Stop Trying Start Trusting

“It’s often our trying that keeps us from trusting”

Loren Thornburg

Do you ever notice that it seems as soon as you let go of working really hard to make something happen, that this is when something happens? There is something about letting go that allows us to receive. When we let go it is then that our hands are now in an open position to receive. Not that we should stop trying but that we should stop clenching our fists while we are trying. It’s the picture of when you squeeze sand you end up left with none, but when you hold it loosely in your hands then it will remain. So we too must hold things loosely. For it is often our trying too hard that keeps us from the very thing that we are desiring. It can be so hard to let go, but is it not harder to see it slipping through our hands?!!

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

don't try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

he's the one who will keep you on track.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 Message

Why is it so hard to trust God? The truth is that I can trust God with everything I do, everywhere I go, with all of my heart I can trust that He will keep me on track. Yet I still find myself trying to figure out everything on my own, trying to do it all in my own strength, trying to process it all through, trying to figure out the meaning and what is going on in the midst of confusion. I want to make sense of everything before I move forward in it and in order to find peace in it. But, that is not trust. Trust is the acceptance of the truth. This does not rest on my understanding of it, but of my trust in it. The Bible does not rest on my understanding, God does not rely on my understanding. I was reminded by a friend recently that if He says that He is good, then He is good. If He says He has a plan then He has a plan...end of story. Those things are not up for debate, yet often I am debating them. If He says He will keep me on track, then He will keep me on track as I listen and trust which means not figuring it all out on my own!!

“If God says I am His child then I am. If He says that He has a great plan for me then He does. If He says He loves me then He does. If He tells me He wants me to go over there then I should go. If He says all of my sins are forgiven then I do not have to live with the guilt. If He says He will provide then He will. If He says He believes that I can do it with His strength then I should trust Him. If He says He will guide me He already is. If God says that He does not make junk then that means I am His own masterpiece. If He says one day I will meet Him... I will.”

Morgan Miller

More to the Story

“There is more to the story.

It doesn’t end here.

There is more to the story

then we can see or hear.”

Loren Thornburg

Books and movies are fun because you often get the whole story in one sitting. Sometimes I wish life was a little more like that. Where if I wanted to know the end of the story I could just keep watching, or reading, or listening. But, our own stories don’t work quite like that. We only get one day at a time. However, just like a movie or book is not over halfway so there are more to our own stories. It’s just so hard to see that when we are in the middle of something that is really hard. It’s seems impossible to see past or out of it or that it will ever end. At this point it feels like the end of the story, but there is more. There is more to your story if you will just keep going, one day at a time, one page at a time knowing that the place you find yourself is not the end...there is more!!

“Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.”

1 Peter 4: 12-13 MSG

God is a God who is all about restoration, revival, and redemption. With this in mind we can know He is not about to stop writing the story of your life in the middle of it. I love all the places that His word speaks to this. We see in Isaiah the picture of Israel as a stump but the promise that it will be a “holy seed that will grow again.” We see all the stories in the gospel of healings and lives brought back from the dead, with the ultimate resurrection of Christ. Yet, with this I can so relate to the disciples. Jesus told them there would be more to the story but they couldn’t understand it all. So even when He died they believed it was the end of the story...but, there was more. The same is true for our own stories...there is more. So take the encouragement of Peter that in the midst of difficulty we can hang on knowing that God is on the job and therefore there is “glory just around the corner.” We can trust that there is more to the story than the place we find ourselves in.

No Formula

“Healing is not a formula it’s a process.”

Loren Thornburg

Healing is not math, it is not a science. A plus B does not always get you C. There is no “one” way to get from here to healed. Yet, often we treat it like that or expect that it should work like that. Often because we see what it looks like for other people. We see or hear stories of another person’s healing and think our own should look the same. However we are forgetting some key factors in this assumption. We are not all the same. You are very unique in your personality and ways that you think, act and feel. Thus, even if A plus B did get someone else C, you are not ‘A’ and your process is going to look very different as a result of that. Also, you are seeing someone else’s process from the outside and experiencing your own on the inside. What looks easy on the outside may be causing much more pain on the inside than you see. Healing has no formula, for the ways it comes, in the times it come, and to the extent that it comes. But, it does grow, you do change, and you do heal as you are willing to let it be a process.

“Then Jesus placed his hands over the man’s eyes again. As the man stared intently, his sight was completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.”

Mark 9:25 NLT

In reading this story of Jesus healing a blind man at Bethsaida my first reaction is confusion. This is not the usual healing story. Usually when Jesus touches someone for healing they are healed, and not just halfway healed, but fully healed. Yet, in this story it seems to take Jesus two tries to heal the blind man. When we can move past the question of why we can see some very powerful aspects of healing, (which if you’re like me if often takes some help and time to move past the why’s). Look past with me and see the heart of Jesus. He is committed to seeing the blind man fully healed. He doesn’t stop with the man being able to see a little but continues working and healing until the blind man’s sight was “completely restored, and he could see everything clearly.” Now, although for the blind man this seems like a relatively short process we still see there was a process. A process that began long before his encounter with Jesus but involved years of blindness, friends getting him there, his willingness to trust Jesus to spit on his eyes, and to keep believing that Jesus could heal him. So, in our blindness let’s keep believing through the process of our healing knowing that Jesus is about complete restoration.

Welcome Life

“The more life you invite the less room there is for all that steals it.”

Loren Thornburg

What does your welcome sign say? I think about signs, front doors, the face of the building they all communicate something either inviting or something that makes you want to turn away. Now it is often misleading to what is actually inside, however it gets you through the door. So I wonder what my welcome sign says to others. In addition it seems that what my welcome sign says has a huge impact on what comes into my life. For I could be welcoming things of destruction or I could be welcoming things of life. So I ask again what does your welcome sign say? What things are you inviting into your life? Welcome life and you will find more life. Let’s welcome life!!

“All these faithful ones died without receiving what God had promised them, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed the promises of God.”
Hebrews 11:13 NLT

The hall of faith as we refer to Hebrews 11 as recounts so many that lived lives of great faith. They believed in the promises of God even though not all of them were able to live to see that which God has promised them. What separated them was the ways they welcomed the promises of God. Their faith had a welcome sign that warmly embraced the promises of God. Now this doesn’t mean that they always did this perfectly. They too had times and ways that they trusted in oppression and lies more than His promises. Yet they are listed in this hall of faith because of the ways they learned to welcome the promises of God even when it didn’t make sense, even when it didn’t feel true, and even when they faced obstacles. Because they found He is the only truth, the only one trustworthy, and our only hope. Our only hope is His promises so let’s welcome them.