Tremble And Trust

"Jesus replied, 'You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." John 13:7...."At some point in a Christian's spiritual journey, it will become evident that God is a "hands-off" God - not always, but often enough to leave His followers trembling." Larry Crabb

Larry Crabb uses a phrase to describe what the life of a devoted follower of Christ entails. He says that we will be led into places where all we can do is to "tremble and trust." We tremble because we are human, and the forces against us are far beyond our ability to control or even understand. We know what the results could be, and we realize all the dangers that are involved in continuing forward in Him. Our humanity is overwhelmed at it all, and all we can do, if we are to go on with Him, is to tremble at the real danger, while holding onto Him with all our might.....and trusting.

It's in this place that our faith is most deeply tested, because along with the trembling there can be a distinct sense of His absence. We know He's promised to never leave or forsake us, but we are left with no real feeling that He's there, and despite our cries for Him to verify that He is, He won't. To our senses, He's disappeared. He has, as far as we can tell, taken His hands off of us and that which is going on around us. So we're faced with two choices; we cease to believe, thinking He's abandoned us, or, in spite of all that is against us, we press on....trembling and trusting.

I know something of this, though I realize many others know so much more. He calls us all to this place, but when we come up to it, many turn back. In my life, when I came up to it, turning back was no option. No option at all.

My first real encounter with this place happened more than 30 years ago when my marriage disintegrated and my ministry seemed to be over. Besides the deep emotional pain, there was the huge wasteland before me that contained only questions, and no seeming answers. What would happen to me? What was I to do? What about my calling to ministry? There were many voices telling me that I needed to accept that it was over, but I could not hear any as being His. All I could do was press on in Him, though He never told me where it was we were heading. Going back to what I had been before I knew Him wasn't a choice. I knew that road led only to death, so all that remained was to move deeper into life. His life, though I had no idea of what it would look like. I would tremble at how impossible it was, and trust Him in spite of it. The fact that I write all this after 35 plus years of active ministry tells you where the road led, and still leads to. To tremble and to trust can be terrifying, but if we'll do so, step by step, He will lead us to the place He's made for us in the trembling.

We're in a time now where we, His people, are faced with that which can make our hearts melt with fear. Everything seems to be against His purposes. In some ways, in many ways, He may seem to have removed His presence and His hands from us, and from what is going on around us. He hasn't. He calls us, in whatever our impossible situation, to press on, trembling and trusting, as He works to fulfill all of His promises to us. He'll get us through. He'll get us beyond. He'll get home....as we tremble and trust.

Blessings,
Pastor O