Scripture reading: “The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11
Two moose hunters from Texas were flown into a remote lake in Alaska. They had a good hunt and both managed to get a large moose. When the plane returned to pick them up, the pilot looked at the animals and said, “This little plane won’t lift all of us, the equipment, and both of those animals. You’ll have to leave one behind. We’d never make it over the trees on the take off.”
“That’s baloney!” said one of the hunters. “We came out here last year and got two moose and that pilot had some guts! HE wasn’t afraid to take off!”
“Yeah,” said the first hunter, “and his plane wasn’t any bigger than yours!”
The pilot got angry and said, “Well, if he did it, then I can do it! I can fly as well as anybody!”
They loaded up, taxied at full throttle, and the plane almost made it, but it didn’t have the lift to clear the trees at the end of the lake. It clipped the tops, then flipped, then broke up, scattering the baggage, the moose, and passengers all through the brush.
Still alive, but hurt and dazed, the pilot sat up, shook his head to clear it, and said, “Where are we?”
One of the hunters rolled out from being thrown into a bush, looked around and said, “I’d say…about a hundred yards farther than last year.”
Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” What does it mean to trust God with ALL your heart? The Message Bible says to trust Him from the BOTTOM OF your heart. That suggests more than just a surface trust but a trust that has depth. People often glibly say, “God’s in control,” but they don’t believe it when faced with a crisis. God smiles on the person who places the same unwavering trust in Him when things are careening out of control and when the pressure is on us.
Our trust in God is something that has to develop over time. It is not reckless trust in ourselves or in other people. It is not automatically there when we first become Christians. It comes as we learn more about God and His dealings in our life. When He answers prayer for us in a variety of life’s situations, it helps us to trust Him when the next problem arises. We can say, “This is what the Lord did for me last month. This is how He brought me out of a financial crunch, this is how He healed me when I was sick.” We build our relationship with Him on His faithfulness in past situations as well as in present times. His help is tried and true even when we experience delays and the answer does not come the minute we pray. We learn how to trust HIm from the very bottom of our heart because at the bottom are resources tucked away that steady us in times of uncertainty. When we have the tendency to waver in our faith, we have proof of His willingness and ability to meet us at our point of need because He has done it in the past.
THINK: Trust develops a day at a time.
copyright 2009 by Marilyn Murphree
Tags: concerns, confidence, prayer, Religion, spirituality, trust, worry
