By Chris WittsSunday 15 Oct 2023Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
It’s a great shame that in life we can’t trust everyone. The fact is that people are going to let you down. Sometimes along the road of life. We trust someone only to have that trust betrayed. Maybe that’s happened to you. That can be an awful experience, but it hasn’t always been this way. There was a number or a time when a husband could trust his wife or a wife a husband. But today, unfortunately, there are fewer husbands and wives who can actually trust each other.
Do you remember the time when you could leave your doors and windows unlocked? Leave your car unlocked and you wouldn’t be frightened that someone would break in? We used to be able to trust our neighbours. Today, well, we’re not so sure about that.
Churches should be places of trust
I like the story of the person at church who used to fall asleep in his minister’s sermon. Now the minister was a bit concerned, but he didn’t want to offend him by saying something because the man was the richest person in his congregation. They thought he might have offended him, but he got to a point where he couldn’t stand it anymore. So he plucked up his courage and said, “Why do you go to sleep when I’m giving my sermon every Sunday?” And this man said, “Would I fall asleep if I didn’t trust you?”
What an interesting response. Whilst trust has taken a battering in recent years, there is one that we can trust completely. Our eternal God, the maker of heaven and earth, can be trusted. Here’s what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 56 – “when I’m afraid I’ll put my confidence in you. Yes, I will trust the promises of God. And since I’m trusting him, what can me a man do to me?”
Professor of Christian Ethics John Kavanagh once went to live at Mother Teresa’s house for the Dying in Calcutta. He stayed there for three months.
And somehow, he thought that he might find the answers to some of the questions in in his own life. That’s why he spent that time there. And on the first morning he actually met Mother Teresa and she said, “Well, what can I do for you?” and Kavanagh asked her, “Would you pray for me” and “what shall I pray for?” She asked, and he said that he would like to have a specific request answered. And he said, “Would you pray that I might have clarity?”
And she looked at him sternly and said, “No, I will not do that.” “Why not?” “Well,” she said, “clarity is the last thing that you’re clinging to, and that’s what you’ve got to let go of.” But Kavanagh replied that she always seemed to have complete clarity about what she was doing in the direction of her life there in India. And she laughed and said, “I’ve never had clarity. What I’ve always had is trust,”
“So why don’t I pray that you will trust God.”
That’s very simple, but it’s a powerful statement. Why don’t I pray that you will trust God? It’s something that we all need to remember. I think it’s one of the most important things in the Christian life is to trust in God.
Our problem is that we fret and we worry. The Psalmist said, do not fret, and Jesus actually said, do not worry. Now it sounds easy, but we know that we spend lots of our lives worrying. You might be looking for work, worrying about perhaps your parents, worrying about your kids. There might be relationships that are a problem. So we do worry about lots of things big and small. And I think much of our life is characterised by even low-level anxiety. So what we need to do is remember that we can trust God.
We have an all knowing, a sovereign, loving God, and you know that nothing can touch us except what God allows now that includes hardship and suffering. And, we can sometimes wonder, how could that be a good thing?
But, you know, there have been many people who’ve gone through trials and they look back and say, Well, I hated what I went through. It was so hard, and I wonder whether God had deserted me. But now I’m on the right side of this and I can see what God was up to for. You see, I can trust God.
So the Bible says that you can depend on God. Have a look at 1 John 4:8 for the very character of God is love. The Bible says in him there is no darkness at all. So really, you can trust God always.
Let’s Pray
Thank you, Heavenly Father, that you are a God that we can trust. We can trust you implicitly every day. May we be able to do that for this day. I pray in the name of Jesus our Saviour. Amen.