TRUSTING GOD

Two scriptures have come to mean a great deal to me in recent days. The first is, "...but if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" And Jesus said to him, " 'If You can?' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and said, "I do believe; help my unbelief."(1) The second is, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?..."(2)

There are things I know to be true, promises in scripture for some pretty amazing things, at least by human standards. I have seen God keep His promises and do miraculous things, like heal my husband by removing his brain tumor. Yet I am 'counseled' that "God doesn't do that anymore"! Having witnessed God do great things, I still find myself saying to my God "IF You can do anything". Perhaps it is better put "IF You want to?". Why do I let the murmuring of no faith affect MY faith? Of course God is sovereign. Does His sovereignty negate His promises? If God is God, that answer has to be NO. Because God is God, it must be that He chooses how He keeps His promises, not IF He keeps His promises. God is not a man, that He should lie.

(1) Mark 9:22-24, (2) Numbers 23:19

Forgiveness: it's like a car wreck....

I've been thinking about forgiveness lately in ways I never before considered it. I've had a lot to forgive. Things I'd heard a thousand times finally clicked...I'm a little slow. I am bought with a price.(1) I am a bond servant of Jesus Christ.(2) I've heard this – and read it – at least a few hundred times, and I understand the doctrines. Jesus paid my purchase price, and that gift which I through faith received is my salvation. How amazing is God's grace that doesn't stop there, but steps past calling me slave to call me daughter? It was only recently, when I began thinking about the master/servant, father/daughter relationship, that I began to understand forgiveness.

I was an insurance adjuster for ten years, so it made sense to me in insurance terms. If Joe without insurance hits my car, I have damage. Joe without insurance owes me for the damage to my car. If I go to MY insurance company and MY insurance company pays for my car to be fixed, after I take it to the body shop and have it repaired I no longer have a damaged car. Joe without insurance no longer owes ME for the damage to my car. He owes the one who paid to fix it, ie my insurance company. My insurance company is responsible to collect their money from Joe without insurance, and I can get on with my life and forget Joe ever damaged my car. I am made whole, at least my car is whole. When Jesus saved me, He gave me all things pertaining to life and Godliness.(3) He fixed my broken pieces, made me whole. He became the father I never had, my defender, my protector, my savior, my friend.

Things started to make sense when I realized there were people who sinned against me, and those sins against me damaged me. Jesus gave me what I needed to fix those damages. He made me whole. He became both my insurance company, in that He paid for my damages, and my body (soul) shop, in that He fixed me. Because I am made whole, and I no longer have damage, therefore there is no longer a debt owed to me by those people who sinned against me. Rather, they owe a debt to my Master, the one who paid for and fixed the damages done to me by the sins they committed against me. They owe a debt to Jesus for their sins against me. I realized that whenever a person sins against me they damage me, and Jesus is always faithful to fix the damage their sins against me cause. I've known Him 32 years, and that has always been the case. He always makes me whole. That is not to say that I always see myself as being whole. I had to think about that. I realized I've carried anger toward those who've sinned against me as though they still owed a debt to me for the damage they'd done to me. As though I could actually collect something from them for the damage they'd done to me. As though I had not already been repaired. I have been holding people accountable to me for a debt for which I have already been paid.

It's taken a long time to see myself as whole, and in a real sense I'm still learning. First, I had to ask myself some very basic things, go back to my beginning and examine the foundation of my beliefs. Is God God? What does that mean? Well, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.(4) That God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?(5) I realized I'd put God in a very small box. Had I taken a marker to my Bible, and crossed out all the things I thought God didn't do anymore because of "whatever" reason, half my Bible would've been marked out! Next, I had to figure out who I am in Christ. I had help, a very good book by Neil T. Anderson entitled... drumroll... "Who I Am In Christ". I highly encourage this read, no matter how long you've known the Lord.

(1) 1 cor 6:20, (2) Gal 1:10, (3) 2 Peter 1:3, (4) Heb 13:8, (5) Num 23:19