The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.

Exodus 14:14

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 15: The Firmness of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "The majority of mortals are not strong enough to be themselves: they become echoes of their neighbors and walk in paths marked out by others. There is a spirit of the age which leaves its impress on every mind. Even the mightiest men cannot free themselves entirely from it."
• "But when we come to Jesus of Nazareth we are in the presence of a man whom nobody swerved or dominated, who is so free from the bias of his race and so clean of the spirit of his age that he seems to belong to all races and all ages. He is not the Son of David but the Son of Man, just genuinely, supremely human. He is not a citizen of the first century only, but the contemporary of each succeeding generation. Immersed in an ocean of mighty forces which beat upon him furiously through every hour of his career, he resisted them all successfully by the indomitable energy of a victorious will, living a life unique in its beauty and achieving a work unmarred by the limitations either of time or place. That he was not insensible to the dominant forces of his time, he himself has told us in the story of the temptation." See Matthew 4:1-11.
• "Who is a man that he should set himself against the expressed wish of a nation? Is it not through the people that God makes his wishes known, and what is it but egotism or insanity which would lead an individual to set his judgment against the judgment of the people ? This is the argument whose sharp edge many a leader has felt, and Jesus of Nazareth felt it too. Wherever he went he heard the people clamoring for a king, a king who should rise to supremacy over the wrecked empire of Caesar.  The nation was ripe for revolution. A word from him would, like a spark, have kindled a mighty conflagration. Expectations had been built up by men anointed by Jehovah, and these expectations were glowing hot, and how could Jesus hope to win the attention of his people or control the current of their life unless he fell in with their ideals and attempted to carry out the program on which their hearts were set? It was a great temptation, so terrific that he told his apostles all about it.  He assured them that in this temptation he had been wrestling with the very prince of infernal powers, but that notwithstanding repeated assaults he had come out of the conflict victorious. In choosing the road which led to supremacy by way of Gethsemane and Golgotha, he renounced the ideals of his countrymen and disappointed their dearest expectations, but so firm was he that the hosts of hell speaking through God's chosen people could not move him from his place. The nation hurled itself with frantic force against him, but he did not budge. He was the Rock of Ages. When we study his life with attentive eyes we see it was one long resistance to the forces of his age."
• "There were many reasons why Jesus should have conformed to the ideas and customs of the church, but he firmly resisted all the voices which urged him toward conformity, standing out alone in defiance of what the best men were doing and saying, notwithstanding his nonconformity seemed to the majority impiety and to many blasphemy. For a godly man to be classed among blasphemers is one of the bitterest experiences which the heart can know. But Jesus paid the price and continued firm."
• "Jesus could not be manipulated. He refused to be used. One party after another tried to work him into its scheme, but he was incorrigibly intractable and went on his way independent, unshackled, free. All the seductions offered by the men who sat on thrones could not swerve him from his course, and although his steadfastness made him enemies and finally nailed him to the cross, he was everywhere and always a man who could not be moved." 
• "Jesus could not be manipulated even by his friends. He had many friends in Nazareth, but he never gave up his principles to please them. They had their prejudices and superstitions, but he never surrendered to them."
• "The most tender and gracious and obliging of men is compelled to resist not only the prayers of his countrymen but the wishes of his family and friends. He stands like a rock in the midst of a troubled sea, and all its billows dash themselves against his feet in vain. There was something inflexible in his will, something granitic in his soul. When he found a man whom he thought worthy to be the first member of his church he called him "rock.  Are we to infer from this that it is the rock-like quality which is indispensable in the building of an institution which shall endure? It is certain that Jesus loved stability in others, and what he loved in others he had super-abundantly in himself. Firm himself, he loved men who could not be moved."
• "Salvation could not be offered to any one who did not endure to the end. It is in this tenacity of will that we find an indispensable element of Christian character. Men are to resist exterior forces and form their life from within. They are not to be swayed by current opinion, but by the spirit of the Eternal in their heart. They are not to listen to the voices of time, but to live and work for eternity. We like this steadfastness in human character, and we also crave it in God. Men have always loved to think of Him as the unchanging and the unchangeable, the one "with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." And what we desire in God we find in Jesus of Nazareth."
• "From age to age he is about his Father's business, and in the midst of all nations and kindreds and tongues he goes about doing good." 

While the commentary provides ample evidence of Jesus’ firmness in scripture, the Holy Spirit guides me to additional examples in scripture of how we as believers must also be firm.  An unwavering faith – resisting temptations to either lack trust in God to provide and protect, or to act outside of God’s commands in the face of worldly temptations and persecution –  demonstrates firmness consistent with Jesus’ own character and what He commands and expects from us.  Two examples where firmness was not displayed - even among biblical heroes - was when Peter denied knowing Jesus upon Jesus' arrest (see Mark 14:66-72), and Abraham lying that Sarah was his sister (see Genesis 20:1-2).  Believers know that temptations will arise and that the only way to battle these temptations is with the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20).  Exodus 14:14 tells us to be "still" or "silent" and to trust in God vs falling prey to temptations where we seek to take things into our own hands (acting outside God's counsel). Philippians 1:27 and Romans 12:2 urge us to stand firm in our faith and not to conform to the patterns of this world - instead we are to be transformed by the renewal of our mind so that we know God's will for us. 

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who loves and is always there with Your Word, the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters in Christ and more to help us to be firm and from falling prey to the patterns of this world.  Thank You Jesus for the full armor of God.  I am not deserving of how richly You save and bless!  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

[Jesus] looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.

Mark 5:25-34

[Jesus] looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. Mark 5:32-34

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 14: The Chivalry of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "Possibly we can find no better word to cover this rich characteristic of the heart of Jesus than the word 'chivalry'"....In a world from which justice had been largely banished and in which might had usurped the place of right, the knight arose to defend the weak and to bring just causes through to victory."
• "Jesus of Nazareth was a knight. On foot he traveled forth, clad in the armor of a peerless manhood, to shield the weak, maintain the right, and live a life which should charm and win the world. At the head of the great company of knightly souls by whose bravery and prowess the world has been made better, stands this knight of knights, this chivalric Man of Galilee." 
• "[Jesus'] soul goes out to those who suffer. Physical distress pierced him and wrung his heart. Sickness in the first century did not receive the attention which it receives in ours. The poor were allowed to suffer unattended and to die unrelieved. There were no hospitals such as ours, and no earnest bands of philanthropic men and women giving their lives to the alleviation of pain and to banishing the terrors of the dying hour.  Insane people were not housed and cared for. Supposed to be possessed by devils, they were driven out of the town and allowed to wander in cemeteries and desert places, a terror to all who heard their shrieks and cries. Jesus pitied them. No one else reached out to them a helping hand."
• "His heart was ever open to the neglected and forlorn. Between Galilee and Judea there lived a tribe of people, half Jewish and half Pagan [(Samaritans)], who in their religion as well as in their blood exhibited a degeneration from the high ideals of the early times. Degenerates and apostates, they were held in deep abhorrence by Hebrews whose hearts were true to the high traditions of their country. It was only in cases of necessity that a Jew could be induced to pass through the region inhabited by these people.  Jesus not only passed through Samaria, but he tarried there and taught the people just as he taught the men of Judea and GaHlee. They were outcasts, but they were also human, and if they had no protector or friend, he at any rate would befriend them. Some of them might not understand how to receive him, but such churlish conduct could not dampen the ardor of his interest in them. The disciples with blazing hearts might want to bum up a Samaritan village, but the Knight of Galilee came not to destroy but to save.  No man can take his place on the side of the Samaritans without paying an awful penalty, and Jesus paid it. Men gnashed their teeth and hissed, "You are a Samaritan." That was the most cutting thing it was possible for them to say, but he never swerved from his course. He healed Samaritan lepers as freely as any others, and when he painted a man who represented his ideal of goodness he painted him with the features and dress of a Samaritan.  The parable which has probably taken the deepest hold on the heart of the world of all the parables which Jesus spoke is the parable of the " Good Samaritan." The creation of that parable was a sublime act of chivalry."
• "There were outcasts even in Galilee and Judea. There were people who were estranged from organized religion....In many of these people there were aspirations after better things, and in all of them there were the deep hungers and warm feelings of our common humanity. But they were outcasts. The church had laid a ban upon them.....But Jesus was not a man to be deterred by the of execrations of polite society. The so-called sinners were human beings, and because children of God they were not to be despised. If no other religious teacher would go among them, he would. He did. He made himself of no reputation. He sat down with sinners and ate with them."
• "But as is the case with all true knights, it is in his attitude to woman that Jesus' chivalry reaches its finest expression....There were many degraded women in Palestine as there are to-day in America. Woman being weaker than man is the first to suffer from the injustices of every social and economic system.  One of these degraded women was caught one day by a lot of men who dragged her into the presence of Jesus just to see what he would say and do. According to the Palestinian law a woman guilty of adultery could be stoned to death. As soon as the men had made their accusation, Jesus paused a moment and then said, "The man among you who has not committed the same sin may throw the first stone." Not a stone was lifted. No one said a word. Those who were on the outskirts of the crowd one by one disappeared. By and by they all had gone."
• "In the scales of God's eternal justice a woman's sin is not heavier than that of a man. Here is a teacher who does not hesitate to defend the rights of woman even though by so doing he incurs the deadly hatred of all foul-hearted men. Even women of the street shall not be denied the privilege of repentance, for they are capable of remorse, and may long to find their way back to the Father's house. A woman has a mind, a conscience, a soul, even though she lives in Samaria and has broken the moral law, and is worthy of careful instruction at the hands of the greatest of teachers. What a piece of gallantry it was — that conversation at Jacob's well!" 
• "Here, then, we have a knight who is a knight indeed. The medieval knight went forth seeking for adventures: our knight of Palestine went forth in search of forlorn and friendless human beings.  He had all the graces and virtues of medieval chivalry and none of its superficiality or its foibles. He had the nerve, the mettle, and the intrepidity of the bravest of the knights, and along with this he had a sweet winsomeness, a divine graciousness which history cannot match. Many a knight protected the distressed and maintained the right but failed to live the stainless life. This prince of knights, this king of all the hosts of chivalry, conquered on every field and came off without a stain." 
• In Jesus we have a revelation of the heart of God. In speaking of the chivalry of this man of Nazareth I have been speaking of the chivalry of the Eternal. God is knightly in His disposition, chivalric in His temper. It is His work from all eternity to protect the weak, maintain the right, and live a stainless life. His heart goes out unceasingly toward the weak, the helpless, and those who have no friend....If you are conscious of your weakness, cry out to Him, for He is swift to answer such a cry. If you feel sometimes absolutely helpless, altogether forlorn and forsaken, do not despair, for the heart of Jesus is the heart which beats in and behind all this world, and you can never be forsaken so long as God is God. In your moments of depression and in the days when the world seems cold and cruel, think of the chivalric God, whose heart beats in sympathy with weakness, and who goes out with alacrity and with gladness to meet every soul in need of succor."

The Gospel is Good News indeed - for everyone.  No matter your station or circumstances in life, Jesus comes to save.  When you feel there is no one left willing to help and you feel broken and hopeless.  Jesus is there...always.  He is the knight in shining armor we all need seek.  Stop seeking and come to Jesus! Luke 19:10.

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My Prayer: Father God, Jesus, You are my knight in shining armor as You save and You saved me...You also never leave or forsake me, and delivery new mercies everything morning that never cease!  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving...by a long shot.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength. Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message to me today and every day.  

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33b-c

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 13: The Optimism of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• Ever since the Fall (Genesis 3), the world has known pain, sorrow, etc. These are all the consequences of sin and separation from God.  We all sin and need a savior who can both save us the condemnation of sin and reconcile us to God. 
• Jesus is this Savior.  "Jesus of Nazareth was not a man who could shut his eyes to the sorrow and the heart-break of the world. Never were eyes wider open than his. He saw everything. He saw things which the world had passed by unnoticed. He saw suffering in its every form — it tugged at his heart strings. The tired, sad faces of human beings haunted him, they spoke to him of the tragedy of the world's disordered heart. He had ears which caught every shriek of agony, every cry of distress, every sigh of want. He saw with eyes which pierced."
• "Underneath the tragedy of suffering he saw the blacker tragedy of sin. Down underneath the surface of the world's life he Saw the cancer which was eating up its strength and its hope and its joy. He recognized as none other the tremendous power of evil. He saw with open eyes the roads which lead to death.  He knew, as no other has ever known so well, that evil must be resisted, that sin must be faced and grappled with, that it is only by struggle, suffering, and death that the victory can be won. But he remains nevertheless undaunted. He never loses heart. He sees all, and he hears all, but he never gives up hope."
• "The New Testament is a gospel, a bit of glorious news, because at the center of it there lives and works the world's greatest optimist....Jesus is the prince of optimists — his optimism is the optimism of God Himself."
• "Let us try to find the secret of Jesus' optimism. The secret is written large across the pages of the Gospel. It was a secret too good to keep — he gave it to everybody who had ears to hear. It was an abiding confidence in God. We are sure of Him — sometimes. Our faith is clouded and it is intermittent. It floods and ebbs like the tide, Jesus never doubted. His vision was unclouded. His trust was absolute. To him God was an ever-present Father. This was his new name for God. The prophets and poets of Israel had only seldom ventured to think of God as father, and then only by way of dim surpise. With Jesus, God was always Father. This is the name he carried on his lips when a boy of twelve, it was on his lips when he passed from this world into the other. He placed it on the lips of every man who followed him. It constantly amazed him that men had so little faith in God. "Have faith in God!" This was the exhortation with which he braced the hearts of those who wished to live his life and do his work. The words came with the power of a revelation, because warm with the blood of a heart which knew the secret of perfect trust."
• "Along with unswerving trust in God there went an unshakable confidence in man. Jesus believed in human nature.  He saw the possibilities and capacities of the human heart. He saw men's littlenesses, frailties, vices, sins, but underneath all these he saw a soul created in God's image....He called Simon the son of Jonas a rock, when Simon was counted the most fickle and fluctuating man in all the town. Jesus saw that which was deepest in him. He had confidence not only in people who went to church, but also in people who never went. He had hope of the Publicans and sinners. He knew that Zaccheus could repent and that Matthew could become a preacher."
• "Can eternal foundations be laid in human hearts? Yes, says Jesus, and without a doubt of the fidelity of his apostles, he rolled the huge world upon their shoulders and went away. Nor could any experience break down this trust in the divine capacities of human nature."
• "Jesus trusted men. He did this in the teeth of experiences which swept over him like a dark and devastating flood. His entire career was a tragedy. He was suspected, misrepresented, hated. He was surrounded by liars wherever he went. No matter what he said his sentences were twisted, and no matter what he did his motives were impugned. Such treatment is apt to sour the heart of any one who is long subjected to it. Jesus was mistreated all the way....[But] he never gave up faith in human nature."
• "There are in every community men and women, soured on the world, suspicious of everybody, clinging to the conviction that there is nobody in whom one can trust. Would that all such cynics might come to Jesus and learn from him to expect large things from human nature everywhere. He sees the shallowness, the paltriness, the frailty of the heart; but he also sees its capacities, its possibilities, the mustard-seed germs of virtues and graces which the Spirit of God can unfold. We measure men too much by their powers, and not enough by their capacities, by what they are to-day and not by what they may become later on. It was because the eyes of Jesus swept the future that he could stand around the wreckage of a race in ruins and say, 'Be of good cheer!'"  
• "This indomitable Optimist has confidence in you. You have no hope for yourself. He has. You see your weakness, sordidness, vileness; he sees deeper, and seeing deeper he has hope for you. He sees you: capacity of God. He knows what you can do when you have come to yourself. He sees deeper also into God. You have no adequate conception of the patience or the mercy of the Infinite Father. He has. You do not know what Infinite Love can accomplish. He does. Because of your transgressions you have lost faith in yourself. He has not. Because you have failed a thousand times you say there is no use trying any more. He says, 'Try again!' If you give yourself to him, he will make of you an optimist!"

Similar to my post on chapter 8: The Originality of Jesus, we have hope in Jesus.  Paul viewed himself the "foremost" of sinners (see 1 Timothy 1:12-16), yet on the road to Damascus, Christ revealed Himself to Paul, and his life was transformed in an instant - from the foremost of sinners to biblical hero who was used by God to start churches and save many for Him.  Similarly, Jesus healed lepers facing death, blind men, those unable to stand or walk, etc.  Such miracles are real and Jesus' transforming power is undeniable - start by confessing Your sin and surrendering Your life to Jesus.  There is hope - it is found in Jesus.   

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My Prayer: Jesus, what an awesome God You are that You save and give new life that is transformed through sanctification.  We find hope in You - hope that is eternal.  Thank You Jesus!  I am not deserving of such hope and salvation.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me and help me overcome and turn from such sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

[A]ll who believed were together and had all things in common.

Acts 2:44

[A]ll who believed were together and had all things in common. Acts 2:44 

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 12: The Brotherliness of Jesus where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• "[Brotherliness] contains two elements, both of which are essential if we would understand the kind of man Jesus was. Brotherliness carries in it not only a sense of kinship but likewise a disposition to render help. There is a relationship and likewise a helpfulness, and both of these blended into one constitute the quality to which I invite your attention now." 
• "That this trait in Jesus made a profound impression upon his contemporaries is evidenced not only by what his friends have said about him, but also by the criticisms and sneers which he drew from his foes. It was a common taunt of the Scribes and Pharisees that he was a friend of Publicans and sinners, and when he hung dying on the cross the leading men of the Jewish church gathered round him saying with a jeer, "He saved others, he cannot save himself." Both of these accusations are as devilish as anything to be found in the literature of the world, but they are valuable to us in this that they show conclusively what impression this man of Galilee made upon the people of his time. It had been his practice all the way through life to help men. He had been a friendly, brotherly man even to the lowest and the basest of society. That was a characteristic which had created a great scandal and made him hateful to many of the respectable people of his day." 
• By sharing fellowship with the despised and unclean, Jesus "lost his reputation. In the words of an apostle he made himself of no reputation, he took his good name and tore it into shreds and threw it away and all because he was determined to be brotherly. Notwithstanding these men were so base he recognized in them his brothers. They belonged to him and he belonged to them. They were members of the human race, children of the great family of God, and therefore in spite of all that they had done, and notwithstanding all that they were, he treated them as brothers. Not only did this conduct make a profound impression upon the men of Jesus' day, but it has made such a deep impression on all succeeding generations that it has blinded us to a fact that should never be forgotten — that Jesus was the brother of everybody."  
• "It should never be forgotten that Jesus was brotherly toward good men as well as bad men, rich men as well as poor men, respectable men as well as disreputable men — he was the brother of every man."  
• "He subjected himself to the same ceremony of which his fellow-citizens were in need. Nowhere does his brotherliness come out more clearly than in his treatment of the sick. He could not pass a sick man without his soul going out to help him. Pain in its every form appealed to him, misery drew virtue from his heart. A large proportion of all the recorded miracles are miracles of healing. He could not look upon the deaf or dumb, the palsied, the blind, without putting forth his power to help them." 
• "His brotherliness is also manifested in his teaching. He could not look into men's faces without being pained by their confusion, their perplexity, and their misery." 
•  "Without brotherliness there can be no religion that is pleasing unto God. The old law had said that one man must not kill another, but Jesus went far beyond the requirements of that law — he said that calling a man names was also wicked and would bring him into judgment."
• "In spite of all their ugliness and vindictiveness he went on helping them all he could, and when they laid their plots to kill him, he went bravely forward giving help, saying: 'If I cannot help them with my life I will help them with my death. By dying I will convince them that I wanted to do them good. I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. When hanging on the cross they will understand me as they cannot understand me now. When they hear me praying for them with my dying breath, they will be convinced that I am indeed their brother.'"

Several scripture passages, among many available to us in the New Testament, offer examples of how the body of Christ, or the church, represents the brotherliness of Jesus and how we are to live.  Within the church itself, the local church as portrayed in Acts 2:42-47 represents what God seeks for believers as "having everything in common," most notably a shared passion for Jesus Christ.  No one is higher or lower than anyone else - we are all equally loved by God. 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 describes for believers how there is no stronger or weaker part of the church - if one member of the church is in need, other members of the church are there to support and encourage one another.  Beyond the walls of the church, the Parable of the Good Samaritan defines for us Jesus' view on who our neighbor is.  In response to those who urged Jesus to reach out to His mother and brothers who were seeking to see and speak to Him, Jesus replied in Luke 8:21 '[m]y mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.'"  Believe in Jesus, participate in your local church, and experience the brotherliness of Jesus!      

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who is full of incredible compassion and grace, and who provides the local church which demonstrates the brotherliness of Jesus.  Thank You Jesus for my church!  I am not deserving of such blessings nor my salvation.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day. 

He trusts in God[.]

Matthew 27:43

He trusts in God[.] Matthew 27:43

I continue my study of The Character of Jesus.  For this morning, I focus on chapter 11: Jesus' Trust in God where I highlighted in my Kindle version the following excerpts:

• The author notes that he believes "Jesus' deepest and most fundamental character of Jesus is His trust in God."
• "From [the] first point to the last point the music of his trust was never broken. He is everywhere and always a man of prayer. At the crises of his life we find him praying. At his baptism and the transfiguration, in the garden, on the cross, he is pouring out his soul to God. Before every important action, in the midst of every difficult situation, at the completion of every stage of work, we find him praying. It was a common thing in Palestine for men to pray, but no man had ever prayed like this man, with such simplicity, with such earnestness, with such boundless trust." 
  
• Scripture is replete with stories of broken trust in God - if only for a moment - leading to a lapse of judgement and sin.  Abraham lied that Sarah was his sister, Moses did not fully follow God's instructions, David slept with Bathsheba then conspired to murder her husband, Peter denied Jesus, etc. Common to all of these stories is how we all sin - even the greatest of biblical heroes.  Sin at one level demonstrates how we trust (or value) either in ourselves or in the world vs God. Yet Jesus never failed to appreciate how as the incarnate Son of God, He was fully dependent on God and needed Him for all things.  God held Jesus' life in His hands.  As such He trusted that God's plan for His life (and death) was good and perfect.    
  
• "It is easy, indeed, to say that one trusts in God, but really to do it when justice seems dead and love seems to have vanished, that is difficult indeed....Jesus of Nazareth found in Nature fresh evidences of God's love. Other men noting how the sunshine falls upon the heads of the good and the bad had come to the conclusion that God does not know — God does not care....The rain falls upon the farm of the man who blasphemes and also upon the farm of the man who serves God, not because God is indifferent to the difference in character, but because he is so good that his mercy covers all of his children. Vice triumphs over virtue, dishonesty tramples upon honesty, injustice lords it over justice, hate defies and defeats love. This happens not once but ten thousand times. Some men read the dark and terrible story and give up their faith in God. Jesus looks upon the same scene and gives to it a different interpretation. He sees good men come and offer their services to the world only to be rejected and repulsed. One of them is stoned, another is beaten, another is killed. Their dead bodies are piled up in sickening heaps, but to Jesus this is not evidence of the indifference of God — it is the proof of his long-suffering patience; it is because he is not willing that any should be lost that he keeps on century after century, sending into the world prophets and apostles, heroes and saints, who shall proclaim the message of heaven to bewildered and sinful man."
• "[I]t should never be forgotten that his life on the day of his death was a terrible and heart-breaking failure. Injustice was stronger than justice, unrighteousness was mightier than righteousness, hate was stronger than love. He had tried to induce the world to accept a beautiful truth, but the world spurned him. In the hour of his great defeat he still looked to God saying, "Not my will but thine be done."  
  

Yes...it is true that trusting God in our darkest hours will be the tallest order we face.  None of us can know how we will do in those hours.  This alone should serve as motivation to lean into God to protect us from the temptations to be anxious or to otherwise sin in response.  See Ephesians 6:10-20 for Paul's encouragement that we put on the armor of God to protect ourselves from the schemes of the world.  We can also take encouragement from John 16:33 where Jesus is noted as sharing that we can take heart that despite the trials we face, Jesus overcame the world and so will we.

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My Prayer: Father God, You are an awesome God who holds my life in Your hands and I know that there will be dark hours - yet at the same time I know You are good and I seek to abide in You so that when these dark hours arrive I will feel Your presence and know that You are saving a place for me in Heaven.  Thank You for Your promises that all come to pass.  I am not deserving of how richly You bless.  My sin is great and it continues...daily.  Please forgive me Jesus and help me overcome and turn from my sin towards You.  Help me love You with all of my heart, soul, and mind and love others as You love me.  Help me grow in my faith.  Give Lisa and myself wisdom and strength.  Please continue to heal Lisa of her cancer and from the side effects of chemo.  Help us lead Zach and Dustin to You Jesus and for them to choose You as their Lord and Savior.  Please provide Godly friends and spouses to Zach and Dustin.  Help me serve You, my family, my church, and others.  Help me understand, be obedient to, and apply Your message for me today and every day.