10/23/2020 0 Comments The more rely on god to pull us through, the more we get to say i trust you godIn his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley tells the story of his 5 year old son walking along a large wall in their back yard for the very first time. The wall moves along at 3 feet off the ground, then rises to 5 feet and then to a section 8 feet high in the middle of the wall.
Stanley tells of nervously watching as his son walked along each section before he was finally standing on top of the peak. Then the son declares, I don't want to do this anymore. Stanley tells him to jump, that he'll catch him. The son looks down and measures the magnitude of that promise for a bit, and then he jumps. And Stanley catches him. Stanley describes the honor he felt from his son's trust. Trusting God is so easy when there is nothing to lose. When we are standing on top of 3 foot wall decisions, where there is little risk of the decision going wrong, it's easy to say I trust you God. It's those 8 foot wall decisions though, those 8 foot wall periods in life where things look impossible, that is when it's hard to say I trust you God. The reality is, the higher the wall the more inclined we feel to take over. We put all the pressure on ourselves to make a tough decision turn out to be the right one or to battle our way through a struggle alone or to make some big dream become a reality. Because the more unlikely good outcomes appear in all those situations the harder it is to imagine God can pull it off. So we take over for him. I love the story of Moses parting the Red Sea. God told Moses to collect the people of Israel from Egypt where they were enslaved and to take them to the edge of the Red Sea. He said, I'll make Pharaoh and his men so mad they'll chase after you - they'll get you to the edge of the Red Sea where they'll feel like, oh, we've got them now - and then I'll show them my 8 foot high wall trick. There was Moses, 8 foot high on that wall, God asking him to jump. And Moses jumped. He stretched his hands out over the sea and the waters parted. The people of Israel walked on dry ground where they never imagined there could be any. And then of course, as the story goes, the water closed in on the mad Egyptians chasing after them. God could have led them to a 3 foot wall or a 5 foot wall - but he needed them to see they could trust him on that highest section. God is honored by our faith and by our trust. The more we have to rely on God to pull us through, the more we get to say I trust you - the more we honor Him - the more we say I love you God. When we're saying I've got this in life, we're saying I love me. When we're saying God, I can't possibly do this without you, we're saying I love God. Who will you love today?
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Robert "Keith" CartwrightI am a friend of God, a dad, a runner who never wins, but is always searching for beauty in the race. Archives
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