Trusting Jesus to Help You Trust

Suggested Reading: Mark 9:14-29

Before I met my wife, I had very few good, romantic relationships. I'm not just talking about relationships that don't work out because no relationship really works until the one that lasts. I'm talking about hurtful relationships, relationships where I was lied to, taken for granted, cheated on, used. I got so used to being mistreated in relationships that, even after I was engaged, I still expected it to happen. So I looked for it to happen, and when I thought I had found evidence of it, I confronted my fiancé on it. I was very fortunate that she remained my fiancé. After having my paranoid accusation blown out of the water, I remember sitting with her on the tailgate of a truck as she twirled that engagement ring round and round on her finger and I prayed that she wouldn't take it off. Fortunately she kept the ring and I learned a thing or two about trust.

As hard as it is at times to trust people, I think it is infinitely harder to trust God simply because God is so far beyond us that we can't comprehend God's thoughts or plans. A loved one endures a long and painful illness. We lose a job and aren't certain how we are going to provide for our family. A friend betrays us and hangs us out to dry. Or we follow God's leading and watch as our finances slowly deteriorate. Whatever the circumstance, there are times when things simply don't seem to add up. We say we trust God. We hope we trust God. But in the middle of the circumstances, deep down, we know that we don't. We just can't see our way out, even with a miracle.

A man in Mark 9 faced a time of doubt just like that. His son had been possessed by an evil spirit for years. The spirit tortured his son, throwing him into seizures, causing the boy to fall in fires to be burned or into water so that he nearly drowned.  This man had sought out help for his son, even asking Jesus' disciples to help when they came into the region. Finally, in desperation the man came to Jesus himself and asked, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us" (Mark 9:22, NIV). Jesus' response in the next verse was to call attention to the man's doubt. "If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes."

Upon hearing Jesus' rebuke, the man's answer is at once remarkable and honest. He answers, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Sometimes, I think God wants us to answer that same way. "Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief!" Rather than insincerely spouting our trust in God or deciding to try harder to believe, take your lack of faith to God and ask for help to believe.  God doesn't want lip service to our trust. God wants real, honest trust, which is often hard earned. Sometimes our trust in God can't grow until we own up to our own lack of faith, while expressing our sincere desire to believe. 

In the middle of tough circumstances, when your faith in God is shaken, admit it and give God your doubt. Sometimes, that is the only way to overcome unbelief.

Doubting Duplicate Toys

Suggested Reading: John 20:19-29

One year for Christmas our son received a toy as a gift that he already owned. Looking at the gift, neither my wife nor I could remember him having it. My wife took my son’s word for it, but I am notorious for not believing things unless I verify them myself. My son forgets lots of things but at a moment’s notice he can recall the smallest toy in his toy box and all of the accessories that go with it. Still, when he kept insisting that he already owned the toy and my own stubbornness refused to accept something I couldn’t remember seeing, I commented that I would like to see the one he already had. Twenty seconds later, he had retrieved the toy from his room and placed it right next to the identical toy he had received as a gift. We offered to exchange the toy for something else but he liked the idea of having two of these particular toys. He just wanted me to believe him.

Based on that story alone, you can probably guess that I would fit right in with the disciple Thomas. Once Jesus had returned from the dead, he began appearing to the disciples and while all the other disciples had somehow seen Jesus, Thomas hadn’t been with them. For Thomas, it didn’t matter that all of the other disciples had seen Jesus and talked with him and eaten with him. Thomas insisted, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:24, NIV). When Thomas finally did get to see Jesus and fell on his knees before him, Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29, NIV).

Jesus' assertion was not that people should simply believe blindly whatever they are told about him, but that trust is more rewarding than insisting on verifying everything yourself. Honestly, when ten other grown men you have learned to trust start telling you they’ve seen something with their own eyes, refusing to believe isn’t healthy skepticism but, rather, it is unbelief and arrogance. Jesus didn’t tell Thomas that he should have believed in spite of evidence to the contrary. He simply understood that faith in spite of evidence is a very different thing than faith without evidence or than faith based on the word of someone you trust.

If you belong to Christ, you have already begun to trust, but trusting God with some things is harder than trusting God with others. Believing some parts of God’s word is easier than believing others. God’s desire for us is that we trust Him based as much on His character and Spirit moving in us as on the evidence we hope to find. Finding evidence is great. Being able to believe because we trust the One speaking to us is something even greater. 

Permission Slips, Trust, and Racist Comments

Suggested Reading: Matthew 15:21-28

Once, when she was in grade school my daughter wanted me to sign a permission slip for something at school. The way she went about it just about drove me crazy. She asked if I would, and I told her that I would have it for her before we left for school. Three minutes later she was back in front of me, asking if I had signed it yet. I assured her I would have it for her before we left for school. Three minutes later she was back again. In spite of the fact that I had assured her several times it would happen, and in spite of the fact that my wife and I have a pretty good track record at following through on things like that, my daughter was so focused on it, and so insecure about it, that she just kept coming back.

Matthew 15 shares the story of a woman at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to trust. A Canaanite woman had come to Jesus asking that he cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus ignored her. He ignored her to the point that the disciples finally came to Jesus and begged that he, at least, send her away because she was driving them crazy, too. Jesus announced that he couldn't help her because she wasn't a Jew. The woman barged her way in, falling before Jesus, and begging him again. Jesus again told her he couldn't help her because she wasn't a Jew, this time basically calling her a dog. When she responded that even dogs got scraps, Jesus finally relented and told her that she would get what she asked for. Mark's version of the story adds one more detail. When she arrived home, she found her little girl lying quietly in bed, and the demon was gone (Mark 7:30, NLT).

Why is that detail important? Well, if I was that woman, desperate to help my little girl, and this man had ignored me, put me off, made what I might consider racist comments, called me a dog, and then finally agreed, but wasn't going to go with me, I don't know that I would have left without him. I probably would have been convinced that he was only agreeing so I would leave him alone. But this woman left. She believed in him enough to take him at his word and go home in faith.

Sometimes, we are persistent in prayer simply out of devotion and discipline. But sometimes we are persistent in prayer because, deep down, we don't really believe that God will do what is best for us. We keep praying, not because we trust God, but because we don't. Like my daughter, who had every reason to believe I would keep my word, we sometimes pester God because we are nervous and insecure, because we don't really believe God will provide for us like God promised.

Persistence in prayer is a wonderful thing when we pray out of our faith. But sometimes we must intentionally put our insecurities aside and demonstrate our faith by letting go, moving on, and allowing God to follow through without pestering him in our insecurity. James tells us that we should pray, asking God in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord (James 1:6-7, HCSB).

What have you been pestering God about? Have you been persistent in prayer because you trust God or because you don't? Maybe it's time to let some things go. Ask God, one last time, and then trust God to do what is best, both, for you and for God's glory. Don't allow your prayers to demonstrate your lack of belief.

When Should You Throw In the Towel?

Suggested Reading: Hebrews 10:19-39

When I was working on my Master's Degree, about two years into my four year program, I got really tired of school. I had already spent five years working on my undergrad and was now working on another degree at the same school with the same professors. Some of the work was getting tedious. Some of the professors were driving me crazy. I was working full time and supporting a wife and two children so all of my studying got done between 11:00 pm and 3:00 am. I was tired. I was worn out. I was sick of dealing with school and felt the very real temptation to quit. I had other things to spend my energy on. But when I actually considered quitting, I was immediately struck by the amount of time and money I would have wasted. Then I started thinking about the effort that would have been flushed down the drain and the time I had spent putting up with all of the hassles that come with school. I eventually came to the conclusion that quitting school would be the equivalent of throwing away all of that time, effort and money and I couldn't do it.

However difficult working on my Master's Degree may have been, living an authentic, Christ-centered Christian life can be even more demanding. Jesus tried to prepare us for that when he counseled his listeners to count the cost before following him. He knew that doing the right thing, when few others were doing so themselves, would, at times, be frustrating. Jesus knew that following his example would lead to rejection and persecution. He knew that following the call of God would sometimes lead us down a less financially beneficial path than we might otherwise have chosen. We could continue through scripture and read about Paul when he complained that the apostles were considered the "refuse of the earth" compared to everyone else. Scripture tries to prepare us for a hard life as followers of Christ.

But however much we think we are prepared, when we find ourselves in the midst of those difficult circumstances, faced with troubles and problems we might not ever have faced without following Christ, the temptation to quit, to throw in the towel and walk away, can always surface. When those times come, when the road is tough and we consider how much easier it might be to just give up, consider these words from the book of Hebrews: "Do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God's will. Then you will receive all that he has promised" (Hebrews 10:36, NLT).

When the tough times come and you are tempted to quit, remember what you have endured. Refuse to throw away your time, your effort, and your trust in God. Choose to push through. Finish your course. You may have to endure some difficult paths now, but you will be rewarded for your patient endurance.

Pestering God About Mr Gatti's

Suggested Reading: Matthew 6:5-15

When my kids were younger and I was occasionally home with them during the summer, I tried to take them somewhere fun on Fridays if they had been good all week long. Before our local one closed down, Mr. Gatti's was their favorite destination. Each Friday morning,  the questions would begin. "Daddy, are we going to Mr. Gatti's?" "When are we going?" "Are we really going to Mr. Gatti's?" "Do we get to go?" "Please, can we go to Mr. Gatti's?" "Are we going?" Sometimes, I would finally respond, "If you ask one more time, we're staying home!" It drove me crazy, especially when they asked from a sense of insecurity, from lack of trust in me or, at least, when it felt that way.

Sometimes, though, we treat God the same way my kids treated me. We think if we ask God over and over again we will get what we want, as if repeating it a bunch of times will get God to do something God doesn't want to do. But Jesus told us, “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again." (Matthew 6:7, NLT). When Jesus warns us against simply repeating our prayers over and over, I believe he is saying two things: 1) Give God more credit than that and 2) Trust God more than that.

Do we really want a God who changes infinitely grand plans just because we bother him until we drive him crazy? Do we really think God's patience is so small that it works that way? God is loving enough to respond to our requests but God is not so small we can change God's mind by being annoying. Beyond that, we must trust God more than that. We must trust God enough that when we present a need, we know God will meet that need in the manner which is best for us and will bring Him the most glory.

Being consistent in prayer is one thing. Pestering God because we think we can force his hand or because we don't really trust him is another.

Becoming MacGyver Christians

Suggested Reading: Luke 4:1-13

One of my favorite television shows when I was growing up was the original MacGyver. If you aren't familiar with the show, it centered around a man known as MacGyver who was continuously sent on covert and sensitive missions and used common, every day items to create what he needed or to solve problems. Once he used chocolate bars to seal up an acid spill and another time he used a paper clip and a stick of bubble gum to disarm a nuclear weapon. MacGyver never had to worry about the supplies he didn't have. Whatever MacGyver had was enough to save the day. And he had a pretty catchy opening theme song too.

Christians have a lot to learn from MacGyver about how to look at what we have versus worrying about what we don't have. As Satan was tempting a very hungry Jesus , he suggested that Jesus should turn a nearby stone into bread in order to deal with his hunger and thus prove that he was the Son of God. The temptation was multi-faceted and a masterful stroke, not only did he attempt to goad Jesus' ego by saying, "If you are the Son of God…" but he played on Jesus' hunger and tried to focus Jesus on the fact that he had no food. Jesus' response to Satan was "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone'"(Luke 4:3-4, NIV).  Rather than allowing himself to focus on his lack of bread and be drawn in, Jesus reminded both himself and Satan that he had other things at his disposal that could sustain him, referencing Deuteronomy 8:3 which tells us that we can also survive on "every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

So my question to you today is: what do you have? So often we focus on the things we don't have. We don't have enough money. We don't have enough time. We don't have enough help. We don't have enough experience. We don't have enough space. We don't have enough opportunities. It is very easy to focus on the things we don't have. But as people who claim to trust in a sovereign God who provides for all of our needs, we spend a lot of time focusing on what we don't have rather than, like MacGyver,  looking around at what we do have and finding that we have exactly what we need.

Sometimes, our focus on what we don't have is a result of simply being narrow-minded - we are so convinced that only this thing will meet the need that we don't even consider other options. But ultimately, focusing on what we don't have demonstrates a lack of trust in God. If we really believe that God provides for all of our needs, our reaction to coming up short ought not to be to moan and groan about not having enough but to look around at what God has given us and believe that, whatever we have at our disposal, God has given us exactly what we need to deal with the situation while we place our trust in God.

If you keep thinking about what you don't have, find an old episode of MacGyver, get some inspiration, and then look around to see what God has given you. You never know when the little you have will be exactly what is needed for God to save the day.