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| Downtown Monroe |
Hannah Whitall Smith told this story about trusting God.
There was a physician who was having doubts, unbelief, and fearfulness towards
God. She asked him:
"Doctor, if there were somebody here in the hospital that you could treat and was under your care, but they just simply couldn't trust you to take the medication, the direction, and the treatment that you wanted to give, what would you do with that patient?"
He replied, "I couldn't do anything with a patient that didn't trust me."
Smith said, "Well, that's the way it is with you and your God."
The antidote to doubt and unbelief is trusting God, as an activity. This might sound contradictory but it is not. If you have an illness, and the doctor says, "Take this medicine and you'll get better," you might have your doubts about this. But it's only in the taking of the medicine that this doubt can be resolved. In doing this we trust in our doctor. Remember that in every act of trust there is uncertainty, since trust implies risk.
We learn a lot by actually trusting. John Wimber writes: "Imagine what God could do in and through us if we just trusted Him, abandoning ourselves to Him in each moment." (John Wimber, The Way In Is the Way On)
Today trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Don't rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him.
And He will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3:5-6)
***
I write about praying as an act of trusting God in my book - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.
"Doctor, if there were somebody here in the hospital that you could treat and was under your care, but they just simply couldn't trust you to take the medication, the direction, and the treatment that you wanted to give, what would you do with that patient?"
He replied, "I couldn't do anything with a patient that didn't trust me."
Smith said, "Well, that's the way it is with you and your God."
The antidote to doubt and unbelief is trusting God, as an activity. This might sound contradictory but it is not. If you have an illness, and the doctor says, "Take this medicine and you'll get better," you might have your doubts about this. But it's only in the taking of the medicine that this doubt can be resolved. In doing this we trust in our doctor. Remember that in every act of trust there is uncertainty, since trust implies risk.
We learn a lot by actually trusting. John Wimber writes: "Imagine what God could do in and through us if we just trusted Him, abandoning ourselves to Him in each moment." (John Wimber, The Way In Is the Way On)
Today trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Don't rely on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him.
And He will make your paths straight. (Prov. 3:5-6)
***
I write about praying as an act of trusting God in my book - Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.
