Welcome to Thursday, July 29th!

Today’s episode of The Cross Talk Daily Devotional is titled:

Don't You Trust Me!

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Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995}

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Welcome to the Thursday, July 29th Cross Talk Daily Devotional.

This is Pastor Swanson.

May these words and thoughts bless you and provide you with ideas to think about as you live out this day!

Today's episode is titled:

Don't You Trust Me?

The word faith is an interesting term. We use it in so many ways in our daily and spiritual lives.

Sometimes, we use the concept seriously, such as Have faith in God or flippantly like Don't you trust me?

Years ago, we lived next to a large skydiving company. Hundreds of people went up thousands of feet and then jumped out of perfectly good airplanes.

Every spring, several hundred jumpers engaged in this act of faith per day. Planes carrying 15-20 people took off every couple of minutes.

Jump clubs practiced intricate aerial maneuvers almost every weekend. Sometimes, more than a hundred jumpers would jump at a time and then come together to form a design thousands of feet in the air.

Sometimes, we would sit outside with binoculars and watch them jump.

Every jumper showed faith in the one who packed his parachute, the pilot of the airplane, and his fellow jumpers. He had faith that everything would work.

I believe I can safely say that typically, faith in people and products is not something that comes naturally to us - no matter what it is or who it is!

Faith in God certainly does not always come naturally.

Hebrews 11:1 is the only place that the Bible ever defines faith. Yet, time and time again, the Bible discusses faith and its great importance.

Hebrews 11:1 NAS95

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We often describe Hebrews chapter 11 as the Hall of Faith. This is because the chapter lists the prominent men and women who genuinely believed in God throughout the centuries.

God calls us great men and women of faith if we have faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we have faith in Jesus, we have standing with God.

Romans 5:1-2 NAS95

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  [2]  through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

The world, however, says that the only one we should have faith in is ourselves.

Having faith implies giving up some of the control over our lives. Now, it is good to have faith in ourselves when it comes to many areas in life.

However, trusting in ourselves for our eternity will not produce good results. We can do nothing to cause God to let us into his heaven apart from faith in Jesus Christ.

1. Do you sometimes struggle with having faith?
2. Do you also wonder what you should do about it?

I would describe these times as feeling like one's anchor and convictions are slipping.

I have found that just shoving the doubts away doesn't solve the problem. A better solution is to bring your doubts before the Lord in prayer.

We live in a time when a lot of ideas are bombarding our hearts and minds.

Though you might not always feel like praying, I encourage you to offer up the doubts and pray for a single-minded commitment to God.

That, in and of itself, is an act of faith.

Let's Pray,

Gracious Heavenly Father,

I pray for every individual listening who is struggling with doubts.

Prompt their heart and mind to draw close to You through Your Word and prayer.

Grant them assurance of their position in the present and that which is to come in eternity.

In the Name of Jesus,

Amen!