Trust and Rest

Enjoy a sneak peek Devotional 

from my devotional book to be published 2013:

From the Heart of GOD

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Trust and Rest

The first thing you should know about faith is that it won’t answer all of your questions in life and it won’t solve all of your problems, either. Faith is about trust, not about being certain. Faith gives you what you need to take one more step in the darkness, by the Light I have given you through My Word. I’m not asking you to walk by blind faith, I’m asking you to believe in who I AM and trust in what I’ve promised.

The strength or weakness of your faith is directly proportional to your belief in what I’ve promised, My Word. Faith has nothing to do with feelings―it should never be based on what you see. If you’re walking by sight, and not by faith, you’re not trusting in Me. If there is no trust, your heart will be restless, instead of resting in Me.

You’re overwhelmed by the trials of this life, struggling to take one more step of faith . . . asking me to remove your troubles, and yet it is the obstacles to your faith that build it. The Red Seas that stand before you give Me the opportunity to perform a miracle that parts them. Don’t miss out on the blessings beyond your fears. When I AM with you, and I’ve promised that I’ll never leave you, there is nothing to fear. If I am for you and with you, who or what dare be against you?

If I’ve assured you, through My Promises, My Word, then stand firm in faith. Trust and Rest in Me and I will do more than you could ever hope for or imagine. It’s your faith that moves My heart AND My hand.

. . . I trust in your word.

Psalm 119:42 (NIV)

God's Plans

One thing is definitely true about God . . . He moves suddenly. His miracles can happen in an instant, in the blink of an eye . . . at times it's difficult to comprehend His hand . . . you only get a glimpse of His fingerprints. Lately, I've marveled at how powerfully God works on our behalf . . . how He REALLY parts Red Seas, when HE is ready to do so. It's taken me to a new level of trust. He's strengthened my faith by taking me through overwhelming uncertainty and insurmountable circumstances. That's how God works. He works with Red Seas and encroaching armies. I've learned:

God in His love 
always wills what is best for us.

In His wisdom 
He always knows what is best,

and in His sovereignty 
He has the power to bring it about.

We learn to trust God through eyes of faith, not sense. It's about crossing the Jordan . . . after witnessing Red Seas parted. God asks us to stand in our faith, even among the flood waters:

 "As soon as the soles of the feet of the priests...

shall rest in the waters…

the waters shall be cut off" (Joshua 3:13).

God's plans aren't always our own. He rarely does things the way we would. But His ways are best. He knows how to part the seas AND calm them. But the thing that has grown in my faith lately is my understanding of God's sovereignty. His ability to orchestrate EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of my life. It's difficult, at best, to comprehend. Well-known theologian J.I. Packer defines God's providence this way:

"The unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence, guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory."

"Unceasing." Packer makes it clear that in all events, in all acts, God directs "everything." It's clear God doesn't take breaks (Psalm 121:4) . . . God doesn't hold a "part-time" job. Whatever you're going through, you may need to grasp that God is overseeing EVERY detail . . . even the actions of others. And if God has allowed it, He has purpose in it. He allowed the Egyptian army to encroach upon His freed people, not to frighten them in to doubt, but to strengthen them by showing them that He parts Red Seas. God is sovereign, all the time.

Maybe you need to go deeper in your faith in this area as well. It's a tough truth to grasp. You may be thrown into a fiery furnace or find yourself obeying God and tossed into a lion's den, but God is in control of it all. And don't doubt that He'll show up . . . know that at the moment your strength is gone, God shows up, to work out His Divine plan . . . and He does it suddenly. He reigns.

The Faith Lie

You’ve heard it…you’ve probably believed it. You may have bet your faith on it…which is why you’re consumed with hopelessness amid the circumstances of your life. It’s a little phrase that goes like this:

“God will never give you more than you can handle.”

Sounds good. It even seems to give us hope and strength to face one more day, but it’s a lie. You hear it often―you may even be constantly saying it to yourself. You’ve believed that no matter what you face, God is never going to allow you to deal with more than you can handle—that brings comfort. It may be what we want to hear, but it’s not what we NEED to hear. We need truth. And the truth is that although this wonderful little phrase has traveled through the generations, it’s not in the Bible. God has NEVER said that He won’t give us more than we can handle. What He has shown is, throughout history, He ALWAYS gives people MORE than they can handle. So, where does this lie come from, and how has Truth been twisted? It comes from 1 Corinthians 10:13:

“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (NLT).

The verse is referring to “temptations,” not the troubles of life. We can look at nearly EVERY situation in the Bible where God shows up in miraculous ways and find that He ALWAYS gave people MORE than they could handle. That’s when God shows up on the scene of people’s lives. Moses didn’t part the Red Sea on his own. Daniel should have been devoured in a lion’s den. Who survives walking into a fiery furnace? Goliath should have crushed David, and Jonah should have been left for dead. The storm on the Sea of Galilee was obviously going to drown the Disciples, and even Jesus needed help carrying His Cross. We glean even greater insight into this truth when we look to Paul the Apostle who found himself crushed, beyond his ability to endure. Here’s what we learn from Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:8 and the first part of verse 9:

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,

and we thought we would never live through it.

9 In fact, we expected to die” (NLT).

Hardly seems like a loving God would allow such saints to go through such anguish, but our faulty thinking is simply because we don’t understand His ways. It is out of His great love for them that He allowed them to face the impossible. Why is that? It’s because of the second part of verse 9 from 2 Corinthians:

“But as a result,

we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God,

who raises the dead”(NLT).

There’s purpose through the pain. God ALWAYS gives us more than we can handle, in order to reveal what He is able to do through our faith in Him. He wants to show us that prayer works. He wants to bring about miracles that go far beyond our imagination. He wants to display His power, presence, and glory. Without situations in life that we CAN’T handle, we’d never need God to show up. Why would we even need to pray at all? We’d never have the opportunity to see our own Red Seas parted. Who wants to miss out on that??

It’s critical to the survival of your faith that you stop believing the lie. Here’s the truth:

If God is only giving you what you CAN handle,

you’re not learning to depend upon God,

you’re not stepping out in faith,

and your faith isn’t growing.

In fact, if you’re facing situations that are far beyond your control, God may be trusting you more than you trust Him. He obviously knows that He’s given you a measure of faith that is much more than you think. If we’ll leave the lie behind and move on in greater faith, knowing that every obstacle is an opportunity for faith to rise above it, we’ll find ourselves experiencing the peace that God promises to give us as we trust in Him.

God’s goal: to bring us to a place where we realize we can’t do it without Him. He wants us to fully realize that we need Him for and in everything we face in life. (And all too often we need to be reminded.) So, if you’re facing the insurmountable and enduring the unthinkable, you can be sure that God is with you . . . it’s time to trust and watch to see how God will show up…because He will.

Surrender

 

We live life to ourselves. Holding tight to our hopes and dreams, allowing nothing to get in the way . . . keeping God at a distance and only beckoning Him when we find ourselves broken, without hope, and in a pit that has been dug so deep . . . there’s no way to get out. The moments of desperation, the times of crying out to God are covered in His silence as we glimpse His ways:

We yearn for love and He breaks our hearts.  

We plead for mercy and He sends us anguish.

We beg for hope and He takes it all away.

We are desperate for Jesus and He places us in a furnace with Him.

We find it easier to obey Him than to suffer for Him. We’d rather carry the Cross than hang upon it. We forget the glory. We fail to see the bigger picture. Following Jesus seems like a bad idea to our flesh . . . we’ll lack what others have in this world, we’ll miss out on what others seem to enjoy so much . . . and we cling. Cling to what we want, our will . . . instead of God’s. We listen to others, leaving our Shepherd, finding guidance within the limited, fallen nature of sinful people. And we end up with Lot’s portion, instead of Abraham’s.

Oh, but the joy of being fully surrendered. Light breaks through darkness and joy comes in the morning. There is a glorious song that is sung in the presence of the risen Christ. Reflection upon what might have been had we not fully surrendered brings us to a place beyond humbleness. We find ourselves with Abraham's portion, not Lot's and we are reminded that it isn't because of our deep, passionate, persistence of faith, but of God's faithfulness in our lives. Along the journey we know it wasn't because of something we did, but because of what He's done. And the joy that comes, comes through deep, desperate surrendering over and over again. And we see, so clearly, our suffering has been good. It is all for the glory of God. The joy of persevering so far outweighs the pain. It is found only in full surrender not to our will, but to His. And in our moment of surrender, when we thought we were losing everything, we now fully realize, we have gained everything. Unspeakable joy now reigns in our spirit in more ways than we could ever imagine. 

And it's because of that Cross. 

And it's no longer I that live, but Christ in me. 

And I fall in sweet surrender to Him . . . every day, in every way.

And in that surrender, there is joy everlasting.

“God forbid that I should glory,

except for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of that cross,

my interest in this world has been crucified,

and the world's interest in me has also died.”

Galatians 6:14

GRACE Happens Here

MAX LUCADO ON GRACE

 "Faith's only function is to receive what grace offers."-John Stott

We are NOTHING without God's grace. My life is a story of God's grace manifested . . . how about yours? We need to be constantly reminded of the infinite grace of God. If you need a fresh glimpse of Grace this week, don't miss this teaching by Max Lucado (see link above). I'll be posting a review soon of his new book, "Grace." I can tell you it is one of the most thorough and powerful books on capturing the essence of God's grace. 

I pray that today, you will, at the very least, be reminded that God's grace comes in waves . . . God's grace will overtake you through each and every moment of your life. Receive what He gives. There is nothing more amazing than God's grace.

Broken and Blessed

One of the most difficult things to face in our walk of faith is that God allows us to be broken. In those times when our lives are falling apart and we’ve lost the strength to carry on, we struggle to make sense of our suffering. God, in all His wisdom, knows that, just like wheat, we cannot be used until we have been sifted. Our faith is a process, and first, it must be broken, so that God can use us fully. He breaks every part of our lives that keeps us from Him and He bears the heavy weight of our burden, if we’ll stop struggling with our circumstances and allow Him to carry us through. But, it’s in the process where we can lose sight of what God is doing, and our faith may fail if we’re not fully aware of His sovereign, omnipotent ways.

God breaks us or allows us to be broken because He loves us. Not too often do we hear someone say, “I grew deeply in my faith and closer to God when my life was going smoothly.” It appears evident, by countless testimonies, that God is mostly found in the valleys of life. If we can stop looking at our troubles as punishment and start seeing them as opportunities to encounter God, we would find greater peace in the trials of life. Our brokenness sheds light on our pride; when we’re broken and only pieces of us remain, God is able to show us more of His power through our total dependence on Him. Without our desperation, we’d never know our need for God and we’d never seek Him for a miracle. His love wants to draw us nearer to Him.

God sets limits on our brokenness. God knows the areas of our lives that need work. And although He must break us or allow us to be broken, He never leaves us and will never allow us to endure more than our spirit can endure. God knows we can go so much further in our faith than we ever thought we could . . . and He wants us to be full of faith. God will set the length of time for our brokenness, and He chooses the tools that He’ll use to work within our lives. God knows exactly what He needs to accomplish through our brokenness and He loves us enough to sit patiently through the process as His work is done.

God knows when to pick up the broken pieces. God is fully aware of the pain and suffering we are enduring through our times of brokenness, and He will not allow that time to break our will or damage our spirit in a way that would keep us from living out our purposes for Him. God is only after our resistant will. He wants to eliminate any rebellion in our heart that would try to find shelter from God’s omniscience. We can’t hide our hearts from God and He loves us enough to expose the parts that need breaking in order that we might be made whole.

God is after one thing, as He works through the broken places of our lives—a steadfast faith that isn’t altered by our circumstances. He wants us to understand that He is not a lesser God according to our trials of life. His purpose in brokenness is to bring us into an intimate relationship with Him. It’s through brokenness that we learn to lift God up in our lives and rely on His grace through the work of the Cross. It’s God’s work in us, through our brokenness, that will bring us to a place where our faith is not focused on what we think God “should” do in our situations of life, but trusts and waits, fully confident that He will bring about victory as we find our peace in Him.

If you’ve found yourself in a broken place, know that God knows the blessing behind it all. The longer we wait, and the greater the patience, the more wonderful will be the joy. You can trust that God is not only with you, He is for you, and His victory is assured through every battle. It’s your brokenness what will make you more whole than you ever perceived you were . . . through your faith, you’ll find yourself, broken and blessed.

It's In Your Head

When the going gets tough, we don’t usually get going . . . in fact, we find ourselves giving up and giving in to our difficulties before when even give faith a fair chance. God’s plan doesn’t seem sufficient, and we render Him incapable to handle the really “big things” in life. Prayer seems “nice” until it’s all we can do and then it seems like it just isn’t enough. When despair shows up at the front door, it’s the skeleton in our closet that opens it—doubt.

We tend to build our faith on the idea that we should never have to encounter uncertainty. Yet, if all things were certain, we’d never need faith at all. Faith grows only when it’s stretched to the breaking point . . . without breaking. And when our faith is tried, we better know Truth because God will allow us to be tested (Psalm 105:19) in an effort to build our faith. At times when life is falling apart and out of control, there’s something you CAN control and that’s your thoughts.

Scripture says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). We need to clearly understand where the battle really lies . . . it’s in our head. It’s not doubt that is our enemy—it’s fear . . . and when we’re overcome with fear, we’re held prisoner until we’re set free by Truth. And if we’re not set free, if we’re suffering through emptiness, loneliness, discouragement, and despair, we’re not believing Truth.

We’re told specifically, in the Bible, to control our minds. If God has commanded us to do it, then there’s no excuses . . . our only option is to be obedient. In order to do that, we must become more aware of our thoughts and then filter them through God’s Word. It’s like a house cleaning of the mind . . . and it’s not sufficient to just do it in spring time. You’ll have to do it continually, each and every moment of each and every day.

It’s difficult at best to grab hold of your thoughts, but these questions will get you started:

Why am I thinking about this?

Are these thoughts building me (or others) up or tearing me down?

What does the Bible have to say about what I’m thinking about?

Do these thoughts make me feel guilty?

Do these thoughts glorify God?

It can seem “too simple.” Just think “good” thoughts. Yet, it’s not that easy. We can’t just simply change our course or direction by thinking “positively.” God’s power doesn’t reside in “positive thoughts,” it is only found in His Promises. And the only way to transform our thoughts, and ultimately our lives, is to replace the lies with Truth. You see, if your thoughts are anything other than lovely and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8), you’re believing lies. Faith requires us to align our thoughts with God’s and that can only happen by immersing ourselves in His Word.

When the going gets tough, the battle in our minds will rage uncontrollably. Yet, with the Promises of God we are able to take every thought captive and live the victorious life we were intended to live in Christ. (If you need a head start in taking thoughts captive, visit me at ScriptureNow.com where God’s voice will speak to you.)

We are destroying speculations

and every lofty thing raised up against

the knowledge of God,

and we are taking every thought captive

to the obedience of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 10:5 (NASB)