100 soldiers) wanted a servant healed. Jesus offered to come. The centurion said that Jesus had the power to command healing without being present, just like the centurion could command soldiers.

Perhaps this dad was used to being told “We’re finished. You can leave.” When Jesus said it, the man left. But you have to wonder what the man wondered. As he walked back home, an overnight trip, what was he thinking?

What do we think in those situations? We ask God for something. Some healing, some wisdom, some help. We finish asking (often with the formal “amen.”) And then what? We often read Bible verses to each other about trust and faith and timing. But most often we wonder. Or at least I do.

The man is getting close to home. His staff meets him on the road with good news. His son is well. The man asks for a timeline and discovers that exactly when Jesus says, “Your son will live,” the fever breaks. And now, finally, the man and his household (family and servants) believed that Jesus was who he said he was.

Our conversations with God are often unfocused. Sometimes we forget to draw lines connecting  events and prayers. We don’t expect that there will be an actual answer. We don’t remember what we asked when. And often, we don’t take Jesus at his word.

This dad did. He walked away from Jesus, trusting as much as he could. He arrived at home a believer.

Between? I bet he wondered.

someday you will understand

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Much happens in our lives that we don’t understand right away.

We have conversations, we watch things happen, we see things in the moment. We think we understand.

  • A person is cranky. We think they are mad at us. Or that they just have issues.
  • A person moves slowly. We think they are lazy. Or incompetent.
  • A person starts laughing. We think they are irrational.

Later, we get more information. We find out that the person just lost a family member to cancer. We find out that the person is living with multiple sclerosis. We find out that the person has is wearing a bluetooth and just heard a joke.

Because we don’t wait for all the pieces, we get the story wrong.

Jesus creates a disruption in the temple, and then tells the leaders that if they “destroy this temple, I will raise it again in three days.”

We have no idea what the disciples thought in the moment. We don’t know whether they were appalled or delighted or amused or confused. What we know is what they understood later.

John says,

But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

There are pieces of our lives that we do not understand. There is a disconnect between what we know that Jesus says of himself and what our experience says. It’s challenging to keep walking with him.

That’s what the disciples did. They understood pieces and they kept following, but they didn’t make sense of it until later. They lived with mystery.

They also lived with relationship. Because they knew Jesus, they didn’t have to understand him. Still a challenge. Still possible.

What does it mean to trust?

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(Paul Merrill writes here every First Friday)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.” Solomon, the man who many consider to be the wisest man ever, said that in Proverbs 3:5.

Jesus said trust is being like a child. Remember how it felt when you were learning to swim and you would flail about in the pool – and then when your parent swam over and lifted you up, you relaxed?

How can we trust in God when He is hard to see, feel? If we listen, the closer we will get to Him.

“All your heart…” We can’t hold anything back. If we have done something we know is wrong, we need to ask His forgiveness. And if that wrong involves someone else, we need to seek them out too. We can’t come before God with an unresolved conflict. True, there are exceptions to this. If that person is gone, we can’t find resolution with them. But God can heal that wound, if we ask Him to. It may take a long time for that healing to come – or it may come very quickly. In this day of instant results, we all get impatient waiting. (And the wound may not be healed in the way we expect.)

“Don’t depend on your own understanding.” I come back to swimming. Remember fighting the water? When you learned to let the water hold you up, you were able to glide across the pool. Depending on our own power can be like fighting God. We all go through life feeling like we know the answers. But the more we learn to trust, the better we can live and breathe.

Try relaxing in God’s arms, if you haven’t before. If you have, try actively trusting more today than you did yesterday. You’ll sleep better too.