Trusting Jesus
Forgive me in advance for being negative in this writing. If it makes it easier, simply hear this as my confession of failure on a bad day. If it helps challenge you to greatness, take it to heart as though Jesus is challenging you to His invitation to that greatness and the strength to live in it.
Who do you trust? I see people every week who distrust each other. Frequently, their suspicions are clearly the imposition of their weaknesses onto others’ minds and hearts. I would fail if I were tested by a certain situation, so they would fail even quicker. She’s lying. He’s hiding some truth. She’s planning to steal from me. He’s looking for some way to harm my reputation. It is easy at times to see people exposing their weaknesses by their accusations of others.
I suspect all of us have this weakness. The worst place it could manifest would be in how it affects our abilities to trust Jesus. Though He became like us in nature, He did not become like us in iniquity. He did not sin. We are becoming like Him as we mature.
We might abandon someone, we might expose someone, we might be full of fear of someone’s intentions or lack of intent, but Jesus will not. Our names are written on His hands.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.
Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
your walls are continually before Me.”
(Isaiah 49:15-16 HCSB ©®)
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”
(John 20:27 HCSB ©®)
When we face lack, we can either trust Jesus or not. When we face sickness, we can either trust Jesus or not. When we face theft, accusations, even our own failures, we can trust Jesus or not. Getting it straight in our minds that even the tiniest bit of faith can become life- and world-changing, and fastening that faith on Who He is and how He loves can create a way to escape every opportunity to fail.
Settle it in our minds and hearts Who You are, Lord Jesus. Cause it to change all our expectations and all our thoughts and all our deeds. Thank You, Lord.