Grow Into Having Faith & Trust In Jesus

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<God told Israel through Isaiah,>”Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”’ (Isaiah 44:8)

Both of our cats, Leta and Lacey, are loving and ‘snuggly’ today; Leta is more so in the day time, typically in the evening when I plop down to watch the news she comes to plop on my lap. Lacey is a bit more comfortable to come snuggle with Shirley during ‘TV time’, but at night, usually when I’m sleeping, she comes and curls up under my chin and against my chest – waking me up, then waking me up again when she decides to go off to do her nighttime patrol around the house.

Both cats come up to us and thankfully are comfortable when it is just my wife and I at home. But both cats run and hide whenever people – even people that they’ve met before and know – come over into the house. Strangers, like an AC technician servicing our unit or an electrician who is adding a line, are understandably someone who they should reasonably fear as they are unknown.

Both Leta and Lacey, as very young kittens coming into our home for the first time from the shelter, were both a bit timid and afraid.  Both girls would run away when we came close to them and hid either under the spare bed or behind furniture.  They would come out when hungry or needed to use the litter box, but they had a fear of the unknown, and it took time for us to become familiar with each kitten, until we became ‘known’ to them. 

Both had reason to fear us in their minds; for all they knew we may have wanted to make them into a midnight snack.  They may have been afraid that if they played with the toys we got them we’d take them away.  They had to develop a trust in us before they became comfortable. 

Many Christians are like that with God as well, especially those who are either new in the Faith or whose Faith has never grown.  Some fear God after a sinful event, believing God will throw us in Hell forever and our failings will destroy our relationship with Christ forever.  The weak in Faith believe just one slip-up or even the appearance of one and – WHAM! – the Spiritual 2×4 will come and knock them into Hell’s eternal damnation. 

Those who don’t know God may have Faith but not the trust; that relationship won’t grow trust unless they spend more time with Him, and learn more about Him through hearing His Word, studying His Word, praying to Him for understanding and guidance, and fellowshipping with other Christians. It is understandable a new Christian doesn’t have all the knowledge and needs to learn about God, but there are ‘seasoned’ Christians who don’t grow because they stop trying to learn, and fall back into their secular habits as they trust in them more than God.

But for those who pick up the Bible and spend time with Him and other believers, they grow in Faith and trust in the Lord, and we find God is not one who wants to punish us as much as He wants to mold us.  Even during the times when He had to punish Israel, He did it to reinitiate their Faith in Him, to develop them into becoming a stronger follower of Him and His precepts. 

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah showed, in the demonstration that Ba’al was a false god, by calling upon the Lord to obliterate by fire the soaking wet sacrifice and having the Ba’al priests slaughtered. Elijah showed Faith and trust in the power of God.

But then, almost incredulously, in 1 Kings 19, Elijah ran away into the desert in fear, from Queen Jezebel who promised to kill Elijah for his demonstration – a seemingly lack of Faith in God’s power to protect him. God could have let Elijah suffer in the desert; instead, God did not punish Elijah but instead took care of his needs, and used it to further develop Elijah into being a better prophet. 

We didn’t punish the kitties for running under the bed and hanging out there.  Instead we waited and let them come out on their own, and encouraged them (usually through offering a treat) to stay out with us.  They eventually saw we meant them no harm and began to trust us.  God is patient, and we who know and trust Him need to be patient and help those weak in Faith and trust to build them up, not chastising them but encouraging them to trust God’s plan. (I don’t know if offering them a treat would work, but maybe a healthy snack.)

There comes a time (though very rare) when a spray bottle comes out to teach them that they cannot be on the counters or on the table, but by that time they have the trust in us to know we aren’t trying to hurt them but to trying (in some mixed degree) to correct their behavior.  Don’t fear God to the point of inaction, know what boundaries God has set, and be able to recognize God often corrects us to make us stronger.  Have Faith and trust in Jesus!