Theme: Watch and pray while you wait for the Lord
Text: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Heb. 9:24-28; Mark 12:38-44
“Who can I trust?” is a question that is often asked by all of us. This is simply because your whole life depends on it. What makes this question even more difficult is that many people are doing all that is possible to win your trust only to serve their own selfish purposes. Politicians and advertising agencies know the importance of wining your trust. Even con artists know that to be able to deceive others they first have to win their trust. Trust is so important that one of the greatest disappointments in life is to discover that you have misplaced your trust and trusted the wrong person. It really hurts but it will hurt a lot more when this misplaced trust has eternal consequences. Who then can we trust? When the Apostle Paul was nearing the end of his life, locked up in prison for preaching the gospel, he knew exactly where he was going and wrote to Timothy saying "I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." Paul was sure of heaven because he knew whom he had trusted. His faith and confidence was in Christ and in Him alone. He was not trusting in his good works or in his self-righteousness. He trusted the Lord and could therefore watch and pray while he waited.
Who do you trust? You can only trust a person you know, a person you have a relationship with. The most important person to know is the One who created you. He knows all about you and has a plan and purpose for your life. You can only trust a person you know who is also capable of meeting your needs. The only person who is capable of meeting your needs is the all sufficient One, God Himself. If He created the world and everything in it, why would He not be capable of meeting your needs. You can only trust a person you know who is capable and willing to meet your need. Only one person can be trusted and that person is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How can we refuse to trust the One who created us, knows us, and is capable and willing to meet all our needs.
We can only trust someone you know and you can only know someone by having a relationship with that person. This is because it is impossible to trust someone you do not know. We often say we know and trust Christ when our actions say otherwise. If we trusted Him the evidence would be seen in our obedience. The woman of Zarephath not only had a relationship with the Lord, her obedience proved that she trusted Him. Although she had a need herself she first fed the prophet trusting the Lord to meet her need. Her obedience and trust in God activated His miraculous supply. When we truly trust God we would have no reason to put our trust in anything else, not in idols or possessions, neither in man. Can we truthfully say that our trust is in God? We can simply tell by the time we spend with the Lord as we spend most of our time on what is important to us. Spending time with God deepens our knowledge and increases our trust in Him.
There is always a basis for our trust. You normally put your trust in someone who loves you and has gone to great lengths to meet your need. No one can love you more than Christ and no One has gone to such great lengths to meet your needs as Christ has. He sacrificed His life to pay the price for your forgiveness. The price Jesus Christ paid was all inclusive and the author of Hebrews declares, “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Perfected and forever speaks of a sacrifice that comprehends every need of the entire human race, and its effects extend throughout time and into eternity. Is that not enough reason to trust God completely? The blood of Christ has not only paid the penalty for sin. It has made us righteous with the righteousness of Christ. We are spirit beings who possess a soul and live in a body. The blood of Christ has cleansed, sanctified and made our spirits perfect for the Holy Spirit to live in. How can we not trust the One who has made us righteous and given us eternal life? The basis of our trust is daily evident in the love and faithfulness of Christ. “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end” (Lam. 3:22). God has done so much for us and can be trusted to fulfil His promises. Scripture declares “He is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfil?” (Numbers 23:19)
One of the hymns we sing is about the faithfulness of God with the following words “Great is your faithfulness, O God my Father, with you no shadow of turning is seen; You never change, your compassions are constant; Still you are true, as you ever have been. Great is your faithfulness, great is your faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed your hand has provided, great is your faithfulness always to me.” Do we remember the love and faithfulness of God? How can we ever forget the One who not only created us but also delivered us from slavery to sin, Satan and death. King David never forgot the love and faithfulness of God. This constant reminder made him attribute all his successes to God. He relied on God’s strength while protecting his father’s sheep to kill a lion and a bear. He relied on God when he faced Goliath by declaring “You come to me with sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied”. David knew who was fighting for him because of his covenant relationship with God and no giant could frighten him. We have a far greater covenant relationship with God than David had through the perfect and eternal sacrifice of Christ. Jesus Christ died for us and refusing to trust Him is the same as refusing to value His blood that was shed for you and me. Jesus Christ paid the price for our redemption and the least we can do is to acknowledge this great sacrifice on our behalf.
The evidence of our trust in God is manifested in overcoming the flesh. The flesh is a way of thinking that is contrary to the word of God. Our trust in God does not immediately put an end to life long habits but gives us the opportunity to renew our minds and change our way of thinking to make it conform with the word of God. The only way to deal with the flesh is to walk in the Spirit. It is living a life of faith. Faith believes God and relies on the Word of God. The Word of God is spirit and as we read, hear, study and pray the Word of God we act in accordance with the spirit and no longer with the flesh. The spiritual life of faith gives us access to the grace of God. The grace of God is not only God’s undeserved favour but also God‘s empowerment to live the life of Christ.
The just shall live by faith and thereby gain access to the grace of God. The story about the widow’s mite is not only about money but also about faith. Jesus made a contrast between people who had a lot of money and trusted in their own resources and a poor widow with nothing who put her complete trust or faith in God. We do not hear anything more about the widow in the gospel account but we can be sure that God, who always responds to faith, met her needs. Just as the Lord took care of another widow we read about in our first Scripture reading, so He definitely would also take care of her. God always meets the needs of those who trust Him. However, every miracle, large or small, always begins with an act of obedience. Very often we may not see the solution until we take the first step of faith.
If we really trusted Christ we would realise that we have a great deal to thank Him for. But many of us are not like the widow of Zarephath or the woman with the two mites. We are like the Israelites in the wilderness, who instead of giving thanks, were always complaining. We should trust God to meet our needs as He has promised. When we are threatened by the winds and waves of life’s storms let us put our trust in God. When life deals us a blow and we appear to have hit rock bottom let us put our trust in God. When we fall and lose the financial resources we had counted on let us put our trust in God. In every situation we find ourselves, even when afraid we will never get back up let us put our trust in God. We have every reason in the world to trust Jesus Christ. He has blessed us and made provision to meet all our needs. The least we can do is to join the Psalmist as he declares “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God”. It is our prayer that today the Holy Spirit will convict all those who have not put their trust in God and lead them to confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Amen!
