Trust and Obey
Trust and Obey
Trust and obey, for there's no other
way
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust
and obey.
One of the Apostle Paul’s major
projects was collecting a large donation to help poverty stricken believers in
Jerusalem. The major passage on this is
2 Corinthians 8-9. Bible teacher Warren
Wiersbe says, “These two chapters present giving as a Christian grace, a
blessing, not as a legal obligation that burdens people. If giving is difficult for a Christian, then
there is something wrong with his heart!”
Giving is difficult for me because I don’t
know God well enough. And what I do know
I tend to forget. Because I don’t know
God very well I don’t trust him very much.
The more I know him the more I trust him. The more I trust him the more I obey. I don’t obey God so he’ll love me. I obey him because He loves me. I don’t trust God so he will accept
me. I trust him because he’s accepted
me. Knowing and trusting God makes it
less difficult for me to give.
Have you learned to trust God? What stories do you have of God’s
faithfulness? Here’s one of mine.
We lived in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada from 1990-1995. Kathleen’s from Miami, FL and I’m from
Marietta, GA so our first winter there on the shore of Lake Huron was
rough. Winters are MILD in the
South. No so in Canada. It wasn’t the Yukon or Siberia but it sure
felt like it!
I love being outside and have an adventurous
spirit so I learned how to deal with the cold.
One afternoon that first winter my
son and I went to Sarnia Bay. It was
completely frozen over so naturally we wanted to explore the ice. I knew nothing about ice so I didn’t trust
it. The ice was about four feet below a
concrete retaining wall. We climbed down
and eased onto the ice expecting to fall through at any moment. We had a death grip on the top of the wall as
we cautiously inched our way along. It
felt like we were outside the 40th floor of a skyscraper. We cringed and froze at every creak and
crack. Finally we’d had enough
excitement for one day and made our way back.
We returned the next day to let the rest of
the family see the frozen bay and brag about our exploit.
I couldn’t believe it! Cars everywhere. On the ice!
They were getting ready for a motorcycle race. On the ice!
When I asked a guy about it he laughed and said, “Yeah that ice is a
foot thick!”
I laughed at my undue caution, timidity and
fear the previous day and strolled out onto the ice like I was walking down my
driveway to get the mail. No fear. I knew it would support me.
In 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 Paul wrote, “God is
able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all
things at all times, you may abound in every good work… you will be enriched in
every way to be generous in every way…”
God’s grace, like the Sarnia Bay ice, is omnipotently able to support
me. The difficulty I have in trusting
Him comes from my inadequate knowledge of his faithfulness. When I remember God’s faithfulness I can trust and obey with a little less fear
and trepidation.
-John Ottley
Click here to listen to the entire message messing with your money, giving of your time and yourself.
