Trusting God

2011-08-21 (am) Trusting God

How then, shall we live? How shall we live with the knowledge we have learned from ? Knowing that God is our great shepherd, that he cares for us in every imaginable way, knowing that nothing that happens to us happens by accident, but that it is all for his name’s sake. Knowing that God is with us every step of our lives even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, knowing that there’s nothing to fear in this life, how then shall we live?

Simply put, we live our lives completely trusting in God. That’s exactly what David is expressing in verses 5&6. Because God is his Shepherd, he is confident that God prepares a table before him, even when enemies press all around. David says that the provisions of God are great—they not only fill, they overflow. It is evident from his life, as well as in the lives of others, for example:

There was the time when David and his men were fleeing from Saul and David went to Abiathar the high priest. He asked him for some bread. But he didn’t have any. He only had the consecrated bread that had been removed from the most holy place—the bread only the priests could eat. Seeing David’s great need, he ignored the law and gave him the bread to eat.

When the Pharisees challenged Jesus for letting his hungry disciples pick grain and eat it on the Sabbath, Jesus mentioned what David did. He said the Lord provided the consecrated bread for David. The law that said only the priests could eat the bread, but in cases of need, the ceremonial regulations could be ignored. The purpose of the loaves was not to honour the loaves themselves, or even the priests. The twelve loaves represented the constant fellowship of Israel with God. The symbolism is that the people are continual guests at God’s table. God always provides for his people. The offering of the loaves was a demonstration of the people’s indebtedness to God.

As such, those loaves were a symbol of the relationship between God and his people. The loaves themselves were not the relationship. The priest was correct to ignore the law, and give the loaves to David and his men. God was providing for them.

David boldly trusted God’s provision. Notice though, David didn’t sit around waiting for God to give manna from heaven. He knew where he could get some food, so he went there to get it. In his mind, David saw the bread as fulfilling God’s promise to look after him as his great shepherd.

This is no different than getting up and going to work. We work for a wage, yes, but what we earn is nothing less than God’s provision for us. God supplies all our needs, the abilities to work, the training to improve, even the willingness to do the work.

Let’s look at another example, also dealing with bread. Jesus, overwhelmed by the crowds, takes his disciples to a quiet place. But when they get there, the crowds are waiting for Jesus. Jesus spends all day teaching them. Eventually it gets late, and the disciples say, “Hey Jesus, we got to do something, send these people away so that they can fend for themselves.”

Jesus, knowing what he was going to do, said to them, “You give them something to eat.” Philip looked around and said, “It would cost eight months wages to feed this many people. Hey Judas, how much money do we have in our account? Hey Matthew, you got any money on you? No? Anyone? Oh, there’s a boy here with 5 loaves and 2 fish? Like that’s going to help. Sorry, Jesus, we got nothing.”

The problem was that the disciples weren’t seeing the truth. They didn’t realise what they had. They had the father working for them. Just before they went to this place, Jesus taught them saying, “By myself I can do nothing. The Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing.” But the disciples could only see the problem and their inability to fix it. But the little boy trusted God. In his faith, he neither looked at the problem, nor his inability, he simply trusted the Father would work through his Son, so he gave his lunch to Jesus.

Jesus, assessing the situation, saw what his Father was doing. Just as in another wilderness location, God provided bread for his people, Jesus trusted that God would provide again. Jesus took the boy’s lunch, gave thanks for what God was going to do and, started handing out the food. He fed everyone, as much as they could eat, and there were 12 full baskets of food leftover. Do you see how God provides the table before his people? Do you see how the cup overflows?

Another example from Christ also involves bread. “Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘this is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me’” ().

Jesus trusted the Father perfectly. He knew the work that the Father was doing. He knew his part in that work. He knew what was required of him. In his agony, he prayed, “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.”

After he prayed, the Father sent angels to minister and strengthen him. Jesus, full of the Spirit of God, did his Father’s will, perfectly. Indeed, he’d done so his whole life. Jesus lived as God created mankind to live, perfectly. His life is the perfect life we need in order to be reconciled to God. When we say we put our faith in Christ, we say we are trusting in his perfect life to buy our pardon.

But Christ’s life did more than just that. Verse six of says, “Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” God has prepared us to live, to live in Christ, to have Christ’s righteousness flow out of us in such a way that even now already; we are able to live, live as God created us to live, in full obedience.

How is this possible? It is possible by allowing God to work through us. When we trust him to do in us what he has promised.

For this example, we turn to Peter. After feeding the 5000 men, Jesus dismissed the crowd and bid the disciples to cross the lake in the boat, while he went by himself to pray. When evening came, Jesus walked out to the boat, walking on the water. Peter said, “If it is you, tell me to come to you on the water.”

Jesus said, “Come.”

Peter got out, started walking on the water to Jesus. When he was a bit away, though everything was, pardon the pun, going swimmingly, Peter grew frightened and began to sink, for lack of faith. He took his eyes off Jesus, but still had the presence of mind to cry out to him, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus caught hold of his hand and saved him. “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

There would come a time when Peter would again sink, and again Jesus would pull him up. After denying Jesus 3 times, Peter sank into despair. But Jesus pulled him back up, and put him in charge of his church! How could he do that? Peter demonstrated he was weak, prone to doubt, not at all a candidate for church leadership.

Speaking of that, Pastor Charles Price once received a letter from a church asking for his assistance in finding a new pastor to lead their church. The letter spelled out all the requirements they wanted to have. Pastor Charles replied to their letter saying, “I don’t think these qualifications you have listed are of any help at all. In fact, you would not have approved even one of the 12 disciples. Even Jesus would hardly have passed scrutiny. What you need is someone who trusts God, who knows what is right and who will do it.

How do we live? Knowing what we’ve learned about God, knowing what God has planned for us, how do we live?

We live by doing what is right. A young person wants to date. What does God teach? Do not be unequally yoked, date a committed Christian. Don’t fall for a fool. Find someone who works hard. Find someone with integrity, honesty, purity. Dating has, eventually, as its goal, marriage, so, read the scriptures describing marriage and spouses. Proverbs is full of truth on this. Pay heed to it. Base today’s decisions on God’s plan for your future. Do you want to have a nagging wife or a lazy husband? Then don’t date that kind of person now, no matter how beautiful or handsome she or he might be.

Do what is right. Trust God to work through you, in spite of you. This coming Sunday, Renee and I celebrate our 12th anniversary. Ten years ago, this week, we left B.C. for Grand Rapids, MI so I could begin seminary. Caleb was a year old. We knew some things we could expect, but we didn’t know how God would provide for us once we got there. We trusted God.

The afternoon of the day we arrived, I was giving Renee a tour of the college campus. We just happened to run into my old boss from when I was a college student. On the spot, he offered me my old job. That took care of our living expenses. Was it mere coincidence? Not at all, God planned it, it happened; we trusted it would. He prepared the table before us.

We could spend several hours sharing similar stories, couldn’t we? I would love to do it. Let’s compromise this way: after the service, over coffee, instead of talking about the weather, or last minute holiday plans, or work, or coal prices or the farm or whatever, ask someone about God’s provision in their lives. Share your story with someone else.

We close with this, Jesus, whenever he performed a miracle, gave thanks. Why? Because it wasn’t him; it was the father working through him. He could only do what the father was doing. He himself could do nothing. We ourselves can do nothing. To live it, to live the gratitude life, we simply have to trust God to supply all our needs.

Surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow us all the days of our lives, and yes, we will dwell in the house of the Lord, we are even now, dwelling in the Lord’s house forever. Amen.