Crushed By The Simplicity Of Trusting Jesus

My friend had told me his greatest times of intimacy with Christ was when he learnt to live by trusting and resting in Him.

When I heard my friend say it, the words had such a big impact on me.  I remember telling my wife, and raving on about it for days and weeks.  Until another phrase became a flavour of the season.

Recently, howeer, the same words came back to provoke me.

Having delivered a session I felt at my wits’ end.  I didn’t think I’d made any impact with the material.  The reactions felt hollow and superficial.  Their attention was elsewhere and I left it feeling deflated.  I wondered what I did wrong.

It was at that time, that I was reassured again, that in simply trusting Jesus, all I had to do was deliver.  The results were not my responsibility.  Acting on what I knew to do was sufficient.

Down to simply trusting Jesus again.

What made it come home all the more forcefully was an episode earlier on in the day.  Walking with my 6 year old daughter.  Though she can be fierce, stubborn and independent, she still has a knack of catching me at my most vulnerable and expressing simple trusting love for her Dad.

I told her to do something that I knew she wouldn’t like, but rather than acting up, she simply looked at me and said “OK Daddy” and went about doing what I asked her to do.  She did the best she could, with no wish for a reward or any response.  I saw her efforts and thanked her, she simply hugged me in response.

As I reflected on that I was crushed by the lesson being taught to me again about simply trusting Jesus.  It is that kind of direct relationship.  He leads, I follow.  He directs, I act.  He does the rest.  That is it.  That is all.  If it meets with rapturous responses or with apathetic silence, neither changes the call and the One who has called me.

I thank God that He keeps teaching these lessons in the most wonderful and profound ways.  I trust that I will live in the light of the lessons for the benefit of others and the glory of God.

Simply trusting and resting in Him is sufficient.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden