All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others

Breakthrough

Breakthrough . . . at Christmas. 2019.

podcast link: https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/1a099156/breakthrough-a...

Before I cracked open a book on another cross-country flight, I did two things:

~finished this by Michael Todd: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crazy-faith-hades-faith-faith...

(I listen to his podcast weekly - he is right on the money)

~took time to talk to the Lord in my journal

Practicing what I preach in my time of prayer, I wrote my scripted 'L' and asked God if he had anything to say to me. (wait, you didn't think prayer was one-sided, did you?) Then I was still, (I mean as still as you can be with your airplane traveling at some 500 miles an hour), and listened ... and waited. After a few minutes of staring at the 'fasten seatbelt' sign with no divine internal nudge, I saw breakthrough written at the top of the page from yesterday. 'Lord, what would breakthrough at Christmas look like?' I sat still.

Breakthrough at Christmas would involve ruthless trust. Ruthless? Is that a good thing? Yeah, I think so. Ruthless as in no holds barred, ferocious; trust as in the faith we say we have, moving from our head to our emotions. What is trust? Something that goes to your core and transforms your whole nature.

Alyssa. This face slays me.

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When my just-turned-four-year-old granddaughter holds my hand and looks up at me, there is absolutely no doubt in the entire universe that she trusts me. She trusts me totally with her well-being. This picture captures that so well:

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What do you notice about it? I'm going somewhere with this-hang with me.

>I am bigger than her

>She deems me trustworthy enough that she holds my hand crossing the street in what might be unsafe place, an uncertain one for sure

>She holds my hand tightly

>I never stop looking out for her

>Because she loves me, she even tries to emulate me- think pink.

And what do you notice about is one?

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>She trusts me enough she can go to sleep

>She knows my arms will not let go of her; I will not. drop her on the floor

When I truly believe what God says enough that I truly trust him, my entire being floods with relief. God's got this. He has you. He has me. Nothing catches him sleeping or off guard. Consider the psalmist's expression of this:

He will not let you stumble; the one who watches over you will not slumber.
Indeed, he who watches over Israel never slumbers or sleeps.

The Lord himself watches over you! The Lord stands beside you as your protective shade. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon at night.1
[But all of Psalm 121 shouts loudly of the trustworthiness of God: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20121&version=NLT&interface=print]

Why did Jesus say that we ought have faith like a child?

Because he values humility + dependence + simple love => trust.

'I want to, I really want to trust God more fully!' you say.

Here's what I do to walk out my trust in him:

I thank him for the things he has already done in my life [that's a lot!].

I thank him that he is good, and because goodness is his very nature,

he cannot deny himself----he will be good

I remember that as Paul said God is working all things together in my life2 (not just the ones I can see)

Like this dad in the Bible, I tell Jesus, "I believe-but help me believe

even more!"3

It's Christmas time-and we have just 19 days left in this decade. Dang!

Let's breakthrough to ruthless trust... ferocious, relentless trust that will transform our hearts, minds, wills and emotions.

Christine

p.s. by the way, when Alyssa looks up and says 'Mimi, I love you' . . . well, I would move heaven and earth for her. Just sayin'. There are some amazing correlations here.

1 - Psalm 121.3-6

2 - Romans 8.28

3 - Mark 9.14-29, the dad who went to Jesus to ask him to heal his son

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