Trusting Game

This place of trust isn't a comfortable place to be; in fact, it flies in the face of everything we've been taught about proper planning. We like finding refuge in what we already have rather than in what we hope God will provide. But when Christ says to count the cost of following Him, it means we MUST SURRENDER everything. It means going like the disciples, going without an extra tunic or a place to sleep at night, and sometimes without knowing where we are going. 

- Francis Chan, author of Crazy Love - 

I thought to myself, how many will actually go as such? How many will give up all they own and go? There are some whom I had the opportunity to meet when I visit Timor Leste. They are called missionaries. With this entitlement, many ordinary people would think, "Surely they have a 'calling' to go to the 'mission field' and laid their life for others". THEY and US have the SAME EXACT calling! That is, the most important one ....'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength'. The second is this: 'Love your neighbours as yourself.' (Mark 12:29-31)

You need to have a paradigm shift! Mission field do not only categorize when you go abroad, when you visit the Orang Asli, when you do ministry in kampung, when you go to a poorer region! Your life, where you are now is the mission field. The people you come in contact with, that's your mission field. What you have now, your work, your friends, your studies, your lecturers, are all GIFTS from God to live as a missionary.

In whatever you do, let it be unto Him. 

Now, let's look back at the disciples. Why would the Lord had asked the disciples to act radically to not bring anything extra / plan ahead in the next place they are going for rest? Because He is setting the HIGHEST STANDARD of trusting Christ. For them to be in a place of discomfort! For them to realise that it is not by what they have to continue on the journey, but by full trust in God.

Will it be the same for us? No, I wouldn't think so. However, I believe if the Lord would want us to journey as such, He would grant us the full assurance to go. But, you see many would take the excuse, 'Nah, it ain't for me to go through as the disciples because God never call. So God, I will take a rain check on that. Call me maybe......next time or never '. Excuses, fear or just us pushes our focus away from what the Lord had called us to be.

From the example of the disciples, the Lord is ultimately DRAWING A PICTURE for us to NOT RELY ON OURSELVES and our CAPABILITIES, but to RELY SOLELY ON HIM! He is telling us to TRUST by FAITH and not with our eyes. Don't allow our physical eyes be DISTRACTED from what He has called us to.

May difficult questions come your way that cause you to think further! May you be granted with discomfort to push you out of comfort zone.

I pray when the doors of opportunities are open to us, we will be willingly answering that call of trust!

Come near to God and he will come near to you

Come near to God and he will come near to you.

– James, one of the fathers of the first-century church –

I read of this story. I find that it explained the above statement clearly. 

There’s a story of a man driving a convertible on a mountain road who took an unexpected turn too quickly and went right over the edge. As his car fell, he managed to grab on to a tree sprouting from the cliff face as his car dropped a thousand feet to the canyon floor.

 

“Help!” he screamed. “Can anyone hear me?” An echo was the only response.

 “God, can you hear me?” he cried.

Suddenly the clouds rolled together and a voice like thunder said, “Yes, I can hear you.”

“Will you help me?”

“Yes, I will help you. Do you believe in me?”

“Yes, yes, I trust you. Please, hurry.”

“If you trust me, then let go of the tree,” thundered the voice.

After a long silence, the man cried, “Can anyone else hear me?”

We trust God in good times, when bad times come about, our faith is tested. Unrealisingly, sometimes we act like the man holding onto the tree. We expect God to work in our means or ways. When it is not according to our ways, we swapped sides. We go back to expecting help in the form we want.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. As the heaven are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts Isaiah 55:8-9.

So, the equation is simple. Come near to God and he will come near to you. When you desire to be near to God, it must be put to actions and then you will know His heartbeats. He will come near YOU, means your senses will be refined knowing He is there carrying you through, because from the beginning, he is already near you. 

The question is whether do you realize and acknowledge your DEPENDANCE on GOD? 

Are you near Him today? 

[John C. Maxwell: Today Matters, Today's FAITH Gives Me Peace, pg. 197- 213]