Tag Archives: trusting God

October 15, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Miracles In The Wilderness

  
There were two instances where Jesus wanted to feed a large crowd. One was a crowd of 5,000 and the other was of 4,000. In both instances, they were away from the city with nowhere to buy food. In Mark 8, we find the story of the 4,000 people who were following Jesus and it says they ran out of food. Jesus had compassion on them and indicated he wanted to feed the mass of people. The disciples were incredulous and asked, “How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?” (NLT)

They knew that Jesus was looking to them to feed the people. I’m sure the “we” in that sentence had some inflection in it indicating they thought He should be the one finding the food. He was the Son of God after all. But Jesus didn’t waiver. He stayed true to who He has been since the beginning of time. He looked to them for an act of faith. He wanted them to be the ones who looked at an impossible situation and to offer Him something to multiply. 

When their faith saw only the impossibility, He threw them a hint. In verse 5 Jesus asked, “How much bread do you have?” He was looking for them to trust Him with their own bread so He could do what only He could do. He wanted them to see He could perform miracles in the wilderness if they just put what they had in His hands. He didn’t have to be in a lush environment or around a lot of people in a city to perform a miracle. He just needed to be by a few people with enough faith to trust Him with what they had.

You may be in a wilderness right now wondering what God is doing. You may look around you and think you don’t have anything to offer God to take care of the mass of problems in your life. I believe God would say to you what He said to them, “How much bread do you have?” What is your bread that God could multiply? What is it that you can offer Him in the wilderness that He can multiply? Remember your multiplication tables, anything multiplied by zero is zero. God has to have something from you to multiply. If your faith can’t see what your bread is, ask God to point it out to you like He did with the disciples. Then when you put it in His hands, He’ll perform miracles in your wilderness. 

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September 2, 2015 · 5:30 AM

When God Says No

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9 (NLT)

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August 18, 2015 · 5:30 AM

Finding New Strength

If you Google the word “exhausted,” you’ll get a definition that says, “Drained of one’s physical or mental resources; very tired.” Does that word describe you right now? Our bodies can be so physically drained that they refuse to get up in the mornings, to lift the heavy objects you want to move, or to get where you need to go. Our mind can get so stressed and drained that it’s hard to care about things or even make an effort in a relationship where one is needed. Exhausted is a dangerous state of being that we need to avoid.

God recognizes that you and I can get exhausted. In Isaiah 40:29 it says, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless” (NLT). The word power in its original context meant ability. The word weak translates as exhausted. So when you read it like that, God gives ability to those who are exhausted. God wants to help us when we’ve lost the ability to accomplish things because we are exhausted, especially the things He’s called us to do.

I can attest to the fact that the work God calls you and I to can be very exhausting mentally and physically. He knows that if we are exhausted, we won’t accomplish His will. The 31st verse tells us, “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength” (NLT). We can’t go about the Father’s business in our own strength or mental fortitude if we want to be effective long term. We must trust that God will give us ability where we have none, strength where we are weak, and hope when we are in despair.

God asks us to do things that are beyond our ability so that we will trust Him. He’s interested more in your obedience and willingness than in your strength and intellect. He doesn’t need you in order to accomplish anything, yet He chooses to partner with you to enact His will. If you’re willing to step out in faith and to trust Him, He’s willing to give you the ability and strength you lack. You can be exhausted from doing all your other duties and still have the strength to do what God wants as long as you put your trust in Him.

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July 23, 2015 · 6:45 AM

Turn Worries Into Prayers

What good does worrying do? I’ve fallen victim to its deceit in the past. Worrying does nothing more than occupy your mind with things that will more than likely never happen. It sucks your energy right out of you. It keeps you up at night and cause you to lose the peace you once had. It creates a vicious cycle of “what ifs” that make you believe all is lost and there is no hope. Worry is not from God and we shouldn’t let it make its home in our minds. We need to guard against it with all the power in us.

When you’re constantly dwelling on difficulties or troubles, you cannot think of the answer. When your mind is consumed by fear, you cannot know the peace of God. Worry is a tactic that is designed to minimize the faith you have in God. The more you worry, the less you trust God. You either think He can’t handle it or that you can resolve whatever the problem is in your own strength. Either way, you rely more on yourself and less on the God who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. 

There is nothing going on in your life that He doesn’t know about. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus says, “Don’t worry about everyday life. (NLT)” He goes on to say in verse 32, “These things (worries) dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but YOUR Heavenly Father already knows ALL of your needs.” As a believer, worry has no place in your mind. This passage of scripture makes it clear that it is pointless and a waste of time and energy. 

What good does praying do? Praying takes your mind off of your problems and focuses on the One who has the power to change your situation. So much of our energy is wasted on things we can’t change. We need to focus that energy in prayer and in reading God’s Word. The more we focus on how big our God is, the smaller our problems become. The more time we spend in prayer over our problems, the more energy we have as well as clarity in the situation.

I love how Paul told us to deal with worry in Philippians 4:6-7. He wrote, “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. (MSG)” When we start praying instead of worrying, our lives become more balanced because we put Christ there where He belongs.

Turn your worries into prayers. Take what you can’t control and give it to the One who is in control of everything. There is a peace that God gives the surpasses our understand. No matter what is going on in your life, God can give you peace in the middle of it. You are His most precious creation and He cares deeply about what you’re going through. Give it to Him and let Him handle what you can’t. You’ll find a peace that doesn’t make sense in your situation and you’ll have the clarity of mind to follow the path God will show you. 

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June 11, 2015 · 7:19 AM

Quit Playing It Safe

I once had a boss whose favorite question to ask in an interview was, “Tell me a time when you took a risk. Did it pay off or not?” I asked him about it one time and he said, “I don’t want people working for me who are afraid to take risks. I’d rather have someone on my team who has taken a risk and failed miserably than someone who was too scared to even take a risk in the first place. At least the person who took a risk learned something. The one who has never taken a risk will never change his results because he’s too scared to try something new.”

He helped me to understand that taking risks is a Godly trait. Each time you or I step out in faith, it’s a risk. Will God step out and move on my behalf or will I fall on my face? We don’t know, but God asks us to do it anyway. I’ve seen God ask someone to take a huge risk and then allow them to fail. It sounds weird at first, but God needed them in a place of failure to be able to grow them beyond what the risk could have ever offered. His reward for their risk was delayed.

When you risk it all for God’s sake, you put yourself in a place that is totally dependent on God. Your risk speaks volumes to God. It says, “I’m not satisfied with what I’m producing for you. I want to do more for the Kingdom and I’m willing to risk what I have for a chance to offer you more.” It’s in those moments that your faith grows and produces more than it ever has. If you fall on your face, you let God know you’re not going to play it safe. If He catches you, the rewards are eternal.

There’s a difference in taking a risk and making a calculated move. If you’ve got a 90% chance of success, that’s not really much of a risk. It’s a calculated decision made to look like faith. God is looking for those who are willing to go all in and risk it all for His Kingdom. In Matthew 25, he gave three different people three different amounts of talents. To the one who risked nothing because he was afraid, the master said, “That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? (MSG)”

Later on He said, “Get rid of this play-it-safe who won’t go out on a limb. (MSG)” God gets angry when we live life with the goal of arriving in Heaven safely with no bumps or bruises. He put the desire for risk in each one of us. We can either take a risk or allow fear to cause us to play it safe. If you know the parable I’m referring to, the ones who risked it all stayed with the master, but the one who risked nothing was cast into darkness. God calls us to live by faith, not by sight. What risks have you taken for His sake? What is He asking you to risk right now?

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May 13, 2015 · 7:35 AM

Let Go And Let God

  

I’m sure you’ve seen Newton’s Cradle on someone’s desk somewhere. If you’ve seen it, you’ve pulled back one of the silver balls and let it go. The ball you pulled back and let go smashes into the first ball, which doesn’t move, but transfers the energy to the next ball and so on until it reaches the farthest ball. That ball then swings out like a pendulum and returns to start the process over again. They’re a lot of fun to play with, but they also represent so many of us in our faith.

When it’s just sitting there on someone’s desk not being used, it’s just for show. It might get used every once in a while, but more often than not, it just collects dust. So many people show up to church and sit there collecting dust. They don’t move, they don’t transfer energy or shine. They go for nothing more than to see and be seen. They feel that they’ll get to Heaven because they went to church or that their kids will learn good morals. A church should not be a place to collect dust. It’s a place to knock off the rust, and send you out into the world with kinetic energy that moves other people.

There are many Christians who are like the picture above. They have been pulled back and are ready to be released to do God’s work, but they’re afraid to let go. That’s nothing more than wasted potential. I understand the need to be in control. I’m a control freak myself, but if you are ever going to do anything great for God, you have got to let go and let God work through you. Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” 

You’re committed when you let go because you take your potential out of your hand and place it in God’s. He is the one who will accomplish the work. It’s easy to be frightened by looking at what our potential is in God’s Kingdom. We pull back the ball to start the chain reaction, but hold onto it out of fear. We never release ourselves fully into God’s control. So much of what God wants to accomplish is thwarted by our inability to let go and trust Him. We look at our strength and our abilities instead of His. 

Phillip Brooks, who was an Episcopal bishop in the 1800’s, said, “Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”  It’s time we quit looking at our potential energy in the Kingdom and released ourselves to do God’s work. It’s time we quit talking about what God has called us to do and started doing it. Until we let go, we will not release others to do what they’ve been called to do. Remember, when you let go, you engage others and release them to move in God’s Kingdom. It’s not just about your potential, but about releasing others to meet theirs.

*The concept and training of motivating people from their potential energy to their kinesthetic energy belongs to Trinfinity. Used with permission. 

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May 11, 2015 · 5:30 AM

There Is A Purpose

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
Romans 5:3-5 (NLT)

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May 6, 2015 · 7:24 AM

Being Led

At work, every once in a while, I’ll do an activity to teach people how to lead.ill split the group in two and give half blinders to put over their eyes. To the other half, I give the rules of engagement. They can’t touch the person with the blinder that they are leading. They can only use their words to safely have them exit the classroom, walk down the hall into another room, guide them to an object in that room, get them to pick it up, describe it to them without saying what it is and then guide them back to their point of origin.

In a crowded room, you have a lot of people talking. The person with the blinders should only be listening to one voice. When they listen to the instructions being given to someone else, they’re often confused, go the wrong way and bump into something. Some people wait until the room has cleared until they start so they can avoid the confusion. Once in the hallway, they have to guide them around corners, people and objects. It’s important to know where they’re going and how to tell this person how many steps before going right or left.  It’s a fun exercise to watch, but also has a lot of powerful principles.

I use it to teach people how to lead and guide others using their words, but there’s a deeper lesson for us. Not many of us know how to follow or trust what we can’t see. For me, it’s an accurate representation of what it is to walk by faith. I can’t see where I’m going or the obstacles in my way until I bump into them. If I’m not listening or don’t understand the instructions given to me, I walk into walls, hazards and become scared to take the next step. My walk becomes a crawl and it becomes difficult to reach the goals God has for me.

Another powerful parallel is that God uses His words to guide us instead of grabbing us by the hand and taking us where He wants us to go. We know He’s there because we sense His presence, but unless we learn to listen to His voice, we won’t be going very far. I believe that God is always speaking to each one of us, but we hardly ever listen. He is telling us which way to go, when to duck and when to turn, but if we aren’t listening to His voice, we’ll be lead astray. God rarely speaks in a booming voice that is above all the noise in our life. Instead, He speaks in a still, small voice that we have to be listening for.

David must have experienced the same frustration that you and I face today when it comes to knowing God’s will and direction. In Psalm 5:8 he prayed, “Lead me to do your will; make your way plain for me to follow. (GNB)” He, like us, wanted to do God’s will, but he struggled. Instead of staying in one place, he prayed that God would lead him. He also asked that the path would be made plain. I think that’s a great prayer for us to pray today in searching for God’s will. When we pray it, we will need to listen for His voice and to be prepared to follow where He leads. Be careful to obey everything so you won’t bump into objects and arrive at your destination in a timely manner. 

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April 1, 2015 · 7:32 AM

Silence Before The Storm

I recently watched an interview with Jesse Martin who was the youngest person to sail around the world solo and unassisted. He was 17 years old when he set sail. During the interview, they showed some footage from the documentary “Lionheart” that was made from his trip. In one of those clips, he looks at the camera and says, “Something’s wrong. It’s too quiet. I’ve been watching the barometer and it just keeps falling. It’s eerily quiet out here. I’m going to prepare the boat for the worst and get ready for anything.” He started tying up all loose ends, putting things where they went, securing anything that might be lost as it was tossed about. His instincts were right and his preparations weren’t in vain.

A bad storm came that night and flipped his tiny ship on its side several times. Winds reached 80 miles per hour, the boat was damaged, he lost a couple of things too, but he survived. When asked about how that affected him, he said, “The day after the storm was over was one of my happiest days. I knew that I had survived and was going to make it.” He felt a sense of accomplishment because his losses were minimal and because he recognized that something was wrong and did something about it.

Days before the crucifixion, Jesus felt that same calm. The barometer was falling and there was a sense that something was wrong. He knew what was coming and began preparing for the storm that was coming. He spent all day Tuesday battening down the hatches in the temple. He gave many parables and answered lots of questions to get everyone else prepared for what was coming. On Wednesday, I believe He was finished getting ready for the storm and just spent time with His disciples savoring every moment. He was all about relationships and He knew what Thursday evening would bring. 

The storm that was coming would toss about people’s faith. He would lose one disciple in it. Many would be afraid and take cover. The storm may have caught them off guard, but it didn’t catch Him off guard. For three days this storm raged on. The disciples must have questioned everything. They didn’t anticipate the Messiah being killed. They envisioned Him fighting Rome and setting up an eternal kingdom on Earth. This was nothing like they had imagined and everything that God had. They couldn’t see God’s plan in the storm. They couldn’t see how His death would bring them life until the storm was over.

Our lives don’t always go the way we plan them, but they do go the way God has planned them. We don’t always see through the storm, but God does. Every drop of doubt, every tear of pain and every puddle of pity are dried up on the other side of the storm. It’s in God’s light that we begin to see the reason for the rain. It’s on the other side of the storm that we see the rainbow of His promises. If it’s raining in your life right now, hold on. A day of rejoicing is coming. The storm will end and you will survive.  You can make it through anything because God will not abandon you. He endures with you. There is nothing that can come against you that will run Him off. 

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March 26, 2015 · 7:38 AM

Giving Up Your Will

I Samuel10 gives us the account of Saul being anointed King of Israel. After Samuel anointed him, he spoke prophetically over him. He told him very specific things that would happen on his way home. The scripture says that everything Samuel told him would happen, happened. When he finally got home, his uncle asked him where he had been. He told them he went to see Samuel. The uncle knew who Samuel was and asked what he was told by him. Saul only told him the parts that Samuel prophesied about. He didn’t mention he had been anointed King.  

I’ve always wondered about that. Part of me thinks that since he had just been anointed, he would want to tell everyone. He knew that Samuel would be coming in seven days to tell him what was next, yet he kept quiet. It could be that he was still in disbelief because the vision was so great. He failed to realize we serve a great God who gives great vision. The vision God gives each one of us is greater than our ability. We can’t accomplish His vision for our lives on our own. We have to trust God as much as He trusts us in order to accomplish it. 

When Samuel arrived as he promised, he gathered the people of Israel together to tell them what God had said. He reminded them of all the great things God had done. How He had delivered them, how He had rescued them and how He had cared for them throughout there history. Then in verse 19 he said, “But today you have rejected me and have asked me to give you a king. (GNT)” The people knew God had cared for them, but they wanted a person to deliver them, not God. They wanted a person to rescue them, not God. They wanted a person to care for them, not God. I believe it’s because they knew they could manipulate a person and not God. They wanted to do their will, not His.

We try to manipulate God into doing what we want. We offer Him things if only He will answer our prayers. We pray, “God, if you do this one thing for me, then I will…” Those type of prayers don’t seek God’s will, they seek our own. When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He didn’t try to manipulate the Father. He prayed, “Not my will be done, but yours.” If we are ever going to get to the place where we fulfill the vision God has for our lives, we are going to have to move from a “My will be done” attitude to a “Thy will be done” one. We have to let God have His way with our lives instead of us trying to convince Him to let us live them our way.

Saul struggled with that mentality from the first day of being king to his last. He could never let go of his will and fully embrace God’s. Ultimately, he lost the kingdom to someone else. His legacy wasn’t what it could have been because he couldn’t submit fully to God’s will. The same attitude dwells in each one of us, but that doesn’t mean we have to obey it. The same mentality tries to guide our lives, but we can beat it. We must pray as Jesus prayed, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” When we pray that and lIve it, God will accomplish the greater things He promised.

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