In the last couple of posts, we spent almost the entire post talking about Fear and Trust in regard to our relationship with The Father.  We talked about being afraid because we do not yet fully trust Him and we do not fully trust Him, because we are afraid of what He might do to us or places He might send us,  etc.  We also mentioned that although there are many possible reasons for this, but the lack of a proper father image is chief among them.  In the last post, we took that deeper and spent the entire post dealing with forgiving your father. In part #3 Do You Trust the Father?, we looked at just how big God is and how He has been thinking about you since the dawn of time and how He has a plan for your life.  We’ll pick it up from that point. If you haven’t read some of the previous posts, you may want to do that first.

So, now that we know that we’re not just an accident and that He has a plan for us and that He loves us, what should our response be?

Well, how about this? Prov 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. Prov 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  Or this? Prov 29:25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD shall be safe.

Is He who created the heavens and the earth, He who created you, who dreams about you and showers you with His thoughts and his loving kindness; Is He worthy of your trust today? Can you trust Him with your very life and everything that is in it? I think you can. Actually, I KNOW you can.

This brings us back to the purpose of my writing this today. Each of us has our own walk.  That walk is towards our own Golgotha. We’ve looked at our foundational scripture in Matthew 16 numerous times. Let take a look at from Luke’s perspective.  Luke adds a little more to it and fills out the meaning a bit.

Luke 9:23  And He said to all, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. 24  For whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever will lose his life for My sake, he shall save it.

Luke has added a word. The word is “daily.” In other words, this death of self is not a one-time deal.  it is an on-going process of remaining “dead” to ourselves.

Luke 14:26,27  If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27  And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me, he cannot be My disciple.

This verse is difficult to understand at first. The God who wants a mother and father to reflect the heart of God towards their children DOES NOT want those same children to be filled with hate towards their parents. The word for hate that is used here is the Greek word miseo.  This word means to detest or to have disregard for something or someone. But that still doesn’t convey what is intended here.  I think the Wuest translation says it best:

Luke 14:26,27 If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters in the event that they become hindrances to his supreme love for me, yes, moreover also his own life in the same manner, he is not able to be my disciple. And whoever is not  taking up and carrying his own cross and coming after me, is not able to be my disciple.

By now, you’re probably wondering where this is all going, so let’s pull this all together so we can really make sense of it all.

Let’s go back to our foundational scripture in Mathew 16:24 and let’s take a look at the phrase, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.”  The same phrase is also used in Luke 9. Let’s look at the word “deny.”  In the Greek this word is aparneomai,  which means to deny utterly or to disown.  It isn’t just deny, it is to deny utterly which is to deny completely without any qualifications and nothing held back. That may sound familiar if you read the previous post. Let’s take a look again at Jeremiah.

Jer 29:13 says “And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. “ In the Hebrew language, the word “all” used here means “the whole.” The word “all” is accurate, but “the whole” underscores what is meant. It means we seek him with our whole (complete,  with nothing held back) heart.

What we are looking at are two sides of the same coin. To deny one’s self utterly and completely leaves nothing for you. You have surrendered it all to Him and for Him.  You are willingly pushing your life aside because you are driven not by a whip on your backside, but by the calling and pursuit of your heart towards his. It is this unending love from Him that is the pearl of great price.  Nothing matters except for your love for Him and his great love for you. Because of this love there is complete trust in Him. This is why I spent so much time on the trust issue.  That lack of trust can block his love and prevent you for fully entering in.

What is another word for trust? Believing or having faith in or on something or someone? Please turn to John 14:12.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father.”

In the Greek, the word for believes is the word pisteuo, which means to believe, to place confidence in, to TRUST signifying reliance upon, not mere credence, in a way that goes beyond just believing something as true.

We could read that verse like this: “He who trusts in and is fully reliant upon Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father.”

What works did Jesus do? He healed the sick, raised the dead and cast out demons.  He said we would do greater works than these. That sounds like “Beast Mode Christianity” to me.

What’s blocking you? Perhaps it’s time you and He had a talk about that.  He wants to hear what you think about it. The lines are open.  Take a moment and do that right now.

 

Copyright (c) 2017  M. Unruh