Published by admin on 14 Aug 2002 at 02:02 pm
AFRAID TO TRUST GOD?
The Lord has given me somewhat to say to the Body of Christ today.
First, I hear the Holy Spirit saying, “Let’s deal with the fear you are facing concerning your situation.”
We really can not go very far with God when we are in fear. Many of you have been prayed for several times already, and you haven’t seen any change, and you wonder if God is really even hearing your prayers. For example, you may be afraid to let a doctor operate on a medical condition you have, but you aren’t ready to completely trust God to take care of it, either.
We can look outside every morning and know that while we were asleep, something, somewhere was at work to make everything still be here in the morning. That “something” is God. Everything in creation is here because He put it there. We can look up at the stars at night, and even with the tiny bit of the universe we can see with our naked eye, and we are in awe. God did all that up there. Nothing is by accident. He purposed everything there is. He is aware of every star, every planet, every galaxy, and He is aware of this tiny planet Earth. And He is aware of every person on this tiny speck of dust in the universe.
Now, the Bible says that God created man in His own image. Now I’m going to speak to you personally. He created you to live in health, and to know Him and to be known by Him. He created you to walk each day of your life in fellowship with Him that is so real, it is like a person who is standing next to you and speaking to you. In fact, more real than that, because He wants His Holy Spirit to be inside of you, communing with Him constantly.
I said all that to say this. God is aware of what is going on with you. He not only is aware of it, He wants you to know He is aware of you as a person. He cares for you. And though you may have prayed and prayed and it seems like it isn’t working, it is. That’s why I’m speaking to you right now. He’s been trying to tell you to stop being in fear, but He isn’t getting through to you, so He told me to speak to you about it.
When we are in fear, it is the same as telling God that we don’t think He is able to deliver us from whatever it is that we need His help with.
In 1993, I faced melanomas and liver cancer. I had faced a lot of things in life that were pretty bad, but I always seemed to make it through, somehow, some way. This time, it was different. I was told I would die soon. Fear set in. Real fear, the kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, the kind that makes you sick at your stomach. Like someone grabs you in the guts and twists real hard. I knew there was nothing I could do. It was out of my hands.
And I wasn’t saved, and I knew it. Oh yes, I went to church a lot, thinking I was doing God a great favor. I was only fooling myself. But not anymore. I had to face the facts. I was a dead man walking. In my fear, I cried out to God to save me. I asked the church elders to pray for healing for me. I was a desperate man. I was afraid.
Then, something happened. God did what I asked Him to! He saved me, and great peace came upon me.
Oh yes, and He healed me without any treatments, too.
When that happened, something else happened. Fear left me. It was like chains that had been upon me for my whole life, and suddenly, they were gone. Then God asked something of me….He asked me to trust Him. Imagine that! The creator of the whole universe asking ME, of all people, to trust Him? What could I say? Each morning I wake up, the earth is still here. It seems like He has the situation pretty much in hand, wouldn’t it? Can I trust Him? Sure, that’s a piece of cake, or is it….?
Each day would bring a new challenge to my new-found faith in God. Up to then, I had successfully trusted Him for my salvation, trusted Him for my healing, and now, day by day, I was trusting Him for my provision.
Why is that? Well, because when I found out I had cancer, I resigned my career job with the Highway Patrol and went home to die. But He had me develop my furniture repair business that I did part time as a hobby, into our living while He was preparing me for the ministry (although I didn’t know that at the time). Each time a storm would come into my life, I would have to trust Him all over again for our deliverance from it. Why in the world is that? You’d think that after so many times of God proving Himself faithful to me, that trusting God completely, and without fear whatsoever, would be like second nature by now, right?
Wrong. Somehow, we humans have to learn to trust Him all over again, each and every trial we go through, or so it seems.
The disciples saw miracle after miracle, yet their hearts were hardened. You can read in Matthew 14 how Jesus had just fed about 5000 people and 12 baskets full of food was left over. Then the disciples were in a boat crossing the sea, when a terrible storm blew up. And even though the disciples had just seen the provision of God, they were scared half out of their wits. To top this off, Jesus came walking to them on the water, and scared them the rest of the way out of their wits. But He said, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid!
And of course you know, they were immediately all well and fine, right? No! They were still scared. Peter told Jesus, If it be you, bid me come to you on the water! What could Jesus say? Don’t come, it isn’t me? But He said “Come.” And Peter got out of that wind and wave battered boat and walked to Jesus on the water. And he did just fine till he got scared. Why did he get scared? He got his eyes off Jesus, and the devil told him, Peter, you know you can’t walk on the water when it’s windy! Oh! Yes, right! Glub, Glub!
We’re pretty quick to condemn Peter for taking his eyes off Jesus, but remember, he’s the only one who even got out of the boat to go to Jesus. That took a lot of courage. Or a fear of sinking boats, one or the other. The point is, Peter, and the rest of the disciples forgot Jesus said they were going to the other side. Jesus wasn’t afraid. He trusted His Father that nothing could harm him before His time to be offered up for us. Jesus was the example of perfect lack of fear. He knew He had nothing to fear, for His Father was always with Him.
If we can once and for all get it through our head that Jesus will never leave or forsake us, we will get over all our fear. Once we settle it in our heart that the God of the universe, who put all this in place, is aware of us and is quite able to take care of us, we will have nothing left to fear. Jesus swallowed up sin and death. We need not fear anything, for the only One in the universe to fear, is for us, and not against us. Sometimes, I still need to hear that myself, even.
Perfect love casts out all fear. What is perfect love? It is knowing the only Perfect One, loves us. He personally loves us. And He individually loves us. And we can trust Him, no matter what it looks like. You aren’t going to “fall through the cracks”. God hasn’t misplaced or lost anyone yet.
And He isn’t going to start with you!
I’m not afraid to trust God. How about you? Can God put you on His “Trusts God” list?