All posts tagged: Trust

Is eternity in your heart?

Published by

Recently my niece, who has been dealing with cancer for the past two years, sent me this text: “In my dark times, I cry and ask for help but overall I am just trying to put one step in front of the other, trust in God and be grateful for each day. That is all I can do and need to do.” Afterwards, I thought that is really all any of us can do, whether we are dealing with a life threatening illness like my niece or day to day stuff such as kids and money we need to put our confidence in God. When we worry about tomorrow, our future remains unsettled in our hearts.  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God “has set eternity in their heart.”  One meaning for ‘eternity’ is future. There is a God-given awareness inside each of us that there is more to life than what we are currently experiencing in this unstable world. This verse says humans operate differently because we have a sense of this eternity …

Credit: Sasha Tamarin/Flickr/Creative Commons

Your Martha Meltdown Moment Part 2: Broken Glass

Published by

This is my meltdown moment. In the 80s and early 90s I worked in the private security sector. My goal was to be hired with the city police, and I had taken a number of policing/security courses to that end. Being a cop was my dream, not God’s, or my wife’s. I did not hear God say “yes” or “no” to my dream, but He let me scratch my itch for a time. But in December 1990 everything changed. I was working as a loss prevention officer in a large department store. It was a busy Saturday two weeks before Christmas. I watched a tall male pick up a Nintendo unit, put it under his arm and walk out of the store into the attached mall. I started after him, he saw me coming, and dropped the game. I stepped over the Nintendo, still chasing him, and seeing me follow him, he ran full speed out of the back door of the mall. I was starting to catch up to him as he ran out …

Credit: iacovibus/Flickr/Creative Commons

More than Trust

Published by

‘Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. (Psalm 143:8 NIRV) I was reading this scripture one morning and found it interesting the words ‘trust’ and ‘entrust’ were both in this verse. This sent me on a little word study. The following definitions are from Collins English Dictionary: Trust – reliance on and confidence in the truth,worth,reliability of a person or thing; faith Entrust – to put into the care or protection of someone. I am familiar with learning to trust, but to entrust some situations or people completely into God’s care, is a bit more of a challenge for me. Entrust is an active verb. For example, I will entrust (put) you into God’s total care. It no longer belongs to me but to God. I release myself, the situation, or the person completely. However, I found there is a key to doing this. I must know God’s character; that …

Pink lights flooding a bridge in West Palm Beach Florida during Breast Cancer Awareness week. Photo: Foter/captainkimo.com

Study shows that spirituality reduces cancer symptoms

Published by

A study released by the Tampa-based Moffitt Cancer Center stated that a person’s spirituality or religiousness helps an individual not only deal with cancer but even the cancer treatment itself, that can be very difficult. The report conducted by Heather Jim looked at the results of several studies that considered (at least in part) the impact of spirituality on cancer patients. In total, they involved 32,000 patients who were experiencing various types of cancers and were at different stages of cancer. These studies showed that people who rate high on spiritual or religious scores reported “fewer or less severe” cancer symptoms. They also reported similar results with the cancer treatments. Jim pointed out that people without spirituality can also experience better outcomes, but those with a strong spiritual beliefs fared better overall. In her article on the study, Globe and Mail author Kathryn Doyle wrote: “A sense of connection to a being larger than oneself was associated with better physical function and fewer, or less severe, symptoms of cancer or treatment, according to patient reports.” …

A key to successful prayer: Do you believe God loves you?

Published by

When the pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, He replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27 NASV) Can anyone be commanded to love God or love anyone for that matter? Yet we are told this is the greatest commandment for a believer. How do we do it? The Apostle John provides the answer: “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NASV) The key to being able to love God is first understanding and believing that God loves you and this is our “great” struggle to obeying the “greatest” commandment. A study by Baylor University, published in the journal Sociology of Religion, concluded that understanding God loves us is even an important key to successful prayer.

What Stormy teaches us about trials, trust, faith and hearing the voice of God

Published by

[by Dean Smith] In 2010, Beka and her horse Stormy competed in the “Extreme Cowboy Race,” part of the Equine Affair held annually at the Ohio Expo Center in Columbus, Ohio. Over 100,000 people attended the four-day affair. Though dozens of riders apply to compete only 30 are accepted. The event features obstacle courses, timed and judged events. But there was something about Stormy that set him apart from every other horse in that year’s event. Stormy is completely blind. This amazing story in many ways illustrates the believers faith walk with God. But perhaps the greatest lesson we learn is the vital connection between trust and faith. When she was 8-years old, Beka thought her parents were taking her to Dairy Queen to celebrate her birthday, instead they took Beka to a farm and introduced her to Stormy, a three-year old, unbroken horse they had bought for her. Beka said she immediately fell in love with this gangly colt, and despite being bucked off on her first ride attempt, she stubbornly broke the horse and …