In God We Trust

Mark 8:34-35 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
34Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.

The vehicle in front of me on the road this morning caught my eye. It was a silver van with a ladder tied onto its roof and it was towing a trailer shaped like a box on wheels, filled with tools. Handles poked up at odd angles above the edge of the rusty, dark olive green trailer. What drew my attention though was a small, oblong, silver plate attached to the lower right hand corner. The gold lettering on the plate said, "In God We Trust."

I'd been thinking as I drove about the how a lot of what I'd read that morning at home, was pointing to the fact that God wants us to trust him, and almost sets us up in situations where we have to. So seeing that plate, there in front of me, made me feel as if God was saying, "Yes, you were hearing me right this morning."

I'd read some of Leviticus, the book I'm in at the moment. God seemed to be talking about Sabbath over and over and I wondered why it was so important to God that we rest, that the land even rest. I couldn't get away from the fact that Sabbath seemed awfully important to God. I thought that maybe he was saying, "You will get more done in six days than you will in seven if you trust me and the land will produce all you need if you let it rest every seventh year." He was saying, I think, that work beyond the boundaries he sets can actually be counterproductive because we are relying on ourselves, not him.

Then I turned to Mark 8 and I read about Jesus miraculously feeding the four thousand people with seven loaves and a few small fish and having leftovers--seven baskets full. Just after that the disciples and Jesus were in the boat and the disciples realized they'd forgotten to bring any food. All they had was one loaf of bread. Jesus asked if they had forgotten so quickly what had happened when the huge crowd was fed with so little. There seemed to be a connection with what I'd read in Leviticus.

Maybe "resting" means taking a rest from trying to meet all of our needs in our own strength and giving them to God.

One thing I know about the Bible is that it tells the truth. The heroes are all flawed; their mistakes are there for all to see. But nowhere is it recorded that anyone ever trusted God and he failed them.

"In God We Trust;" I think I have something to learn about doing that more fully. God asks us to do things that make no sense from our point of view, and to do so is to step from the realm of the natural into the realm of the miraculous. I'm up for that!

Comments

Lily said…
"...work beyond the boundaries he sets can actually be counterproductive because we are relying on ourselves, not him."


"Maybe resting" means taking a rest from trying to meet all of our needs in our own strength and giving them to God."


"God asks us to do things that make no sense from our point of view, and to do so is to step from the realm of the natural into the realm of the miraculous."

Those are three pretty incredible profundities. And I'm just about desperate enough right now to try them...

Thanks Belinda, for sharing the things God shows you in such a way that makes them easy to grasp - and makes you want to put them into practice..
Belinda said…
Thanks Lily, your comment made my day. Off into it we now go, trusting God to take us into the realm of the miraculous!
Anonymous said…
Dear Belinda,
Trust is one of those things that we often do in hindsight...rather than straight in the moment..and yes it is true as in the days of the Bible anytime I have let go of a situation and fully put it into God's control... He always shows up right on time.....so i do believe that in God we trust is a not just a bumper sticker but a cred to live our lives by..
I thank you for your gift of sharing your meditations and devotions.....May God blessing be upon you as in God you trust.
Miah
Belinda said…
Miah, I love it: "Trust is not a bumper sticker, but a creed to live our lives by."

"Bumper stickers" are easy to apply--but "a creed to live our lives by", somehow sticks more firmly!

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