Trusting

June 14, 2019

Trusting

“But blessed are those who trust in the Lord

    and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

Jeremiah 17:7

We are living in a time where the world’s culture doesn’t support trusting in God or making the Lord their hope and confidence.  Recently in the social media, a conservative Christian commentator has been vilified for urging the Godly virtues of decency and civility toward one another. In our age of technology, little stock is placed on faith or trust in an unseen God. I find the episode between Jesus and Thomas in John’s Gospel has several helpful insights as we grapple with this issue. (John 20:24-29)

First, Jesus returned to meet with the disciples so that he could confront Thomas’ doubt, not to admonish Thomas, but to meet Thomas’ need. I receive this insight as an invitation from Jesus. Jesus is reminding me that he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), and I can ask Jesus to give me his wisdom to help me grasp his truth in any circumstance I face. And so can you! Let us remember that no matter the doubts, the concerns, the issues of the Christian faith that may trouble us, Jesus delights in sharing his wisdom with us.

When Jesus urged Thomas to make a leap of faith and believe in his resurrection, Thomas responds, “My Lord and my God!” Yes and Amen; Jesus is our Lord, Jesus is God. Jesus responded to Thomas’ affirmation by pronouncing his blessing on you and me. Let us rejoice in this, the ninth Beatitude: “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me” (John 20:29).

My Takeaway: I haven’t see Jesus in the flesh, but I have seen his hand at work in my life, over and over and over again. The faithfulness of Jesus to keep my hand in his hand inspires me to leave my hand right there, securely in his grasp because he is my hope and my confidence.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.