Word for Today, Thu, 12 Aug 2004: Confidence in God
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Earlier this week, Oswald Chambers wrote a lesson on prayer.
Today's message is also from Oswald Chambers. This message is
about a related topic, the idea of having a deep confidence in
the God who created us, the one we pray with. That confidence is
secure enough that we may rest secure.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
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August 12
The Theology of Resting in God
Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?
Matthew 8:26
When we are afraid, the least we can do is pray to God. But our
Lord has a right to expect that those who name His name have an
underlying confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so
confident in Him that in any crisis they are the ones who are
reliable. Yet our trust is only in God up to a certain point,
then we turn back to the elementary panic-stricken prayers of
those people who do not even know God. We come to our wits' end,
showing that we don't have even the slightest amount of
confidence in Him or in His sovereign control of the world. To
us He seems to be asleep, and we can see nothing but giant,
breaking waves on the sea ahead of us.
"... O you of little faith!" What a stinging pain must have shot
through the disciples as they surely thought to themselves, "We
missed the mark again!" And what a sharp pain will go through us
when we suddenly realize that we could have produced complete and
utter joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident
in Him, in spite of what we were facing.
There are times when there is no storm or crisis in our lives,
and we do all that is humanly possible. But it is when a crisis
arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely. If we have
been learning to worship God and to place our trust in Him, the
crisis will reveal that we can go to the point of breaking, yet
without breaking our confidence in Him.
We have been talking quite a lot about sanctification, but what
will be the result in our lives? It will be expressed in our
lives as a peaceful resting in God, which means a total oneness
with Him. And this oneness will make us not only blameless in His
sight, but also a profound joy to Him.
2003 RBC Ministries-Grand Rapids MI, 49555-0001
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Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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