Tenacious Trust

Written by Becky Toews

Take today’s next step: We need more devotional writers. If you write, join us! 

“Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.”  (Job 13:15a)

I came across a billboard the other day that said, “Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, it isn’t the end.”  It takes an element of spiritual audacity to trust God no matter what. Job provides one of the most profound examples of spiritual audacity in the Bible.

He loses everything—family, wealth, reputation, health—and he doesn’t understand why. He’s confused. His concept of God’s righteousness and fairness is tested to the last degree. He didn’t have an assurance as to how his situation would turn out, but there was no way he was going to “curse God and die” as his wife suggested. If he was going to die, he would die hoping and trusting.

When we’re partway through our struggles there’s no clear vantage point to see how God wants to use our crises for higher purposes. But, like Job, it presents the perfect place to strengthen our trust.

It is impossible to develop a greater degree of trust until that trust is put to the test. At the Last Supper when Jesus explained to His disciples that He would be returning to the Father and that they couldn’t follow Him, it must have been the worst news they could imagine. For three years they had traveled with Jesus, ate where He ate, and slept where He slept.  They had rejoiced in every miracle and pondered every teaching; they had given up everything to be his disciples. Now they were told to continue the work…without Him.

How did Jesus encourage them to meet this seemingly insurmountable task? He did it with words that continue to be the source of our comfort today, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.” (John 14:1) If you are in a rough place right now where, even though it is hard, you declare, “Jesus I trust you,” be assured that your cry is resounding in the courts of heaven.

Lord Jesus, I pray that You would touch me in any area where I am struggling today with trust. Help me be confident that You are hearing my cry.   I know that You are here with me. I trust You. Help me to live in that trust.  Amen

Question:  Why is trust so difficult? What practical steps does it take to build your trust in God?

Becky Toews

Serving in ministry for over thirty years, Becky Toews has studied the Bible extensively, including tutelage under the late Dr. Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland in 1977. As a pastor’s wife and mother of two, she understands what inspires people and what their struggles are. She is an instructor with Homeschool Academic Teaching Support (HATS) and serves as adjunct professor of English Composition and Public Speaking at Lancaster Bible College in Lancaster, PA. Becky has a widespread speaking ministry that includes various women’s conferences, churches, retreats, and university fellowships in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. She also conducts public-speaking workshops at youth conferences and is the author of The Role of Women, an examination of women’s roles in the home and church.

Becky Toews received her undergraduate degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, and holds an MA degree in Speech from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. She is married to Chip Toews who founded New Covenant Christian Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1982 and remains the head pastor there. The Toews have two grown children. Their daughter, Bethany, and her husband, Alan Wong, are attorneys in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their son, Josiah, attends Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Visit her website for more information: www.beckytoews.com

http://powertochange.com/blogposts/2013/05/25/tenacious-trust/