Category Archives: trust

Thinking outside the box #1 – the future

Anxiety and worry, resting, Training the mind, trust

The Future and other Worries – thinking outside the box

The future can be a problem to people with a lot of unknowns. Especially if you have a series of potential disasters looming and don’t know what the future will hold. Will it get even harder and will you be able to cope? What will your life be like then? The future is a big concern, especially for people with physical trials like cancer. I know that in my long trial of illness, I wondered what the future would be and thought that if I just knew what was coming I could handle it better. But, was that what I really wanted? What if God revealed it to me and it was even worse than I had imagined? I could crumble at the thought. No, better leave the future to God and get grace for each day. The future is too big of a weight for anyone to carry except God.
In dealing with unknowns, I found that I needed to change the way I thought, to think outside the box. The trial was hard enough in itself without my making it harder by all the conflicting emotions that could trip me up. In order to lighten my heavy burden I needed to learn to think about things in a different way. Continue reading Thinking outside the box #1 – the future →

Jesus in the Boat

faith, resting, Training the mind, trust

“Now it happened, on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples. And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And they launched out. But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!” (Luke 8:22-25).

What strikes me about this passage is where Jesus was positionally during this scenario. He was the one who charted the course across the lake and was ‘present’ and ‘all there’ at the beginning. It is easy to go on a voyage when your leader is visibly in front. But note what happens, during the voyage trouble arose with a windstorm. Now remember, they are committed to being in the boat since they are in the middle of the lake. They can’t just hop out on shore if the waves get too big for them. This is often the case with trials, God charts the course and once you’re in it, you can’t necessarily get out of it. Since you are now committed, it would be nice to have God’s presence always there in a way you can feel it. Continue reading Jesus in the Boat →

His Footsteps our Pathway

faith, Training the mind, trust

“Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway” (Psalm 85:13).

Picture a deep snowfall on a mountain pathway that is so deep that it is difficult to walk through for a child. Now picture a father plowing on before, with a little child right behind him holding onto his waste. The father breaks the snow and eases the way with each step as the child puts his feet in his father’s footsteps. What would have been an extremely difficult or impossible task for the child is now made possible because he walks right behind his father. He will get to the desired end one step at a time.

That is how we get through life. God goes before us breaking the way and we follow behind, making His footsteps our pathway. We don’t have to look down the pathway wondering how we’ll get there, we just have to follow right behind our guide, one step at time.

What is faith?

faith, Training the mind, trust

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. (as it is written, ‘I have made you a father of many nations’) in the presence of Him whom he believed – God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be’ (Rom. 4:16-17).

Notice in the next verses how central ‘faith’ is to these verses and to Abraham and Sarah.

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going (Heb. 11:8).

By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised (Heb. 11:11).

What was their situation?

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness (Rom. 4:19).

What is faith?

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1).

How important is faith? Continue reading What is faith? →

God’s purposes in Hardship

Paul, Training the mind, trust

It is hard to see at first how God uses trial to bless, but let’s take a look at Paul’s trials and what God does with them.

“For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Cor. 4:5).

If we are God’s bondservants, then He can do with us as He pleases for His glory, even if it is to give us hard things to accomplish His purposes, and that is what He did with the apostle Paul. Consider who this God is who is asking such hard things of Paul.

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (v. 6).

But He is God, and we are not. We are weak.

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (v. 7).

Being weak is part of the design feature that God gave us which Continue reading God’s purposes in Hardship →