Trust Me

As followers of Christ, we are called to put our trust in Him irregardless of what circumstances we may find ourselves in. However, it's not always that easy for us, is it? I believe there is beauty in that.

Most of us are familiar with the infamous Lifeguard story of the Bible. It is one of my favorites.

Matthew 14:22-33

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.

27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Think about that for a moment. Peter had Jesus literally in front of him. Peter laid physical eyes upon Him. Jesus spoke to Peter. And yet, his faith in Jesus faltered! It truly puts things into perspective, does it not? Give yourself some Grace.

We are human, we are weak in flesh, and we often let our emotions and those silly irrational fears (—Again, that's Satan at work) get the best of us. No, we do not have Jesus physically standing right there in front of us, but what if we did? We wouldn't have room for excuses then, now would we?

And yes, we can sit here all day long making excuse after excuse. We can say, "I have faith, but Lord, you don't understand, I am about to lose everything." Or "God, I am in so much pain, my arms are weary and my soul is tattered and broken, I just want it to be over." Want to know a secret? Our incredible God knows what we are going through, He knows every excuse in the book before we even write it on the page, and He can STILL get you through it all.

Today, you may find yourself with this mountain in front of you that just seems too big to climb, too heavy to move, and too impossible to overcome —Just imagining getting through that sounds like a lot of hard work. That's because IT IS a lot of hard work, but we don't have to do it alone! God came before us, He is with us, and He will never leave us. He certainly won't let us drown. So let's do our part and put our trust in Him. He will equip us with what we need to walk on water.

Give Yourself Grace, Put Your Armor Back On, And Trust in Him.

Allow me to close with one of my favorite quotes from Jefferson Bethke.

"The truth is, sometimes the good plan He has for our lives is to make us look more like Him, which more often than not takes pain." —Jefferson Bethke