7-13-2015

  Good Morning All!!

             Proverbs 3:5; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

      The other day as I was cycling through the TV channels, I came upon an international poker tournament.  I stopped for a minute to watch.  It was kind of like watching paint dry.  They were playing Texas Hold’em and with each deal of the cards; they would show the percentage of the likelihood of the hand being a winning hand; the higher the percentage the more likely that the player would win the hand.  After a couple of minutes I was about to move on when one of the players announced that he was “all in.”  He then pushed all his chips into the middle of the ante.  The announcers were all excited at this bold move; you could hear a murmur go through the crowd gathered to watch.  It was sort of exciting.  According to the tracker he didn’t have the best hand but he was in the top three so if those two folded he would win.  They folded and he won.  Sometimes that is what it takes, confidence in what you have.

    That is true of our faith; we need to be “all in.”  We need to have complete confidence, faith, in God and his wonderful promises.  We need to see that God is in control and that he promises us his grace and blessings because of Jesus.  When we only “sort of trust” that really is not trust at all.  If we take the position that “when all else fails” or “all other options are exhausted”; we really are not trusting the Lord with all of our heart.  When you see this in light of Jesus statement of “no man can serve two masters” we see that not being “all in” really means we are “all out.”

     Yet we know that “all in” can be very hard.  The devil will tempt you away as much as possible.  The devil will try to get you to doubt and deny.  He will give you sorts of reasons to “hedge you bet.”  God gives you one reason to trust him and that is because he is faithful to his promise that he made to you in your baptismal grace.  You are his redeemed child, marked with the cross of Christ.  You are claimed by Christ as his.  Since we have this marvelous promise, we can take hold of it and never let go of it for it will always sustain us.  No matter what happens today or tomorrow, we are always God’s redeemed baptized child.  We can trust this with all our heart.  To this truth we should be “all in.”

    Cling to God’s promise.  He clings to you as a Father clings to his children offering comfort for our fearful heart and solace to our crying spirit.  We can know that his desire is to have us in his family and to bring us into his eternal presence living in Paradise with him forever.

Wondrous Father, teach me to trust.  Give me the courage to move forward and to be all in with you.  Teach me to go forward; knowing that your mercy abounds in my life.  Teach me to continue down the path which you have laid out for me in a way that leads me to serve you in your kingdom as you would have me serve.  Be with those who are being tested at this time.  Give to them the certainty of your Spirit that they may know your true peace.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret