St. Paul's United Methodist Church
“Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart”
Rev. Richard W. Gray
January 15, 2006
Proverbs 3:5-6
In May 1995, Randy Reid, a thirty-five-year old construction worker, was welding on top of a water tower outside Chicago. Reid unhooked his safety gear to reach for some pipes when a metal cage slipped and bumped the scaffolding he was on. The scaffolding tipped, and Reid lost his balance. He fell one hundred ten feet, landing face down on a pile of dirt, just missing rocks and construction debris. A fellow worker called 911. When paramedics arrived, they found Reid conscious, moving, and complaining of a sore back. Apparently the fall did not cost Reid his sense of humor. As paramedics carried him on a backboard to the ambulance, Reid had one request, “Don't drop me.” Doctors later said Reid only had a bruised lung from the one hundred-ten foot fall. Reid had to trust the paramedics not to drop him.
Two partners in a law firm were having lunch when one of them suddenly said with alarm, “I have to go back to the office right away. I forgot to lock the safe.”
“What are you worried about?” asked the other lawyer. “We're both here.”
Do lawyers trust lawyers? Can we trust anyone these days? Trust is a real problem in our society.
Whom do we trust? It is sad there are some people we cannot trust. But there is one person we can trust, the Lord. He remains trustworthy even when human beings are not. Dr. Lewis Thomas, a physician who headed the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for many years, said much of God's light shines in the darkness. There
There is enough darkness in every person's life to cause us to wonder what is going on. But there is enough light to enable us to trust God even when we cannot understand what or why something is happening. God has given us enough light to be able to trust Him.
Many years ago God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He led them out of the land and through a path in the sea to freedom. But the people found themselves in a strange place and they were fearful. They wanted to go back to Egypt and slavery again.
But God wanted the people to learn to trust Him. He led them during the day with a cloud and at night with a fire.
He also gave them food. He gave them an abundant supply of quail every day. God gave them manna every morning. We do not know what it was. The word manna literally means, “what is it?” It was probably some kind of seed that the people ground up and used in baking. God told the people to take just enough for that day, and leave providing for tomorrow with Him.
But the people thought, “What if He forgets tomorrow and there is no manna?” God promised to take care of them one day at a time. But the people were fearful and doubted God's promise. Whenever they took more than a day's supply, the extra spoiled. Except for the Sabbath. They could take a two-day supply the day before the Sabbath so they could rest on the Sabbath and worship God.
God wanted them to trust Him. God had miraculously gained their release from Egypt and miraculously parted the Red Sea for them. He had shown His ability to take care of His people. But there were some people who doubted God and kept more than one day's supply of manna when they were not supposed to. God had given evidence of His trustworthiness
trustworthiness, but some did not trust Him.
There is an interesting passage of Scripture concerning Abraham in Romans 4:20, 21. “He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in His faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”
God had made promises to Abraham that sounded pretty hard to keep, but Abraham trusted God and his faith was strengthened.
In 1989 Geoffrey Gorsuch flew his small plane in the midst of a horrible storm. He could barely see twenty feet in front of the plane. On the ground, signals were being sent to the five radios and three navigational aids on the plane. These instruments guided him through the storm to the runway. There were times Gorsuch said his senses told him the instruments were wrong and that he should resume control of the plane. But Gorsuch said he had been trained to trust the instruments. When he broke out of the clouds, he was only one hundred feet off the runway and in a perfect position to safely land the plane. He had trusted the instruments. He said that was the day he knew for sure that he was a pilot.
He had no reason to doubt his instruments and he would be able to trust them again. Trust created more trust. Faith creates more faith.
Faith looks back and takes its stand on the basis of what God has done in the past to show He is trustworthy. Then faith looks to the future and trusts God. Since God has shown His trustworthiness in the past, it is safe to believe He may be trusted in the future.
The Apostle Paul said that because Abraham did not waver in his faith he was strengthened in his faith. Faith begets faith. Then Paul says Abraham gave glory to God because of his faith, his trust in God.
Think about this for a moment. We honor someone when we trust them. We dishonor someone when we do not trust them. We dishonor God when we do not trust Him. But we honor God when we do.
Suppose a father is standing in a swimming pool and tells his three-year-old son to jump into the pool and he will catch him. The boy stands on the edge of the pool and the father again says, “Jump! I promise I'll catch you.”
How does the little boy make his father look good? He jumps. He shows that his father may be trusted. If the little boy did not jump, he would be saying that he doubted his father would catch him. There is a sense in which the boy makes his father look bad if he does not jump.
This is how many of us are with God. We are afraid to jump into His arms.
In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana has to pass three supreme tests to reach the Holy Grail and save his dying father. The first test is “The Breath of God.” Indiana must walk down a corridor and bow down at just the right moments so large revolving blades will not kill him.
“The Word of God” is the second test. Indiana must walk on just the right stones that spell out God's name in Latin. If he steps on the wrong stone he will fall through the floor to his death.
The third test is “The Path of God” test. Jones must step to the edge of a large chasm, which is about one hundred feet across and one thousand feet deep. The doorway to the Holy Grail is on the other side of the chasm.
Jones must leap across the chasm. Jones thinks to himself that it is impossible. No one can jump that chasm. To do so would require a leap of faith. His father says, “You must believe, boy. You must believe.” Jones does not want
want to do it, but he walks to the edge of the cliff. He lifts his foot and steps out into air. He does not fall to his death. He is upheld by an invisible force.
That story is fiction. But God is not fiction. The Bible is not fiction. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.” When we take that step of faith, we will discover that God is there.
John Ortberg writes, “When people wrestle with doubt, they may tell themselves to try harder to have more faith. But faith is not the sort of thing that can be acquired by trying harder. Imagine if someone were to say to you, 'I find myself doubting [the geyser] Old Faithful. I'm just not sure it can be trusted.' What would your advice be? Not 'Try harder to believe!' The best advice for such a person would be, 'Just hang around Old Faithful. Get to know Old Faithful better.' And because Old Faithful is faithful, the better you know it, the more you will trust it.
It is the same with God. Never try to have more faith-just get to know God better. And because God is faithful, the better you know Him, the more you will trust Him.”
Learn to trust God by getting to know Him better.
Read His book. Get to know God and His promises.
Talk with Him in prayer.
Worship with His people.
Take the backward look. See how God has been trustworthy over the many years of dealing with His people. He keeps His promises.
Then look to the future, giving it to Him. To the one who has proven Himself to be trustworthy.
The objective for every Christian should be to have a mature faith. If we keep trusting in God
God, and keep growing, one day we will have a faith that will enable us to stand firm in life.
335 Smyth Road
Manchester, NH 03104
Sunday School: 9:00 a.m.
Sunday Worship: 8:00 a.m. and 10:15 a.m.
603-647-7322