Trust

Meditations for Seeking the Life in Christ

Daily Thoughts 

January 9, 2025

Trust

“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

Matthew 9:38

Read: Matthew 11:2-9

I have often noted that the religious leaders resisted Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom of God because Jesus did not meet their expectations of the Messiah. They weren’t the only ones who felt that way. Our passage for today opens with the disciples of John the Baptist going to Jesus. John sent them because he was disappointed in Jesus. John was worried that he was wrong about Jesus because Jesus was not meeting his expectations of the Messiah.

I need to remember this, because if I am honest, there are times when Jesus does not meet my expectations.

I confess that there are times when I am impatient with the ways of God. I wish God moved faster to answer prayers, punish injustice and renew the face of the earth. My impatience is accompanied by anxiety and worry.

Oswald Chambers has helped me understand that when I am worrying, it is because I am not nourishing the life of Christ in me. Worrying means there is something over which I cannot have my own way. Worry (or disappointment) is evidence of my personal irritation with God. Ouch!

The purpose of prayer is to nourish the life of Christ within me. Worrying means I am more focused on circumstances than I am on becoming the person God created me to be.

Oswald Chambers is well known for his classic devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest. His book, If You Will Ask – Reflections on the Power of Prayer, is one of the best books on prayer I have read. The little book is available from Amazon.com in both text and kindle.

My Takeaway: I want to trust that God is working in (me), giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases him, and that God, who began the good work within (me), will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 2:13, 1:6) I want to trust God will attend to the circumstances of my life in His time.

(Gene Edward’s book, The Prisoner in the Third Cell, is an excellent study of the struggles John the Baptist experienced during his imprisonment.)

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(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.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the 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.