The Highlander

  I don’t know why I find it so difficult to trust God (or very many people for that matter).  I know I should (yikes!  There’s that profane performance word), and I also know that the surest way to please Him is to simply trust Him (Hebrews 11:6).  Heck!  When in my life can I go back and find a time when He ever failed me or did not ever keep a promise?  None.  Now, that is not saying that I cannot go back and find times (many I am afraid), when He did not do what I “thought” He should, or what I felt like He “said” (through some inner impression or outer “word” from some well meaning saint) He would do.  There are more of those than I can remember.  And with each failed experience came a letdown and just a wee bit of confusion.  Why?  Why God?  Why didn’t You___?  I just KNEW You were leading or speaking!  Why!?  Silence.

If I am honest, my life has not turned out anywhere like I thought, dreamed, or planned that it would!  How about yours?  It seems like God has frustrated all of my “plans/dreams” at every turn.  I am not where I thought I would be at this point in my life in any area…period.  I do not have it all together, and I find that I now have more questions than I do answers.  I am less sure about more, and more sure about less.  Looking back, I realize that I have spent more time in “speculations, controversies, and questions” ( 1 Timothy 1:4; 6:4-5; 2 Timothy2:23), than learning how to simply love and live loved by Father.  (more…)

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Mark 11:22  

Our lives are to be lived by faith not by sight.  Jesus took the opportunity of the withering of the fig tree to teach His followers a very important lesson about life in the Kingdom.  Life can only be lived within the realm of God’s rule by having faith in God; nothing more and nothing less.  Our confidence and hope is not in a doctrinal statement, a church, or an idea.  It is in a real live Person.  A Person Who is vitally connected to each of our lives.

  We are to have faith in the Person of God.  We are to trust Who He is and what He is like.  We are to live in full confidence and dependence upon His nature, character and abilities.  When the Scripture says, “God is love”, we are to trust that.  When they declare that He is all knowing, ever present and never changing, we are to live in quiet confidence of those realities.  Whatever the Bible declares and reveals about God is fact and that fact can be transferred into the situations and circumstances of our daily lives.  Whatever He is, whatever He is like, and whatever He can do, He is all of these things for us!  We must have faith in that fact. (more…)

“Look at the birds, free and unfettered,
not tied down to a job description, careless
in the care of God.”
(Matthew 6:26 The Message)

I hate worry.  Many times, I worry about worry.  When I think back over my life, I am amazed at how many things I worried about that never happened.  I  think about all the time wasted on fretting and being anxious over issues and situations that literally ate me up on the inside.  Nights of sleep lost, acid reflux in my stomach, and tension between my shoulder blades, have been my companions more times than I can remember.

This life can be full of things that can precipitate worry in our lives.  Usually, worry begins its insipid assault with, “what if…?”  We are usually pretty good with filling in the blanks.  Once worry gets the ball rolling, fear then takes over.  I am ashamed at how much of my life in the past has been dictated and ruled by fear.   Fear was given an open door because I worried.  Why did I worry?  Because I did not trust God, His heart, and His promises.

Now, here is the kicker.  Worry is SIN!  Yikes!  You see, when Jesus told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25, and when Paul said in Philippians 4:6 to, “be anxious for nothing…”, both of those statements in the Greek are in the imperative mood…the mood of command!  It is the same as saying, “Thou shalt not…”.  These are on equal footing with the ten commandments!

God is not saying, “Try not to worry.”  He is not asking us to do our best to not worry.  He is COMMANDING us NOT to worry!  If we worry, we break His command and sin against Him!  That is heavy duty! (more…)