Run Today’s Race

Implicit Trust

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“If a man will resign himself in implicit trust to the Lord Jesus, he will find that He leads the wayfaring soul into the green pastures and beside the still waters, so that even when he goes hrough the dark valley of the shadow of some staggering episode, he will fear no evil. Nothing in life or death, time or eternity, can stagger a soul from the certainty of the Way, for one moment” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s what I want — implicit trust in Jesus, no matter what. Lately, I find that my faith comes and goes like the ocean tides advancing and retreating, rising and ebbing. One moment, I am calm and collected and the next I am inwardly freaking out. Too often, my faith is too tied in to my emotions.

But the true saint of God has a steady faith. Or at least he or she is moving toward one. The hindrance to the necessary resignation of the soul to the ways of the Lord is the illusion of control that we cling to. The more I think I somehow can help God out or speed up His timeline, the more inclined I am to fret and worry.

I still love Corrie ten Boom’s imagery of staying on the train that’s going through a dark tunnel. Of course, you don’t leap off the train in the middle of the tunnel. You sit still and trust the engineer. But in the midst of life’s dark passages, it’s easy to want to go AWOL on God. But what’s the alternative? Lostness and the dark?

Lord, grow my faith. Help me to take my tiny mustard seed faith and put it in Your hands so that I can rest in Your promises and plans for me. Help me to know with my whole being that You are still working all things together for my good. Amen.

Resting in the Reality of Redemption

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“If you put your faith in your experience anything that happens–toothache, indigestion, an east wind, incongenial work–is likely to upset the experience, but nothing that happens can ever upset God or the almighty reality of the Redemption; once based on that, you are as eternally sure as God Himself” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

If you live your life based solely on your emotions, you will be as unstable as the east wind, blowing one way one moment and blowing the other the next.

If you live your life based solely on your own understanding, you will soon get frustrated with how your life isn’t meeting your expectations, never mind how realistic those are.

But if you live your live out of the reality of God’s redeeming work in Jesus, then you find yourself much more stable and secure. You can cease striving and live out of the strength and joy that Jesus provides.

That becomes especially vital at this time of the year when it’s easy to let other people’s impatience and rudeness upset our Advent and Christmas experience.

Once you base your joy on the unchanging and unceasing reality of God’s work of redemption in your life, then nothing can steal it from you. No one or nothing has the power to take away the eternal surety of God’s promise to you to finish what He started.

 

 

The Legacy of Little Things

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“A river touches places of which its source knows nothing, and Jesus says if we have received of His fullness, however small the visible measure of our lives, out of us will flow the rivers that will bless to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s it. Your seemingly insignificant little life could be the ripple in the pond that affects the world. Your small random acts of kindness might leave a legacy that will outlast you.

Mother Teresa once said that there are no great acts but only small acts done with great love. Even your sheer optimism and dogged determination in dealing with the daily drudgeries can have an impact on people that you may never meet in this lifetime.

People are watching. People notice. For better or worse, how you act and how you react will inform others on how much you really believe what you profess. Your life may be the only Bible that some will ever read.

While that could be daunting on one hand, on the other, it’s a reminder that no good deed done out of faith is ever in vain. Your life, small and trivial as it seems, matters.

One day, someone might just tell you. It will most likely be someone you never would have suspected even knew you existed. There could be ten others who you will never meet but whose lives will be just as changed by your faithfulness in the trivialities and details.

My cat snoring is a sign telling me I’d better wrap this up quickly. Ultimately, you being as true to who God made you to be and being faithful where God puts you is as powerful a testimony as any of the dramatic conversions out there.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

 

In The Shadow of the Almighty

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“Put all ‘supposing’ on one side and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty. Deliberately tell God that you will not fret about that thing. All our fret and worry is caused by calculating without God” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s it. I should just end this post here. Oswald Chambers has been one of my favorite devotional writers for years because he was able to articulate truths like few others.

Worry is practical atheism. I confess that I’m just as much guilty of that as anybody. Sometimes I feel like anxiety and worry are default settings that I revert to when my circumstances get stressful.

The antidote to anxiety is worship. Worship isn’t telling God something He doesn’t already know, but reminding yourself of His infinite power and goodness. Worship is declaring the worth of God in everything you do– not just in singing– as a way to reboot your mind to see that God is still working out all things– including your stressful situations– for His glory and your good.

Worry is calculating without God. All those scenarios that cause such dread are missing one key ingredient– God. It’s easy to do when God doesn’t seem as present as your problems.

That’s when you trust the heart of God. You trust that faith really is believing when common sense tells you not to. You believe that God’s promises are just as guaranteed in this moment as they were through all the generations of the Bible, and that they are for you.

I’ll just end this with a quote from one of my favorite writers that sums it all up perfectly.

“Worry is belief gone wrong. Because you don’t believe that God will get it right. But peace – peace is belief that exhales. Because you believe that God’s provision is everywhere – like air” (Ann Voskamp).