To Be Assured

To Be Assured

James 1: 2-5 Amplified Bible

2 Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations.

3 Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience.

4 But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.

5 If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him.

   I think the more I look into the word Trust the better I like it.  Trust is truly a remarkable word.  To have trust in someone or something you are demonstrating that you are confident about their integrity, their strength and their abilities.  And for you to trust this someone or something, you must judge for yourself if trust is warranted.

   First, the object of trust must be worthy of your reliance on them.  You wouldn’t drive over a high, long bridge made of Popsicle sticks.  You would not have faith in placing yourself and your car on a 100 foot high bridge made of such a flimsy item.  You’d want steel trusses and concrete towers firmly set on solid ground.  So the object of your trust must first be worthy of trust.

   Secondly, the thing that must occur for trust to manifest is for you to be willing to rely on the object of that trust.  I know that’s a complicated sentence, but stay with me here.

   My wife and I visited Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina and crossed the swinging bridge over a gorge.  The bridge is very high up in the air; we were walking over the tops of trees.  When we stepped on this bridge, we had to be willing to rely on the wisdom of the architect who designed it and the strength of the materials it was built of and the skill of the builders who erected it.  Had I not been there, my wife would have been incapable of crossing that bridge.  I was willing to rely on the bridge to hold us and she was willing to rely on my judgment and so we walked over the bridge and later walked back.  Unwillingness to trust would have prevented us from moving on with our walk.  Unwillingness to trust God will prevent you from continuing with your walk through life.  You may become trapped in a bad place and be unable to get on with your life at that time.

    Christians who are willing to trust God at all times will move forward through bad times and good, over mountain tops and through valleys, and every situation life throws at you.  This truth is important to us:  Christians must be willing to trust God in all things in order to move forward.

   The Bible is a book about God.  You will see parts written about men and women and creation and angels and heaven and hell, but at the core it is a book about God.  The Bible tells of the perfection of God and His Son Jesus Christ.  The Bible speaks of God’s omnipotent power to create and manage all things.  It describes the beauty of His moral excellence.  God is loving, compassionate, merciful, good, patient, and faithful.  He is omniscient, eternal and unchanging.

   I believe that the reason the Bible reveals so much about God is so we will develop Trust in Him.  In my heart I know with crystal certainty that God is completely reliable when we cross our life’s bridges, face our life’s storms, and confront our life’s hard times.

   Why am I so certain?  The people of Israel were trapped between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army.   David prayed and loved God and a couple of his sons tried to overthrow him and kill him.  Daniel prayed three times a day and served his God whole-heartedly and was thrown in the lion’s den for the crime of praying.  All were preserved though their difficult times. 

   And on the other side of the issue, we know people were stoned and hung and cut with swords and knives and crucified.  They were dead for their faith. 

   God is the God of “Now” and He’s also the God of “Then.”  Faith has an application for today and also has one for a “better resurrection.”  We should trust God in all circumstances; and there are plenty of opportunities that will come our way to have to trust Him.  I need to Trust Him when life is easy and predictable and I need to Trust Him when life is stormy and uncontrollable.  Trust has to be trust whether we are surrounded by friends or we are trapped in the lair of our adversaries.  There is never a time when we should stop our Trust and try something else.

   I sat in the waiting room of the hospital Friday for more than 12 hours.  My wife’s surgery actually took 10 and ½ hours.  For that amount of time I was not in control.  I was outside my comfort zone.  I was as helpless as anyone can be.  All I had was my Trust.  Trust in God and the knowledge that He had Gloria’s best interest at heart. 

   I confess that Trust slipped a little from time to time, but I kept “hearing” an old hymn going through my mind, “’Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.”

Look up the words and you’ll see why they blessed me so much.  It really is sweet to have Trust in God.

FYI:

Gloria came through the surgery better than expected and is recovering in the hospital.

Stephen Cram                            January 22, 2012                            Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8