Choosing to trust God



Choosing to trust God is so daily, isn't it?

When I only looked at the "what-ifs" of Tom’s job situation – the possible unemployment, the grueling process of job-hunting, the financial strain unemployment would bring, and the uncertainty of the economy – my faith and God-confidence shook and waned. Fear and doubt knocked on my heart, suitcases in hand, wanting to move in and take up residence.
On the other hand, when I fixed my eyes on God, looked at His character and at the ways He had brought us through hard times in the past, my faith was strengthened. Courage, confidence and joy knocked on my heart!

This reminds me of Chuck Swindoll’s  article’’ Fighting the Fast Fade’’ he says....  Jesus illustrated this struggle so vividly in Mark 4. Do you remember? The seed is carefully sown. Yet shortly after God's Word is heard, the enemy of our souls, Satan himself, comes and snatches away the biblical insights that have been deposited in our hearts.

Isn't it the truth? Before the freshly baked cake is cool, he comes and licks off all the frosting. Before the new bike is ridden, he sneaks up and lets all the air out of the tires. Before the dress is worn, he slips up and jerks out the hem and jams the zipper. Before we crank up the car at 12:20, he's stolen the stuff we heard at 11:45.

Amazing! But you gotta remember, he's been at it since he winked at Eve in the garden. He's the first when it comes to rip-off experts.

There are others who follow in his train. Like a basketball fan discovered at the Portland airport awaiting the arrival of the Trailblazers following a victory over the Lakers. He was attempting to scalp a couple of tickets to the next game—for a hundred and fifty bucks each. As he wormed through the crowd, he located a well-dressed man who listened to his offer.

"How much?" asked the gentleman.

"One hundred fifty," he replied under his breath. "Not a cent lower."

"Do you realize you're talking to a plain-clothes officer of the law?" the man asked the scalper. "I'm going to turn you in, fella."

Suddenly the seller began to backpedal. He talked about how large a family he had . . . how much they needed him . . . how he'd never ever do it again.

Looking both ways, the well-dressed man said: "Just hand over the tickets and we'll call it even  . . . now get out of here and I had better never catch you here again!"

But the worst was yet to come. The well-dressed man was no officer at all. Just a quick-thinking guy who used a little ingenuity to land two choice seats to the next playoff game. He anonymously admitted it in the local newspaper several days later.

Satan's strategy is just as ingenious and effective. He hears what we hear and in the process plans his approach. He baits the rip-off trap, then sets it up with just the right hair trigger. Here are several:
  • an immediate argument in the car after church is over on where to go for dinner.
  • lots of activity, talking, and needless noise Sunday afternoon.
  • preoccupation with some worrisome, plaguing problem during the message.
  • a personality conflict with another church member.
  • irritation over how far away you had to park.
  • pride—that says, "I'm so glad Doo Dad is here. He really needs to get straightened out."
All those (there are more) are satanic rip-offs. Like a lion, he prowls silently, camouflaged in the garb of our physical habits and our mental laziness, seeking to devour. At the precise moment when it will have its greatest impact, he snatches away the very truth we need the most, leaving us with hardly a memory of what God said earlier. It occurs every Lord's Day in every language on every continent . . . at every local church where the Scripture is declared.

So many people are like the walking dead. They exist and breathe but they aren’t really living. Some people spend their days angry, depressed, resentful, and bitter. They refuse to give life a chance; they refuse to be grateful, loving, or kind. Some folks simply waste their lives and resources on things that have no meaning or purpose at all. This is not living! This is not the kind of life that God wants for us. God wants us to choose hope, faith, obedience, and kindness. God wants us to embrace Him and those around us. How can we dare ask God to select us for the Book of Life, if we ourselves have not chosen life?

Blessings,

Raj Kosaraju

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka

Image
Rambabu – Testimony of Hindu Brahmin from Karnataka Rambabu comes from a very well educated orthodox Brahmin family. His father is a professor in English from a reputed College. His mother is also an English teacher. He has 2 siblings who are both lecturers in English. The family belongs to the highest Hindu caste of Brahmins. Since childhood Rambabu grew up listening to many mythological stories from his grandmother. She used to say that in olden days, it was known that because we cannot see God physically in the world, he has created Brahmans in the world. All the thousands of gods live in the Brahmins. Rambabu from his childhood would perform all religious duties in two different temples. He would pray and perform “puja” every morning and night. Rambabu knew all the religious traditions so well that other people would invite him to perform religious activities in their homes. He was such strict Brahmin that he would...
Read more

Mahatma Gandhi admired Jesus and His teachings but did not follow "Christianity"

Image
As Gandhi famously said, “I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.” See, that’s a problem. And it’s not that I expect Christians to be perfect. Far from it. But if we’re ever going to be justified in claiming Jesus as the model for our lives, it might help first if there was more of a resemblance. Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most respected leaders of modern history. A Hindu, Gandhi nevertheless admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Gandhi he asked him, "Mr. Gandhi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why is that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?" Gandhi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." Apparently Gandhi's rejection of Christianity grew out of an incident that happened when he was a young man practi...
Read more

The Law of Karma

Image
There is a lot of misunderstanding around this word. Karma simply means action. Every action has consequences. Conscious choice making is the most effective way of creating future consequences of karma. Karma creates the future, but it is also an echo from the past. Karma conditions our soul through memory, desire and imagination. Most people are prisoners of Karma, because it becomes a conditioned reflex and produces predictable outcomes in their lives. The goal of enlightenment is to break the in shackles of Karma. Every person is responsible for his or her acts and thoughts, so each person's karma is entirely his or her own. Occidentals see the operation of karma as fatalistic. But that is far from true since it is in the hands of an individual to shape his own future by schooling his present. Hindu philosophy, which believes in life after death, holds the doctrine that if the karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the ...
Read more