Last week in part one of this devotional, we talked about the crippling affects of fear – how it is best defined as ‘False evidence appearing real.’ We discussed Elijah’s bold conquest over the prophets of Baal as told in 1Kings 18, and how it contrasted with his anxiety and depression in 1Kings 19, when he found out Israel’s queen was out to kill him. Elijah ran away and hid, but when God sought him out, he gently corrected his wrong thinking and showed him he still had a plan, and that the prophet wasn’t as alone as he feared.
Today, we’re going to consider the opposite of fear, which I’d say is faith or trust – the kind of trust Elijah had when he was confronting the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in 1Kings 18. He wasn’t afraid for his life then. He even taunted his enemies when Baal refused to respond to their summons.
Trust is the attitude Queen Esther had when she went before her husband the king to plead for her people the Jews, even though he had the right to kill her for going into his presence uninvited. She had no idea whether he would extend his royal sceptre, welcoming her to approach him, or whether he’d have her killed, or at the very least banished for defiance, as he had done with her predecessor. Esther knew she was part of a bigger plan, and if she perished, she perished. (Esther 4: 16.)
But how does trust grow? You don’t just start trusting in someone overnight. Those of us who are married or have had any kind of close relationship can testify to that. Trust grows through shared experiences.
Let’s consider Abraham on the occasion when God called him to sacrifice Isaac as an example. God’s orders didn’t make sense, but Abraham showed a tremendous amount of trust. God had promised him a son through his wife Sarah, and he’d said that through that son Abraham’s family would be blessed. Now God was asking him to kill that son and offer him as a sacrifice. We’re told in Hebrews chapter 11 verses 17-19: “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Of course, God didn’t want Abraham to kill his son at all, and in fact, he didn’t have to in the end. God was merely testing him to see how much he loved and trusted him.
Trust grows out of our shared past experiences. It was my trust based on how God had brought me through my father’s death that eventually led me to let go of my fear and place Mam in his hands. I would be lying if I didn’t admit I still have my moments of fear, but God is working with me on that.
A few weeks ago, we talked about how in old testament times, whenever God did something wonderful for his people, he would tell them to set up stones of remembrance. We discussed how Joshua did this after the Lord parted the Jordan river so the Israelites could walk through on dry ground. Another example can be found in the story of Jacob, when he fled his father’s home due to death threats from his brother Esau and rested for the night at a place later called Bethel. He had a vision of a ladder stretching between heaven and earth, with the angels ascending and descending, and the Lord speaking to him from above. (Genesis 28: 10-15.) Verse 18 says: “Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.” Later, Jacob would return to that stone pillar with his family, and it would act as a reminder and as a place to stop and worship God in remembrance of all the good things he had done. Like Jacob, we’ve all had our share of both difficult and wonderful experiences in our journey of serving our Lord, and we need to share them to build up and encourage others, so our lessons won’t be wasted.
So we can trust based on our past experiences, and those of others. I’m so grateful to those who’ve shared their faith journeys with me, especially in my younger years when I tended to get a bit dramatic about life and thought my problems were the end of the world. I will never stop thanking Jesus for loving and mature Christian friends, who took me into their home, listened to my woes, and gently taught me to trust the Lord more based on everything they’d endured. One couple in particular spring to mind. They had experienced great loss, yet even to this day I haven’t met stronger people of faith. They had faced massive health challenges, plus the death of a child – one of life’s most cruel losses, but rather than pulling them away from Jesus, it drew them even closer as they fell upon him for daily courage and strength. I pray for opportunities to give back to others something of what this couple gave to me.
Finally, if we can trust God in times of fear based on past experiences and those of others, we can also trust based on his promises. We’ve already touched on that with the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham’s trust was completely grounded in the promises of God that his descendants would be numerous and would come through Isaac.
The Bible is full of wonderful promises. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important we read it. We need to get into the Word and get the Word into us. We need to make it personal. Sometimes, God will give us special promises that jump off the page, and we know they are particular life promises for us. This happened to me during a very bad time in my life, when the Lord gave me Jeremiah 29 verse 11, assuring me that he had good plans for me, despite how things looked at the time. He also spoke to me about the need to let go and stop trying to control outcomes through Isaiah 30: 15. “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” There was a gentle rebuke in these words, and believe me, I needed it.
Do you have special words or promises from Jesus? If not, maybe you could ask him for some. Remember his word is living and active, and sharper than any double-edged sword. (Hebrews 4: 12.)
During these times of fear and uncertainty, which as we read our Bibles, we know are likely to grow worse as we get closer to the Lord’s return, we need to try and not listen to those fears – those false evidences appearing real, but rather instead, we need to trust that our Saviour is ultimately going to work all things together for good in our lives. WE trust based on his faithfulness in the past, both to us and the people we know, and also to the wonderful characters we read about in our Bibles. And we trust by standing on his good and wonderful promises which will never fail.