"Trust Me"

Several months back, our pastor approached my wife with the idea of putting together a new website for our church. She readily agreed and began exploring the possibilities. Said exploration included consulting me, since I program computers by day. We eventually settled on a reasonable arrangement - she designs it, I code it. That's more or less what my day job consists of as well - people working separately on their own little parts and only communicating when necessary.

One flaw in this type of arrangement is that it can be painstakingly slow. I see it all the time at the office. We get the specs, we code it, we turn it in. The designer looks at what we've done and usually says that the result isn't what they wanted, so they change the specs and submit the project again. This cycle has the potential to continue indefinitely, because the process itself gets in the way. It's usually only when someone needs something done in a hurry that we actually talk for a while about the best way to do things.

After going through revision after revision after revision of banner pictures for the site, neither of us had come up with anything that worked well. The reason why should have been obvious to me, but it wasn't at the time. We weren't working together. I had my ideas, and she had hers, and the only point we could agree on was that what we had done up to then wasn't working.

Finally, in desperation, we spent about two hours last Sunday night around the same computer screen at the same time. By the time we were done, we actually had something that looked good. It didn't take a lot of knowledge or experience; it took communication and collaboration. Would you like to see what we did? Sorry! You'll have to wait until we're finished like everyone else. Oh sure, you can visit oxfordbaptist.net if you like, but all you'll see is an "under construction" message. Not to worry - I'll put the word out when the site goes live.

Yesterday, the Lord added a new facet to this lesson, which is the issue of trust. That is truly what this was all about. I wasn't trusting what she was doing on her own, and she wasn't trusting what I was doing on my own. She did her thing, I did mine, and it just didn't work. It was only by working together that our trust began to blossom. Likewise, any time we, as believers, act on our own ideas and take matters into our own hands without consulting our Heavenly Father, we demonstrate our lack of trust, and things fall apart. It seemed that, as I thought about this experience all throughout the day yesterday, He kept asking me the same question. "Why won't you trust me?"

One would think that, after having placed my faith and trust in Jesus to save me from eternal death, trusting Him for anything and everything else should be easy. It isn't, because I still live within sinful human flesh, in a sin-cursed world. Trusting God is something that requires continuous work on my part. He never promised me that it would be easy, and He never promised me that it wouldn't hurt occasionally. What He has promised me is that He will never steer me wrong. His will is perfect, and He knows what is best for me...much more so than I ever will on my own.

Father, forgive my stubbornness. Forgive my foolish retreat to my own will. Teach me new ways to trust in You today. Guide my steps, my thoughts, and my actions, that I may serve to glorify You. In the blessed name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." - Galations 5:16-17

"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." - Romans 8:5-6