We had a guest speaker named Andrew Arndt (from Bloom Church in Denver) talk to us on Saturday morning about the Lord's Prayer. The entire sermon was extremely thought-provoking, and I encourage anyone who is able to listen to the podcast... you won't regret it. One of my favorite things he said was this simple-yet-profound statement:
We never get to graduate from trust.
Because the idea of trust has been on my mind lately (see my last blog post), this idea struck me in a powerful way. Pastor Arndt wisely pointed out our tendency to expect that we'll get to a point in our lives where we don't have to trust God anymore.
But if we look at the Lord's Prayer, he pointed out, this is unrealistic. Matthew 6:11 says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Jesus didn't instruct us to ask for anything more than what we need for that day.
It's like when God sent manna from heaven to the Israelites in the desert! In Exodus 16, "God said to Moses, “I’m going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day’s ration. I’m going to test them to see if they’ll live according to my Teaching or not.'" When they saw the manna on the ground, they didn't know what it was, "So Moses told them, 'It’s the bread God has given you to eat. And these are God’s instructions: "Gather enough for each person, about two quarts per person; gather enough for everyone in your tent."' The People of Israel went to work and started gathering, some more, some less, but when they measured out what they had gathered, those who gathered more had no extra and those who gathered less weren’t short—each person had gathered as much as was needed. Moses said to them, 'Don’t leave any of it until morning.' But they didn’t listen to Moses. A few of the men kept back some of it until morning. It got wormy and smelled bad."
It's such an accurate picture of the way I find myself "trusting" Jesus. He promised to provide. He has kept that promise every single day of my life. And yet I still don't want to trust him fully. I doubt he'll keep his promise tomorrow, so I try to take control.
Pastor Arndt talked about how we often pray for God to supply our needs out of a desire not to have to depend on him so much. We hope that God will bless us to such a degree that we no longer experience the kinds of pain or discomfort that would compel us to cry out to Him.
Talk about convicting! Jesus instructed us to pray for today's provision, which means that tomorrow's is in his hands. He'll take care of it. It's uncomfortable not knowing exactly how or when he is going to meet my needs, but as a Christ-follower I'm committed to learning to trust him in the midst of the discomfort. He is more than enough for today, even if I'm not always convinced of the truth of that statement.
I don't get to graduate from trust. It is my life's work.
"But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation." ~ Psalm 13:5
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