Lesson 8: How to Make Much of Christ From 8 to 5

Jesus Says: "I don't ask that you [God] take them out of the world but you keep them from evil."

The temptation through reading this book is to begin to get a picture that unless we are all pastors or missionaries or involved specifically in a form of ministry we are wasting our lives. But the Bible makes it clear that this is not the case. God's will is for his people to be scattered like light and salt among the whole range of secular vocations.

"The sleep of a laborer is sweet,
whether he eats little or much,
but the abundance of a rich man
permits him no sleep." Ecc. 5:12

"Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive." Titus 2: 9-10

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life,
to mind your own business and to work with your hands,
just as we told you. For even when we were with you,
we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

"We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat." 2 Thessalonians 3: 10-12

My fingers that I type with, my hands that I hold with, my legs that I run with, my eyes that I see with, my mind that I think with; these are all parts of a body that was created. What does it mean to "create"? 1. To cause to exist 2. To give rise to; produce 3. To invest with an office or title 4. To produce through artistic or imaginative effort.

God "created" us and the world. He caused us into existence, He produced and gave rise to our bodies, He invested us by placing us in dominion over His creation, and out of His great imagination and creativity we have being. Work was not meant to be something dreaded...we were created in God's image to be creative, to maintain, and to cause things to exist just as He has!

So as we may find ourselves in various secular locations or with other responsibilities, how do we do what Piper has been reminding us to do (Living to make much of Christ) especially if we do not have the ability to speak freely about the Lord while we are at work?

1. Fellowship with God throughout the day
2. Industry- (even the beavers and bees make amazing things and can not verbalize their praise to the Lord... How are we different than them?)
3. Adorning the doctrine of God
4. Earning
5. Giving

We need to recognize that God's design for us is to work. He has designed us to create and to be His image bearers. Being an image bearer of the Lord is more than just standing in a display case, it's bringing to life the image that God has created us for! We may not be called to specific mission work to an un-reached people group, but we are able to be God's hands and feet by removing stumbling blocks for our co-workers by working hard! We can have joy in what we do as we focus on the benefit our product or service brings to society!

Making much of Christ from 8 to 5 is all about living life abundantly. It is recognizing the gifts and talents we have and bringing glory to the Lord by working at these things with all our hearts.

An encouraging song :)

A 'Weightless' God?- Lesson 7- "Living to Prove He is More Precious than Life"

Leading Question to start us out:

1. "If someone who did not know that you were a Christian observed the way you spend your money, the kind of clothes you wear, the way you spend your free time, and how you raised your family, would they notice a significant difference between you and the world? What differences would they notice?"

I still remember clearly the day I was sitting on my dorm bed at college and deeply affected by this verse in Matthew, "While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means; "I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners."

Seriously, that hit me SO hard. It is not the healthy. In light of where God has you right now, would you consider yourself 'healthy'? or 'sick'? Are you in need of His mercy or are you sacrificing worthless items to walk a path of deeper 'righteousness'?

We are clearly called as followers of Jesus to be holy: 1 Peter 1:15-16 "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." [cross reference is Lev. 11:44,45] And so walking in a deeper righteousness is essential, however at the same time we are called to "live according to God in regard to the spirit." (1 Pet. 4:6) As he continues to speak about this, he says, "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."

We do this all in the power and strength that God provides us through His Spirit, and it is not contingent upon what the people we serve look like, smell like, what they say, or where they came from.

Christ's call was one to compassion, one that stores up treasures in heaven, and one that receives the kingdom of God by making much of Christ rather than making much of one's self. [Mk 10:21; Lk 6:20,24; Lk 18:25]

2. Take a look at those verses in brackets above and underline the theme of each verse. Consider how you are seeking to obey these texts in your life

In chapter 7 living to prove he is more precious than life, Piper reminds followers of Jesus that magnifying Christ through generosity and mercy is more satisfying than selfishness. The question which is uses to probe our consciences is this; 'Is Christ our "all satisfying treasure"?' This question reminds us of John 4 where Christ is talking with the Samaritan woman at the well. The Jews and Samaritan's were at odds with each other because the Samaritans were Jews that had inter-married with the Gentiles (which was against Jewish law) and so when Jesus opened his mouth and directly addressed the woman, she was incredibly shocked. Not only was this experience odd because of the culture surrounding it, but what seems to even me as being odd is Jesus offering her water living water that will satisfy her in such a way that all other things are not needed. Maybe I have been disillusioned in ways, but I do find it difficult to think that all I EVER need is just Jesus.
"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Christ is to be our all-satisfying treasure. Piper challenges Christ followers to live lives of faith-filled risk and challenges us to use our money and our lifestyles to impact the kingdom of God. If this is not the case, it could very well be that we have created a "weightless God."
"It is one of the defining marks of Our time that God is now weightless. He has become unimportant. He rests upon the world so inconsequentially as not to be noticeable. He has lost his saliency for human life." (Piper, 121)

Will the things of our life point to a God who is all powerful? Do our clothes or our lifestyles, how we spend our evenings magnify Christ? Do they point to Christ as the treasure of our lives?
These are questions to think on, and things we will be discussing next week at study.

My Search for A Single Passion to Live By: Lesson 2

I love stories. Stories have a way of painting beautiful pictures and coordinating thoughts in a way that weave us through the pain and hardships to a conclusion that often brings resolution to the main conflicts in a tale. Somewhere during my college experience I began to love to hear people's life stories. Being a part of a touring group while in college exposed me many different places and homes and we were required to spend a good amount of time getting to know who we were staying with. These experiences have actually brought me to all sorts of different people's homes in Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. Each person had a unique story of how they got to where they are today and what kinds of events caused them to get to where they are today.

Now, you may be reading this thinking, this is all pretty logical but it has been my experience that we rarely take the time to sit back and reflect on our lives. Instead I hear many people caught up in the moments they find themselves in crying out for help or just looking to vent their frustrations with other people or God to someone who will listen. I'm not downplaying the need to vent or to work out your emotions, but what I am advocating for is that we do not live our lives blindly.

When Paul, while in prison for preaching the gospel of Christ, writes to the Philippians, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain....Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ." He is preaching a message that reminds us that in everything we do we should be working towards an eternal treasure that will last. So let's put our lives in perspective... what are we living for? What is the purpose to all we do? In the end, when all is stripped away will it matter if I ran the full half marathon or if I walked some? Or if I looked like a fool trying to make someone smile? Or will it be my attitudes and motives that are brought under judgement?

At any rate, this week in Don't Waste Your Life, John Piper shares his story where he grappled with the idea of what it meant to not waste his life. One of his wake up moments came from a sermon illustration that his dad presented at his church growing up about a man he was visiting in the hospital weeping over the fact that he was nearing the end of his life and just now realizing that he had wasted it.

He brings up the point of differing world-views that people tend to view life through. One of them being existentialism. Basically existentialism is a philosophy that basically states, "The only 'essence' or 'truth' that exists is the kind that we create." In this line of thinking, we have the ability to define our own purpose and meaning in life. Everything we do is contingent upon the values that we individually uphold.

Genesis 1:1 combats this world-view right from the very beginning saying, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." John 1:1-3 also backs this up by saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Existentialists argue that man has the ability to create his/her own truth, but the Bible declares that nothing that has been made has been created without God's signature attached. Thus we are subject to the objective truths that God has created.

The next thing that Piper points out is that while the world likes to make excuses and exclusive statements about people; such that you are either logical or rational or you are emotional and playful, the bible portrays that God calls all of our being to love Him and obey Him. (See Mat. 22:35-38) We are called to worship in spirit and in truth which encompasses both the rational and emotional parts of our being. God is not mutually exclusive. "He [God] combined things that almost everybody today assumes are mutually exclusive: rationalism and poetry, cool logic and warm feeling, disciplined prose and free imagination." (Piper, 19).

God is the ultimate reality, and until we submit our whole being to Him, we will be wasting our lives. Take a moment to reflect with these questions:


1. How is it that you got to where you are today?

2. Read Exodus 3:13-14. According to this passage, God's name is "I AM WHO I AM." How does this verse respond to those who say that there is no Reality (Meaning, Essence, Purpose) until we create it? Where is Ultimate Reality found?

3. Read Romans 1:18-23. Is there "Truth" (with a capital T) in the world? Are men ignorant of Truth, or do they suppress it?

Don't Waste Your Life

"Standing on the side of the road; I lifted up my foot and realized I had somehow landed upright after being thrown out of the car that was still rolling down the embankment. A dent was left in the ground where my feet landed and I was in shock. I turned to look for the girl that had also been thrown out of the car and found her; not responding...with paramedics circled around her. Life flashed before my eyes as one daunting question invaded my mind, "Why are you still alive? What have you done so far to deserve to still be standing here? You have been wasting your life."

[this is a paraphrase from Heath Budden who shared his testimony last week]

We are starting a new study and are going through the book, Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper. For those of you who are not a regular part of the study but are interested.... know that at any point you'd be able to join us Sunday nights as we will be going through questions and Bible passages brought up in the study guide each week over each chapter. I will be using this blog as a place to provide a short summary of the material we will be going over and post videos and other provoking materials to get you thinking and being challenged to live our lives purposefully for Christ.

[excerpt from study guide]
"It is our conviction that God did indeed create us for more than the American Dream. Nevertheless, millions of people waste their lives in pursuit of the vain trappings of this world because they never discover the simple, obvious, glorious, biblical reality that "[God's] steadfast love is better than life" (Psalm 63:3) They are never gripped by thte truth that "to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21). The awesome biblical promise that "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14) has never landed on them by the power of the Holy Spirit and awakened them to a passion for God's supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ."

So this is the challenge placed before us, to take a moment to think about our existence on this earth and to consider why were created. What, in your mind is the difference between a wasted life and an un-wasted life? Will the plans that you have made for your life be of any value to God?

Acts 20:24 says, "But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

If it is true that only what is done for Christ will last (check out 1 Cor. 3:10-13) then what kind of changes do you think might be necessary in your life?

On My Own Strength....

John 5:30
[Jesus]-
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

cf. : 5:19 “So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”
cf. ; 8:28 “So Jesus said to them, “when you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.”

This is Jesus speaking here. I want you think about whether or not you could say the same thing; “I can do nothing on my own.” Jesus was God and yet He says that He can do nothing apart from the Father. Now it seems like it would be a bit easier for Jesus because He and the Father are one; but Jesus was also fully human and as such he did battle with the human nature. Satan tempted him just as he tempts us.

Matthew 4 gives us this account:
Scripture tells us that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The Spirit which is being referred to here is the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit. He is co-eternal with God and so it is God that led Jesus to be tempted.

Now, I don't know if that raises any questions in your mind, but right there a little flag went up in my mind; “God led Jesus to be tempted!? Does this mean God leads me to be tempted?

To answer this I went to 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 which states; “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

God does not do the tempting; but as we remember in Job, Satan was allowed to tempt Job; “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So again we see that God, in His Sovereignty allowed for Satan to test and push Job towards unrighteousness, but Job was not given any more than he could handle, for God still sustained him.

And this is the key point that I want to draw out; it is impossible without God to stand on our own. Even Christ could do nothing apart from the Father. Likewise without the grace of God we can do nothing good. In answer to that first question, “I can do nothing on my own;” we can do nothing good our own. Unless it is through the Holy Spirit and His power in us, nothing we do has eternal value and thus is not good.

Ephesians 2:8-10 says; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand, that we should walk in them.”

If you are anything like me, it can be easy to get caught up my day to day works that I don't stop to think about my choices. Ultimately our choices either point to eternity or they point inwardly to our own works. How futile! It is possible for me to be doing “good” things, but instead of being profitable for eternity they are only profitable for this world and time. When I think back to the idea of Satan and how he has le-way to tempt us we truly must have our guards up! Go back to Matthew 4 and read the temptation of Jesus again. Satan is a deceiver. He is not obvious. He used Scripture to try and convince Christ to take a short-cut for people to see His glory. If Jesus would have followed, he would have been disobeying the Father's will for Him. Christ knew the full Word of God and was able to discern that this was what Satan was trying to do. I don't know if I would be wise enough to discern this, for I am not in the Word of God consistently enough to see if what I am hearing is fully backed up in Scripture. Satan used this verse, “ If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'” Those were words in Scripture, but used out of context for the very next verses speak about Satan and stepping on him. Convenient that he didn't use that part, eh?

For the past few weeks it has been coming up more and more the importance of being in Scripture. Will we attend to this call? God allows for temptation to occur, so will we prepare ourselves for the battle? Or will we continue in our own works which without Christ at the center ultimately lead to death?


Be Encouraged by this:!
Hebrews 2: 18
“For because He himself was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

What do you Live For?- From Mars Hill Church Blog

What Do You Live For?–Part Two
Diagnosing Your Worship

If all of life is worship and we find that our lives are broken in some way, then change must begin with changed worship in the heart. The following questions from Dr. Tim Keller can help you diagnose your worship:

• What do I live for?
• What would I die without?
What do you live for?

Related questions to explore what you live for include the following:

• What desires are in the depths of your heart?
• What desires shape the course of your life?
• What desires make you feel alive when they’re met, or leave you feeling furious, dead, or depressed when unmet?
• What desires are you willing to pay the price for and sacrifice to get?
• What desires get you out of bed in the morning and cause you to spring to action in hot pursuit?
• What desires lead you to blow up in rage against anyone who gets in your way?
• What desires lead you to keep your distance from other people for fear of what might happen—or what they might see—if you were close?
What would you die without?

Maybe you’re thinking you don’t have such intense desires as those suggested in the previous paragraph. They may strike you as dramatic. If so, then consider the possibility that your ultimate desires are already being met to some degree.

But what if they were threatened? For example, let’s say you have your spouse, kids, dream house, dream job, and great friends; your life is a picture that others only dream of. But what if those things were taken from you? Would you feel like dying?

You see, you always live for something. To not worship is to not live. It’s like a garden hose that can’t be turned off. You can aim it at the grass, the car, or the shrubs, but you cannot stop its flow.

In the same way, your heart is constantly pouring out in worship to see your deepest desires satisfied. Distorted, sinful, misdirected worship is referred to as “idolatry” in the Bible, and the object of such worship is called an “idol.”

Letter from a Delinquent Daughter-

God;
It has been awhile since I have last really spent some quality time with you. I know that you have plans for our lives and that you do take special interest in each of us (Jer. 29:11). I know that you desire for everything that I do would bring you glory (1 Cor. 10:31). I know that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of those things we don't see (Heb. 11:1). I know that if we commit our ways to you, you will give us the desires of our hearts (Ps. 37:4).

These promises are ones that I want to cling to; and yet I know that you see us for who we are. And for me I know that means that you see me as a prideful person who desires selfishly and wants control of her own; to know all things and who will not walk in confidence until I do know these things for sure. You see that I don't trust well, but at the same time you know that the depths of me desire to do these things better. You know that my heart is restless and waiting:

Closer to Me by Future of Forestry-

I wish I could feel all the strength of your peace
Inside me, building love endlessly
I wish I could fall in a sea of your light
While the brilliance around me, watch it chase away night

Closer to me
Oh, I want you to be
Even closer to me

I wish I could feel just the warmth of your breath
Around me as I lie on my bed
I wish I could taste of your sweet ruby wine
As you lift me to heaven, to the place where we shine

Closer to me
Oh, I want you to be
Just closer to me

For the day I await
'Cause my heart knows I've found you
And I'm still looking for you
Yeah, the day I await
'Cause my heart knows I've found
And I'm still looking for you

You call us to seek you with all of our hearts; you say, search me and you will know me...when you seek me you will find me when you seek with all your heart. Heb. 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” So I do know that I've found you and that I continue to seek you to draw closer to you... Forgive me for where I fall short and where my pride gets in the way. Forgive me for my lack of faith at times. Teach me every day to trust you more.

Ps. 25:2-5
“O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.
Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.”

You have given me the work of my hands and have placed responsibilities before me. These things Lord, I seek to do before you with utmost honesty and truth. I know that I may never walk in complete faithfulness on this earth but I do love you and I do seek to learn more and more how to love you better and more completely.

Lover by Nevertheless-

I am a lover. I am a shame. I am appalled by the things that I fame.
I am a lover, but I've had my share of flirting with the darkest affairs.
And you can find me here, with my head against the wall, lost in my regrets and every time I fall you catch me in your hands.
You circle me like a wedding band. I have a lover, faithful and true.
He cares for me in all that I do.
I have a lover, my song He has sung with love on His lips and grace on His tongue.
And you can find me here with my head against the wall, lost in my regrets and every time I fall you catch me in your hands.
You circle me like a wedding band.
A promise from Heaven, a promise from You, a promise to love, I will hold on to.
God of new beginnings, to You I cry, Teach me how to love; teach me how to die.
In death there's forgiveness, and forgiveness calls on new life. So You can find me here with my head against the wall, lost in my regrets and every time I fall you catch me in your hands. You circle me like a wedding band. A promise from Heaven, a promise from You...

I commit myself to learn more and more about you. My desire is to serve you better each day with a more fervent heart. Place people in my life to challenge me in these areas.

A letter from a delinquent daughter,
Love.

“One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that I will seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.” Psalm 27:4

ABC interviews Mark Driscoll on Idols

"Hell is inhabited by those who through thousands of little daily acts have elevated self above God." Clyde Kilby

"Thus says the Lord:
'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.'

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according the the fruit of his deeds."

Jeremiah 17:5-10

TRUST.

Two weekends ago there was a huge youth convention in Green Bay, Wisconsin held at what used to be the Regency Suites and now called the Sierra Hotels. The convention is Districts and it is put together by the Evangelical Free Church of America. I had the lovely opportunity to be the room leader for a group of five 8th grade girls whose energy was exiting and their hormones were off the wall...which was much LESS exiting for me.

I was pretty pumped about the whole thing because they had specifically asked for me as a room leader. I liked to think that it was because i had had an impact on their lives and they wanted to draw closer to the Lord. I guess i can be a little nieve at times because it became apparent that although they did think I was cool, they thought they could get away with more with me as their room leader.

Now, I don't want to ever be considered the "room nazi" but I do want to be respected and want to be able to have a relationship with these girls where I feel like I can trust them and they can trust me. All of that shattered the first night when I told them that they could stay up as late as they wanted as long as they 1. did not disturb those who were sleeping, and 2. followed all the rules of the hotel. When I woke at 3 am to the door to the outside closing and three girls shuffling back into the room, I couldn't believe what I just witnessed. In fact, I laid there for a second or two to let the cobwebs clear and to figure out exactly how I was going to address the situation.

When I got up out of bed, it was obvious that they did not expect to get caught on this little adventure because they were on their second mission to make a break for the door again! A little infuriated, I waited for them to jump back on their beds and have a little confessional of sorts. A confessional is not what I got. Instead, I received silence. Nobody was going to fess up or talk about what just had happened. So the first thing I said was,
"Anybody know why I am awake right now?" silence.
"So we are just going to pretend like nothing happened?" silence.
"Can anybody tell me what trust is?" ....finally someone spoke up... ,"trust is something that you obey because you want the other person to feel good?..."

Feel free to chuckle about at this time, because I didn't understand at all what she said other than she clearly felt a little guilty about something. I was about to share the right definition of trust when I realized that it was 3 in the morning and my mind was not informing me of a good definition.

We did talk about how they disobeyed the rules and how it was going to be difficult for me to trust them the rest of this evening but also the next as well. I told them I wanted them to have a good time but that there are rules they needed to follow and disobeying these rules are only going to hurt them in the long run; as well as hurt others.

As I have reflected a bit more on this weekend, I have decided that I really would like to have a better picture and answer in my mind about what it means to "trust" someone or something. So I was sitting in Fazoli's one day and from my own thoughts came up with the following definitions:
1. to believe that what is being said or believing in something or someone.
2. a state of faith in something not in your own control.
-often times, when we are 'trusting' in something, it means that we are relinquishing control to something or someone else.

So then I began to think of different scriptures that spoke about trust, and the fist one that came to my attention was,
Proverbs 3:5-6
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean NOT on your own understanding.
In all your ways; acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight."

I cross-referenced this verse and came across the following;
Ps. 37: 3, 5
"Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him and He will do it."
Pr. 22:19
"So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you."

Then I began to get verses that talked about not wearying ourselves to gain wealth but rather to delight ourselves in the Lord.

This tweaked my interest a bit. What areas of your life has God been asking you to trust Him in? Do you find it difficult to trust Him in the areas of finance in your life? I do. Listen to this verse;

Jer. 9:23

"Thus says the Lord, 'let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let the mighty man boast of his mihgt, let not the rich man boast in his riches; but let Him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness; justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the Lord."

Now I am beginning to get a bigger picture of what it means to trust the Lord. It seems to mean that we feed securely on Him. We feed on His faithfulness. It is about who God is.

Ps. 62:8
"Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us."

So how do we trust?
Deut. 30:20
"by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to him; for this is your life and length of your days, that you may live in the Land which the lord swore to your Fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Rest in this;
Isaiah 40:11
"like a shepherd He will tend His flock, in His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes."

Merriam-Webster defines trust this way;
Trust is an assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something; one in which confidence is placed.

I have been challenged to truly let go and trust the Lord. My financial and career situations may have me confused and I honestly don't know what the future is going to have in store for me, but I trust in the One of whom I can pour my heart out to. The One who gathers His flock and exercises loveingkindness, justice, and righteousness here on this earth.

So instead of worrying or fearing the future I will, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness." Ps. 37:3

Wait- God's encouragement for uncertain times: by Russell Kelfer

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;
Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate...

and the Master so gently said, "Wait."

"Wait? you say wait?" my indignant reply.
"Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!"
Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?
By faith I have asked, and I'm claiming your Word.

My future and all to which I relate
hangs in the balance, and you tell me to Wait?"

I'm needing a 'yes,' a go ahead sign. Or even a 'no,' to which I'll resign.

You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe, We need but to ask, and we shall receive.

Lord, I've been asking, and this is my cry: I am weary of asking! I need a reply.

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate, as my Master replied again, "Wait."
So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut, and grumbled to God,
"So, I'm waiting.... for what?"

He seemed then to kneel, and his eyes met with mine... and he tenderly said
"I could give you a sign.
I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.
I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run.

I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.
You'd have what you want, but you wouldn't know Me.

You'd not know the depth of My love for each saint.
You'd not know the power that I give to the faint.

You'd not learn to see through clouds of despair;
You'd not learn to trust just by knowing I'm there.
You'd not know the joy of resting in Me
when darkness and silence are all you can see.

You'd never experience the fullness of love
when the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,
But you'd not know the depth of the beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort late into the night,
the faith that i give
when you walk without sight.
The depth that's beyond getting just what you ask
From an infinite God who makes what you have last.

You'd never know should your pain quickly flee,
what it means that My grace is sufficient for thee.

Yes, your dearest of dreams overnight would come true,
but, oh, the loss, if you missed what I'm doing in you.

So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see
that the greatest of gifts is to truly know me.

And though oft My answers seem terribly late,
My most precious answer of all is still...
"Wait."

"This is what the Lord says: 'In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you.'" (Isaiah 49:8) Isn't this a wonderful promise? In no uncertain terms, God affirms that He will answer and will help his people. But notice carefully the time slot for His help and answers; "In the time of my favor...and in the day of salvation." God has a designated time when His promise will be fulfilled and the prayer will be answered. It is a "day" or moment that he knows is best for the help to arrive and the deliverance to be accomplished. His answer is absolutely sure for those who trust Him, but it is not yet.

Herein lies the battle of faith-
to hold on and keep believing God despite what our natural senses tell us. Our challenge is to wait in faith for the day of God's favor and salvation.
-Jim Cymbala