Trust And Obey

We should trust and obey when it comes to God, but it is much more difficult when it comes to our government. We hear two sides of everything and I guess it’s up to us to figure out who or what is right. However, God is always right and He is in control. If we put all our trust in Him everything will turn out okay.

It isn’t always true when it comes to our children though is it? We have been given free will and our kids don’t always know which is right and which is wrong, do they? I will tell you a time when I didn’t trust. My daughter had just finished high school and was attending our community college. At the same time, she was working at a fast food place to help out financially and had to close the place after midnight. She met several boys at that late hour and I didn’t approve of them. I noticed that she was getting very tired and thought it was because she was spending to much time with those boys.

In my job as a Parish Worker, I called on all of the sick and shut-in people. One day I was calling on an old couple that had many serious complications. They kept talking about how wonderful JoAnne was. She had cleaned the apartment completely, even to do some painting in one of the rooms. I heard the name JoAnne but had never connected it until I asked. “Why it was your daughter that did all this work. She worked all week. Didn’t you know?” the lady asked.

No, I didn’t. I had thought she was spending too much time with those boys. I hurried to her room where she was lying down to apologize. This happened many years ago but it still burns within me. Why didn’t I trust my daughter?

Well, we don’t trust and obey God very well either, do we? If we trusted Him that our country will be okay because He is in control, and if we trusted and obeyed him with our lives, we would be okay too. Let’s try a little harder to do what that little song says: We must trust and obey.

They were like us

When I was a little girl going to Sunday School, I thought people like Abraham, David, and Peter were God’s best friends and were sort of like God themselves. Now I’m not telling you that my teachers taught me that,  but maybe you thought the same thing! I know better since I’ve grown up, but I still think of them as much better than me. Let’s take a few of them and find out.

Abraham was told by God to take his whole household and go with him. Now, he didn’t tell him where to go, just to go! He took his wife, all their servants and all his livestock and went. But when he traveled to a certain city, he told everyone his wife was his sister. I guess he thought it would be safer for his wife, who was a beautiful lady. So he lied.  But God forgave him.

Jacob and Esau’s mother played a joke on her husband when she wanted her second born son, Jacob, to get her husband’s blessing instead of the firstborn son Esau. Her husband was very ill and entirely blind, so she thought she could fool him so she put animal fur on Jacob’s arm because Esau was very hairy, she had him dress in Esau’s clothes and she made a stew that just her husband and Esau liked. Her shenanigans worked. Jacob got the birthright blessing! I’m sure she was forgiven too, but we aren’t told so. Or was she doing God’s will? In any case, she really changed things.

How about New Testament men like Peter? He just sat around the fire swearing that he didn’t know Jesus, who was arrested and was heading into trial. He felt terrible after he did that, but it was already done and God forgave him. Just look at all he accomplished.

Then there is always Paul who traveled everywhere spreading the Gospel. He was told by God to travel to Nineveh to save that city, but he went to Tarshish instead. God was pretty hard on him, but forgave him and used him in Nineveh and many other countries.

Yes, they were ordinary people just as we are. But do we serve Him? Do we even ask Him what we should do for him? Do we thank him like we should? Do we even pray to Him? Those people written up in our Bibles did a lot of praying, asking for forgiveness, thanking Him and walking daily with Him. Do we? The folks in the Bible were ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Maybe he needs us, ordinary people, if only we ask him. Have you ever thought about that?