Can God Trust You?

Have you ever prayed, “God, why are you letting me go through this? Why are you letting this happen in my life?” I think most, if not all of us, have prayed or thought that at some point in our lives.

I was praying that a few weeks ago, and felt like I got an answer to my situation, one that really surprised me. I was having to work with a difficult person, and became very frustrated. I asked God why He wasn’t delivering me from the situation. Then all of a sudden, I remembered a prayer I had prayed several months ago. At that time I had seen some aspects of my character that God needed to deal with, so I asked Him to change me no matter the cost, no matter how bad it hurt me. Looking then at the situation I was in, I realized God had placed me with a person who was slowly and painstakingly causing me to develop the aspect of my character with which I struggled.

That realization made me excited to see that God was answering my prayer, but also a bit hesitant to pray another prayer like that. I was also disappointed in myself for not having faith in God that He had my best interests at heart. He had been answering my prayer this whole time even though I had complained every day. I realized that instead of getting frustrated toward God for allowing me to go through this, I should rather be leaning on Him and trusting in Him to teach me through it.

I realized that if I had just submitted to His plan in the first place instead of questioning Him and resisting His plan the whole time, I could have built up so much more faith and learned so much more.

So often we pray, “God, change me,” but then when He starts to change us, we realize we didn’t actually want to change, but rather we wanted the problem to go away. God realizes that taking away our problems isn’t going to help us grow or change.  Because of this, sometimes He has to allow the problem to become even bigger than it was so we’ll have to learn how to deal with it, and let Him teach us to lean on Him.

I also wonder how many prayers God has said no to, because He knows I don’t really want the answer. I pray for peace, and He gives me a storm to learn how to have true peace. I pray for joy, and He gives me a difficult situation so I can find where my true joy is.

Why does God answer no to some of our prayers? Because perhaps He doesn’t trust us with the answers. Can God trust you? If you ask for peace, and He uses a storm to teach you, can He trust you to still serve Him in the middle of the storm? If you ask Him to teach you perseverance, and He allows you to go through a drawn-out difficult situation, can He trust you to stick out the lesson?

Whatever you are going through right now, I can assure you that God has a purpose for it. The Bible says in Romans 8:28 that “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” Maybe your situation is difficult and you don’t understand why you have to go through it. Maybe you are having difficulty trusting God, but I want to tell you that you can always trust in God. He does have your best interests at heart, even when you can’t see them. If you could always see what He was doing and always understood, you wouldn’t need His help. So when you ask Him for help, realize that you’re not always going to understand the process. You won’t always see how the means gets to the end. However, even when we can’t see, and can’t understand, we can know that God does see and does understand, and He has an amazing end in store!

Bananas, Not Worms

I was really encouraged the other night listening to the radio. Missionary Darlene Rose came on, and was talking about her experience as a prisoner while serving in Asia. She had been accused of being a spy and talking on a radio in the jungle, of which she was innocent, but was held in a prison for a long time and tortured. She said she had been in there under poor conditions so long that she was suffering from malaria, dropsy, and a few other serious health issues. One day they brought her porridge because she wasn’t able to eat rice (because it was solid food). She thought the white stuff on top of it was coconut, but realized when she got close that it was actually worms.

She decided to go ahead and try to eat it. She managed to get a few bites down, but couldn’t eat any more. She thanked God for it, though, because she knew she could have gone without anything to even put in her stomach. She climbed to the top of her cell to the window where she could get some cool air on her face since her fever was so bad. She looked out the window and saw a woman carrying a large fruit basket. There were several bananas in the basket, and they looked so good! She prayed, and said, “God, I will not ask you for much. I don’t want a bunch of bananas. Could you just send me one banana?”

She said she then began to think of how God was going to answer her prayer, like a lot of us do when we pray. She thought through the guards, and concluded that none of them would bring her a banana. She thought about asking a guy that came by every now and then, because he seemed nice, but she realized that he would be shot if he got caught giving her a banana. She couldn’t figure out how God could possibly get her a banana, so she prayed and told God she was sorry. She had asked Him for something too hard, and wasn’t grateful for what she had. She told Him she really was grateful for the porridge, and was sorry she had asked for an impossible thing. 

Later that day a guard she had met at the other prison knocked on her door. He smiled at her, and she got so happy because she hadn’t seen anybody smile in so long. He was surprised, but he came in and talked with her. She told him she wanted to tell him about someone she met in Arizona when she was nine. She told him how she met Jesus, and how He had saved her. She told the guard that when Jesus comes into your heart, He fills it with love and you have no room for hate. She told the guard she didn’t hate him for what he had done to her. The guard cried as he listened. He left her alone in her cell, and went outside to talk with the other guards. A few hours later, her door opened, and they carried in bananas into her cell. They didn’t bring her just one, or two; they brought 92 bananas into her cell!

Instead of diving into them, she pushed them all to the other side of the cell away from her. She told God how sorry she was, that she was unworthy of the bananas. She had told Him she was sorry for asking Him to even bring her one banana, and he brought her 92 of them. She finally brought herself to eat them. After a few days as she was eating the last banana, they opened the prison door and released her.

It made me think about how often we pray and ask God for things, specific things, and because we can’t see how God could possibly do it, we don’t trust Him. Haven’t we all been guilty of praying for something and then trying to figure out how God is going to do it? Maybe you have prayed for a spouse, and then thought you knew God’s plan and pushed to make it happen, only to have it fail and your heart broken. Maybe you have asked God to move in your finances, but are overwhelmed and can’t see how God could possibly move in your situation. Maybe you have a dream that God gave you, but you’ve tried and tried to make it happen and it seems like it’ll never go anywhere.

That brings us to what is so awesome about God! He loves to do “exceedingly above all that we can ask or think.” He can take an impossible situation and turn it around. Think about Abraham, and how God had given him the promise of a son. Sarah gave up hope that she would have kids, so she figured out another “way” God could give him a son, through her maidservant Hagar. However, God had His own plan. He allowed Sarah to have Isaac when she was 90. So often we try to figure out how to help God answer our prayers, but we forget that He doesn’t need our help. He just wants us to trust Him that He’ll do what He says. He doesn’t forget His promises, and He doesn’t give us dreams just to let them die.

Also, Missionary Darlene Rose thanked God for the porridge because she thought that was the best He could do. She allowed herself to be content with what she had although she had asked for more. Likewise, Abraham tried to be content with Ishmael as his heir instead of a son through his wife because he couldn’t understand yet how God could do it another way. What’s sad is we often seem to do the same thing. We pray for something specific, and then try to be content with the first thing that comes along, assuming it’s from God. The bible says in Luke 11:11-13, “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”

Don’t settle for less than what God wants to give you. He is always faithful, and He’ll always do what He promises. Just wait on Him and His will in your life. You don’t have to try to figure out how to make God’s will happen. He is already working on your behalf, and wants you to trust Him and submit your will to Him. If only we could understand how great God’s love is for us, we wouldn’t be afraid of in trusting Him. The bible says perfect love casts out all fear. Sometimes it can be difficult to trust God with our lives, our will, and our future, but the closer we get to God and the more we love Him, the easier it becomes to trust Him. He has big plans for your life; just trust Him to make them happen, and He’ll do bigger things than you ever thought possible.

The Distortion in the Mirror

When I was younger, I went with my uncle and aunt to a church camp. We stayed in cabins and had morning and evening services like most camps. I was getting ready for service and didn’t have a mirror to see my hair or outfit, so I went to find one in my aunt’s cabin. When I looked into the mirror, I looked like I had put on twenty pounds! I told my aunt, “I think your mirror is distorted. I look huge!”

All of a sudden she jumps up laughing and hugs me. I asked her what was going on, and she said she hadn’t realized the mirror was distorted. She had been on a crash diet since she looked in the mirror because she believed that she had gained weight. I told her she looked fine, and hadn’t gained weight like she thought. We both laughed and went to find another mirror that was clear.

It made me think, though, how often we do this in life. It seems like there are a lot of mirrors telling us who we are. We see models that send the message we’re not pretty enough or skinny enough. We see advertisements saying we need this product, that pair of shoes, that car, to really be who we want to be. Sometimes people let us believe we’re nothing without them in a relationship. Maybe our boss makes us think we’d be nothing without this job. And maybe we’re even telling ourselves we’re worthless.

We often don’t even realize that the mirrors we’re looking into are distorted. Maybe we try to change even who we are to look good in someone else’s distorted mirror. But, I’ve got good news. There is a mirror we can go to that’s not distorted.

God knows who we are better than we do, and He tells us who we are in His Word. In Genesis 1:27, the bible says “In the image of God created he him, male and female created He them.” You were created in the image of God. You have incredible value!

The bible also says in Romans 10:15, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” Did you know that to God even your feet are beautiful?

In Matthew 10:29-31, the bible says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.”

There are so many other verses in the bible as well that tell us who we are as God sees us. He alone knows how valuable we are, and he loves us unconditionally. We must look in God’s mirror, the Word, and remember who we are in Christ.

We must also remember that even if we look fine in our own mirrors, God’s mirror will show the flaws that we can’t even see. Wouldn’t it be horrible to go out in public with your breakfast on your face or broccoli in your teeth because you couldn’t see yourself well in your mirror? But yet we go out in public with attitudes that are even more repulsive than food on our faces because we didn’t ask the Holy Spirit to check us before we left. Before we ever leave the house, we must remember to look in God’s mirror, allowing the Holy Spirit to clean us up so we can reflect Christ in all we do.

My Cat and the Pitbull - Knowing who you are in Christ

This morning I go out on the porch to eat breakfast and read my bible, and my cat comes out to join me. About that time, the neighbors' very large pitbull comes out of the house across the street. My cat looks nervously at me, and then proceeds to jump off the porch and head toward the dog! I watch with dismay and unbelief that my cat could be so ignorant and unintelligent. They say "Like pet, like owner," and I am refusing to claim her at this moment.

As she gets closer to the dog, her tail starts looking like a squirrel's tail, all puffed out. She goes into stealth mode, sneaking up on him. Then she stops, and the dog turns and sees her. It's the moment of truth. The dog looks at her with a puzzled look on his face, trying to figure out if she's bluffing or if she's as dangerous as she obviously thinks she is. He takes a few steps back, and she hisses.

Then the dog seems to realize that there's a size difference between them. He takes a second look at my cat, and barks loudly. She shudders about the same time I do, and at this point I come off the porch in case he decides he's hungry and wants cat for breakfast. He sees me and growls. By this time, I'm talking to both of the animals. I say, "Mr. Dog, I'm sorry. My cat obviously has not looked in the mirror lately, and she thinks she's bigger than you. Please ignore her..."

And I'm saying "Here, kitty, kitty!" in forceful tones that she's clearly ignoring. I can almost read her mind; it's saying, "Lemme at him, lemme at him!" Finally the dog turns around, tired of wasting his time on something a tenth of his size, and heads back toward his house. The cat turns back to me, looking quite smug. I just roll my eyes and take her into the house where at least for the moment she'll be safe from her ignorance.

As I was watching this, I thought about how my cat has attacked dogs in the past. She's so small and weak that most of the dogs could have turned on her and done away with her, but yet they ran off. This was one of the few dogs that didn't run away from my cat. Yet he didn't attack, and he seemed intimidated at first that she would even attempt to attack him. Isn't this how we as Christians react to attacks from Satan?

We don't realize how powerless he is, and how powerful we are because of Christ within us. We need to look in the mirror of God's Word, realize who we are in Christ, and stand up to the devil! For too long we have been backing down and even allowing the devil access to our territory, to our "yard" so to speak. He's not going to go away just because we back down. He's going to keep intimidating us until we stand up to him and use the power God has given us to chase him off. It may seem scary to us, but if we could see the situation as God sees it, we would realize our fear is just as silly as the pitbull's fear of my cat.

The bible says the devil walks about "as a roaring lion," seeking whom he may devour. Notice it doesn't say he is a roaring lion, but rather he's "as" a roaring lion. My cat may walk around thinking she's a lion, thinking she's big stuff, but she's just a little black kitty. Let's realize who we are in Christ, that we don't have to back down, and that through Christ, we have power over the enemy!

An Inspiring Excerpt from "My Billion Bible Dream"

Here is an excerpt from a book I'm reading, "My Billion Bible Dream," by Rochunga Pudaite. The author has sent millions of bibles all over the world and has helped translate the bible into his people's native language in India. The following quote comes from a conversation he and a man were having about India and poverty. The man confronted him that he should be sending food instead of bibles. Pudiate responds by telling this story:

"Watkin Roberts was a chemist in Wales when a great spiritual revival swept his area. He read Lord Roberts's account of the pursuit of the Hmar headhunters and felt God wanted him to take the Bible to the Hmars. But when he arrived on our borders, the British agent said to enter our territory was too dangerous. He found some Lushais from a trip adjoining the Hmars and set to work to translate the Bible in the Lushai language.

One day, missionary Roberts received a gift of five pounts, worth about twenty-five dollars in American currency, from a Christian woman in Hemstead, England. He used this money to print a few hundred copies of the Gospel of John in Lushai. Then he sent Gospels by a British runner to the chief of each village in the tribal area.

The chief in my father's village of Senvon received one of the Gospels. A Lushai tribesman happened to be there and read the book to him. But the Lushai could not satisfactorily explain what it meant to be born again. He suggested that the chief invite the translator, Roberts, to the village.

When Roberts asked the British agent for permission, he was told not to go. 'When I go in there, I take along a hundred soldiers for protection,' the agent said. 'I can't spare a single soldier for you!' When Roberts showed the invitation to the British official, the agent retorted, 'That's an invitation to have your head lopped off. They'll make a celebration out of you.' But Roberts found an interpreter and went...

...The chief received him graciously. But Roberts couldn't seem to help the chief understand the gospel either. After five days he was about ready to leave when his interpreter, who had been listening, took him aside and told him a story. 'When two tribes are at war,' the interpreter said, 'the side that wishes to make peace goes to a mountaintop at sunrise and beats a big war drum three times. If the other side replies before sundown by beating their war drum, that means, 'Come to the boundary and let's talk it over.' The chief who wants to make peace kills an animal and lets the blood of the animal flow along the boundary line. Then he and his enemy place their hands on the slain animal while their spokesmen negotiate. When they reach an understanding, the chiefs embrace and share in a peace dinner. I believe that is the way you can explain how God makes peace with man,' the interpreter told Watkin Roberts.

That evening missionary Roberts explained to the Hmar chief that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die on the cross - the 'boundary' of sin between God and man - to make peace with man. The Bible was a record of God's treaty with man and His invitaiton for man to come to the boundary and accept God's sacrifice for peace.

The chief and four other Hmars solemnly announced they wished to make peace with the great God of the Bible. Once they had done so, Roberts returned to the British outpost."

After the missionary left, the Hmars that received salvation that night became preachers. They preached in other villages, and many people were saved. One of the sons of those first preachers went on to translate the entire bible into their language. The population of the Hmar tribe in the late 70's was up to 125,000, with at least 95% of them being Christians. They had an 85% literacy rate when the book was written, much higher than India's national rate, and the per family income was nearly twice as high as the rest of India. Pudiate, the author, felt the burden to give the entire world a bible because of what the bible did for their village. It wasn't charitable donations or government; God and His Word changed over 100,000 people because of one missionary, Watkin Roberts, and the distribution of bibles. At the time Watkin Roberts went to the headhunting villages of the Hmar tribe, he was 22.

Breaking Free from the Hook

I was listening to Pastor Paul Daugherty preach this morning about temptation, and he compared fishing with temptation. We’ve probably all heard the analogy how that the devil uses something that looks good to catch our eye, but there’s a hook in it. Pastor Paul brought out some new points I had never heard. I go fishing sometimes with my brother, and it really made me think.

Whenever we’re fishing and I hook a fish (this happens more often for me than my brother, just saying), it takes a little while to get it in. When it stops fighting for just a second, I reel it in closer to me. Eventually I will have worn it down enough to pull it all the way in and get it in the boat. This is what Satan does. Once he causes you to take the bait and he gets a hook in you, then he waits. Maybe you go to the altar and try to break free, and fight to get loose, but just can’t seem to break free. Then later that night, Satan reels you in a little further because you’ve stopped fighting for just an instant.

It amazes me that I only hook the fish in the mouth in one little spot, and it’s a small hook compared to the fish, but yet he can’t get free. Maybe that’s how you’ve felt with sin. It seems like such a small thing, but yet you can’t seem to get loose. That small thing has changed the whole direction your life is going.

When I’m fishing, not very many of my fish get loose if I’ve really hooked them. However, there is this thing fish do that I hate! Last week my brother had a big fish, and it swam under a log and wrapped the line around the log. Fortunately the water wasn’t very deep and my brother jumped in and pulled the fish out, but there have been times I’ve lost fish because it wrapped itself around something, and the water was too deep to get it out. I just had to cut the line and give up.

Likewise, after we’ve been hooked into sin, there is a place where we can run, a place we can wrap ourselves around. In the Old Testament, if someone committed a crime unintentionally, they could run to a brazen altar and hold onto the sides, or horns, of it, and be safe from punishment. However, if the crime were committed intentionally, that person would receive punishment even if they had made it to the place of safety (Exodus 21:12-14).

Maybe you unintentionally fell into sin. Maybe you didn’t mean to see that billboard that caused you to think wrong thoughts, or maybe you were abused as a child and can’t seem to break free of the pain and other problems it has caused. There is a place you can run to, a place where you can find forgiveness and healing and freedom!

But maybe you intentionally sinned. You knew it was wrong to look at that website, wrong to go to that place, but yet you did it anyway. Maybe you’re asking, what good would it do to go to the altar now? Well, the altar was a place of sacrifice. People would sacrifice animals on the altar to remind God of the ultimate sacrifice His Son would make on the cross. But almost 2,000 years ago, God’s Son did come, and He died for our sins. The blood price was paid, and now the altar is a place of redemption. When we run to the altar, we can know we’re guilty and still be safe from death, because someone already paid the price, someone already died for what we did. When Jesus died, He created a place we can run to for safety.

So maybe you’ve been hooked into sin, and feel like there’s no escape. But like a fish swimming around a log to escape, there is a place of safety you can go to! God can break every string, every chain that has a hold on you. The brazen altar was the last hope a criminal had of escaping punishment, and when we realize that we have no other hope of escaping sin, we can go to God, run to the altar, and allow Him to set us free. Run to that place of safety today, and let God free you!